International dance sensation Marie Chouinard’s new work bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS is a powerful contemporary ballet in two acts. The company of ten dancers creates a spell-binding performance in response to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations by using different devices including crutches, rope, prostheses, and harnesses, which at times liberate their movements, at others restrict it, and at still others create it.

The use of accessories gives rise to unusual shapes, precise gestures and playful movements as the dancers test the limits of physical freedom and echo the human condition through subtle, extravagant, sumptuous and wild choreography.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the Australian premiere of this exquisite work, which was awarded the Grand Prix du Conseil des Arts in 2007, Canada’s most prestigious cultural award.

“A work cut with jewel-like precision… that goes well beyond an exercise in style…. to show the spontaneous pleasure, of dancing.”
Isabelle Danto, Le Figaro, Paris, 2006

“…a wild visual fantasy in a dizzying continuum.”
Paola Bruna, Il Gazzettino, Venice, 2005

“Chouinard and her excellent dancers achieve a virtuoso meditation on the beauty and frailty of the human body.”
Sandra Luzina, Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 2005

FEATURING

CHOREOGRAPHY AND ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Marie Chouinard
MUSIC: Louis Dufort: Variations on the Variations
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, Variations 5, 6, 8
Vocal Extracts of Glenn Gould
With the permission of the Estate of Glenn Gould and Sony BMG Music (Canada)
Glenn Gould: A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations
(1955 & 1981)

LIGHTING, SET DESIGN AND PROPS: Marie Chouinard 

DANCERS: Kimberley de Jong, Mark Eden-Towle, Masaharu Imazu, Carla Maruca, Lucie Mongrain, Carol Prieur, Manuel Roque, Dorotea Saykaly, James Viveiros, Won Myeong Won

Acknowledgements

A Compagnie Marie Chouinard production, co-produced with the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Montreal High Lights Festival (Montreal), Schlossfestspiele (Ludwigsburg), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Venice Biennale (Venice), White Bird (Portland), with the support of ImPulsTanz (Vienna).

The Compagnie Marie Chouinard wishes to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des Arts de Montréal and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Canada).

The Compagnie Marie Chouinard also recognizes the important contribution of its partners for the creation and the dissemination of bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_variations: Major Partners - Hydro-Québec, Power Corporation; Main Donors - Air France, Bell Canada, Groupe Cossette, Loto-Québec, Mouvement Desjardins.

Photo: Marie Chouinard, Dancers James Viveiros and Kirsten Andersen