& Les Solos 1978-1998,
Compagnie Marie
Chouinard at Simon Fraser
University Theatre, July 9,
1@ at 8 p.m. Tickets: 689-
0926.

Katharine Hamer
Contributing Writer

WHEN she first
embarked on her career
as a soloist in 1978,
Montreal’s Marie
Chouinard developed a
reputation as an enfant
terrible of the dance
world.

Renowned for her radical
choreography, outlandish costumes, and
heady sense of drama, Chouinard swiftly
made a name for herself in the city’s emerg-
ing contemporary dance scene.

After 12 years as an independent soloist,
Chovinard founded Compagnie Marie
Chouinard in 1990 and has since toured
around the world to rave reviews. This sum-
mer the troupe will be appearing at several
festivals in Europe.

Les Solos 1978-1998, running tonight and
tomorrow at Simon Fraser University
Theatre, is a retrospective of Chouinard’s 20
years as a soloist and the centrepiece of this
year’s Dancing on the Edge festival.

. . Chouinard is influenced by her fascination

’ with the body as instrument, and by her trav-

-els. She has lived and worked in New York,

‘Bali, Berlin and Nepal, and has developed her
own unique “philosophy of movement,” says
lead dancer Carole Prieur. “She thinks about
space and time, and the connection of the
spine, breathing and the voice.” ,

’ + "Prieur, who completed part of her own
training at SFU’s School for the
Contemporary Arts, is in her fourth season

.” with the company, and will be performing six

_ of the 11 solos, including Chouinard’s first

' signature piece, Cristallisation (1978).

She says she doesn’t have a
favourite, because “they're all
so different: some are more
physical; same are more emo-
tional.”

Most of the works featured
in Les Solos are nov in the
company’s standard reper-
toire. “Everyone went back
and learned Marie’s dances,”
Prieur says, “and it was as if
we were re-living them with
her. For us as dancers, it was
like, ‘Wow, this is where this
comes from and this is where
that comes from.’ You could

Photo mariechoulnard.com = sce how her work has devel-
MARIE Chouinard
willing to take risks
with choreography.

oped over the years.”

Pricur says that Chouinard
“works very intuitively, from a
deep place in her soul. She
starts (choreographing) with a feeling, and
then develups it into a story or an idea. She
creates a very specific world.”

Chouinard won't be performing any of
the pieces herself, despite public demand. She
spends most of her time these days staging
work for her company dancers.

Pricur praises her willingness to give the
dancers the freedom to interpret the work
according to their own individual physicaliry
and sense of self-expression.

“She’s willing to take risks,” says Prieur.
“She may seem rebellious or daring to peo-
ple, but really it’s just her being honest.
People are always curious as to what she’s
going to do, whether they like her work or
not.

“In Montreal, they get angry when
they’re angry, they cry when they cry, they
faugh when they laugh — just like in life,”

_Pricur says. “It’s very dramatic, almost

European.”

But even in a city already known for its
theatrical style, Chouinard’s company stands
out, says Pricur, “because she continues to
grow and to change ideas. Each work is very
different from the one before. There’s a
poetry that’s exists there — 2'song expressed
through movement.”

| DR. BART Fi

D

BRA ROS