NEW CREATION:
aSH, a piece by Aurélien Bory for Shantala Shivalingappa
MARGIE GILLIS
DANCE
FOUNDATION
© Michael Slobodian
" My approach to dance is based on listening to the connection between spirit and body that transmits the information as to how, and with what quality to move."
– Margie Gillis
“One doesn’t come across the flamelike intensity of a dancer like Margie Gillis too often. A celebration of the life of the senses.”
- Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times
Internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer Margie Gillis’ art has spanned five decades, breaking norms and inspiring people along the way. In 2023, Margie Gillis celebrated 50 years of creation and dance, with a repertoire of more than one hundred works. She launched the Legacy Project (2015), an initiative dedicated to transmitting Margie’s concepts of creation, teaching and humanitarian vision. Her numerous awards and distinctions include the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. She is also Knight of the Ordre national du Québec and Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2020, she received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Concordia University in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to modern dance, teaching and activism as one of the most influential dancers and choreographers in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Photographer : Matthew Quigley
Photographer : Matthew Quigley
Photographer : Sasha Onyshchenko
Photographer : Matthew Quigley
LITERATURE OF
THE BODY - 2023
MODERN-CONTEMPORARY DANCE
CHOREOGRAPHER Margie Gillis
With The Dancers of The Legacy Project
TO LOSE THE WORLD
CHOREOGRAPHER Margie Gillis
DANCERS Geneviève Boulet, Alexandra Caron, Marc Daigle, Caitlin Griffin, Tessa Rae Kuz, Ruth Naomi Levin, Kyana Lyne, Hoor Malas, Susan Paulson & Alisia Pobega
MUSIC Azam Ali, Loga R. Torkian
From Lamentation of Swans
COSTUMES Rose
LIGHTING DESIGN Pierre Lavoie
LIGHTING ASSISTANT Öykü Onder
THE WHOLE BLOOMIN’ THING
CHOREOGRAPHER Margie Gillis
DANCERS Geneviève Boulet, Alexandra Caron, Marc Daigle, Caitlin Griffin, Tessa Rae Kuz, Ruth Naomi Levin, Kyana Lyne, Hoor Malas, Susan Paulson, Alisia Pobega et autres…
COSTUMES Original costumes from Margie Gillis’ Archives as well as eclectic costumes by Sonya Bayer and Margie Gillis
LIGHTING DESIGN Pierre Lavoie
LIGHTING ASSISTANT Öykü Onder
TEXT Ulysses by James Joyce
DURATION 75 minutes (including an intermission)
CREW 8 to 10 dancers + 1 choreographer + 1 technical director + 1 administrator
SET-UP 15 hours (excluding pre-hanging)
WIDTH/DEPTH/HEIGHT
13m (40’) / 9m (30’) / 7.3m (24’)
AUDIENCE SIZE Unlimited
OUTREACH
- Talkbacks
- Workshops with Margie Gillis and other
Legacy Project dancers
- Conference: Conversations with Margie Gillis
Sensual and evocative movement that guides us into embracing our humanity. Under Margie Gillis’ artistic direction, the Legacy Project dancers reunite to bring you a poetic and somatic, impactful program.
Through two group works, the audience is treated to the inner workings of our soul’s journey, while shining a spotlight on the poetry that resides in the art of dance. The first faces the hard truth that 1/3 of the world’s population are refugees and that number is expected to explode with Climate change. The second is from the world of James Joyce, who wrote the inner workings of a woman; Molly Bloom. Her world, her community, and her husband all start off in traditional gender but what follows is a river run of gender mixing.
Notions of vulnerability, forced social change, loss and disruption, and the joy and sensuality of life, all feature in this assemblage of works.
“Inner visions embodied by sensuous physicality, revealed with searing honesty and poetic passion."
Photographer : Sasha Onyshchenko
Photographer : Sasha Onyshchenko
Photographer : Sasha Onyshchenko
Photographer : Sasha Onyshchenko
OLD - 2023
MODERN-CONTEMPORARY DANCE
DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER Margie Gillis
DIRECTORS Margie Gillis and Randal Newman
SET DESIGN Randal Newman
LIGHTING DESIGN Pierre Lavoie
COSTUMES Margie Gillis, Randal Newman, Sonya Bayer
VIDEO CREATION, SOUND AND VIDEO DIRECTOR Samuel Thériault
ARTISTIC ASSISTANT Hoor Malas
MUSIC Sebastian Zawadzki, Laurence Hobgood, Jacques Brel, John Abberger, Gaétan Leboeuf, Hozier, David Fray
DURATION 60 minutes (no intermission)
CREW 1 dancer + 2 technicians + 1 administrator
+ 1 co-director
SET-UP 15 hours (excluding pre-hanging)
WIDTH/DEPTH/HEIGHT
12m (40’) / 10m (32’) / 6.1m (20’)
AUDIENCE SIZE 400
OUTREACH
- Talkbacks
- Workshops with Margie Gillis
- Conference: Conversations with Margie Gillis
The shape changes but the essence remains.
Aging is an uneven process of fall and recovery, of loss and discovery. As the material world dissolves, the energy in all things becomes vivid and clear. How do we traverse this new landscape with joy, and honesty? How can curiosity and active yielding, help us embrace mystery? How do we hold the mantel of ageing and patience, through physical loss?
OLD is a bumpy journey of possibility.
“(...) It is rooted in the intimate, shared experience of dance. In the clarity of intentions, and above all, in an astonishing mastery of relationships - with breath, emotions, movement, space, the audience.” - Catherine Lalonde, Le Devoir
WHERE TO SEE MARGIE GILLIS
DANCE FOUNDATION
NEXT
February 9 + 10, 2024 Literature of the Body, Maisonneuve theatre / Place des Arts, Montreal, QC
March 12, 2024 Literature of the Body, Maurice O'Bready Hall, Sherbrooke, QC
April 20, 2024 Literature of the Body, National Arts Center Southam Hall, Ottawa, ON