The Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD) unveils today the complete program of its 19th edition. Details include the festival’s indoor and urban performance program, the cinema component of short films on dance that will be screened in theatres and online, and the full range of activities that will take place during the twelve-day festival. The trailer, the complete program and the video footage of the unveiling will be posted online on August 24th on the FQD website.
Indoor Program
The eighteen original works and world premieres of the indoor program will feature fifty-seven performers and eighteen choreographers (thirteen women and six men), the majority of whom are female choreographers from Montréal between the ages of 23 and 92 years old. During the twelve-day festival, performances will be held in Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Bourgie Hall, and the McCord Museum’s Amphitheatre. Dancer, actor, and director Marc Béland will once again serve as festival president and spokesperson.
Opening night will take place on Friday, September 10, in the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts and will feature Mohawk choreographer Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo of A’nó:wara Dance Theatre. As a world premiere, FQD will present her latest work, Sky Dancers, which blends traditional First Nations dance with contemporary styles.
Creators such as Jeanne Renaud, associated with the Automatist movement (1940) and considered one of the great founders of modern dance in Quebec, will present the Renaud/Feldman Project performed by Louise Bédard and Marc Boivin on Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12 at Bourgie Hall at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Choreographer Margie Gillis, another major figure in creative dance who has been touring internationally since 1979, will present two different evening programs on Tuesday, September 14 and Thursday, September 16. Joining Renaud and Gillis during the twelve days of the festival are next-generation artists such as choreographers Véronique Giasson and Nicolas Zemmour (both former dancers with Ballet Preljocaj in Aix-en-Provence), Pauline Gervais, James Viveiros with Sara Hanley, and Jérémy Galdeano with Vera Kvarcakova, all of whom are festival returnees.
Closing night of the festival will feature a joint production by FQD and choreographer Kyra Jean Green of Trip The Light Fantastic, with her latest creation The Smile Club, a satire of medical practices in Hungary during the Great Depression (1930-1939). It will be Green’s fifth appearance at FQD.
Urban Performances
The urban program of Festival Quartiers Danses will feature seventy-four performances by twenty-one Montréal choreographers in seven key locations throughout Montréal. The original pieces will be performed at Place des Festivals, Jardins Gamelin, Place du Marché at the Atwater Market, the McCord Museum’s Urban Forest, the Avenue of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), Bernard Street in Outremont, and Lien Nord on the Lachine Canal.
The urban program will be launched on Wednesday, September 8, with three contemporary pieces, two of which are world premieres. In the McCord Museum’s Urban Forest, choreographer Charles Brecard will be accompanied by live music for Tokamak, a piece that examines the alienation of human beings in favour of electronic media.At Jardins Gamelin, Adrian W. S. Batt and his quintet of dancers will present Iunctio V, a work that engages with the audience. Elon Höglund of Tentacle Tribe and dancer Amara Barner will perform the duet Touch, which was conceived as part of FQD and Tentacle Tribe’s jointly produced short films on dance for the 18th and 19th editions of the festival.
During the twelve-day urban program, more than twenty world premieres will take place, notably at Place des Festivals, where Sculpter le dehors, choreographed by Véronique Giasson for a quintet of extraordinary women, will be presented. For the first time ever, several dance performances will take place at Lien Nord on the Lachine Canal. Under the artistic direction of Marc Béland, six dance companies from the emerging artist showcase will present a 30-minute wandering performance of their creations.
For the festival’s outdoor finale, choreographers James Viveiros and Nicolas Patry—both of whom are well-known on the national dance scene—will present their joint creation Jötunn. This psychedelic piece, which calls to mind the effects of magic mushrooms, is a reflection on relationships with the Other and with time, as well as on the power of perceiving that which is unspoken.
In the Eye of the Director: New Ways of Discovering Dance
For the thirteenth year in a row, through its selection of local, national, and international short films on dance, FQD will explore creative dance as viewed through the camera.
The festival will present forty films via three distinct programs: FQD’s thirteen-year retrospective of dance shorts (9), the national and international program (12), and FQD’s joint productions from 2020 (16) and new joint productions for 2021 (3).
On Thursday, September 9, starting at 7:00 pm, the retrospective program and the three new 2021 joint productions will be screened at Cinéma du Musée (MMFA). These include the world premieres of Marites Carino’s films with Tentacle Tribe, shot on the roof of a downtown Montréal loft; Marlene Millar’s film with Marc Béland and the six choreographers of the emerging artist showcase, shot at Lien Nord on the Lachine Canal; and Xavier Curnillon’s film featuring Vera Kvarcakova and Jeremy Galdeano, shot in a Laurentian forest.
On Saturday, September 11, from noon onward, the sixteen jointly produced short films that were made in 2020 and presented online during the 18th edition of the festival will be shown on the big screen for the first time, at Cinéma du Musée. Following these screenings, the full program of short films will be available through our website, with paid admission, for the duration the festival.
The 19th edition of the festival will also feature a conversation between Jérôme Pruneau, ethnologist by training and specialist in multicultural issues, and Angélique Willkie, professor of dance at Concordia University, on the topic of systemic racism in the performing arts. It too will be available online. Through their engagement, these two stakeholders, who are familiar with issues related to multiculturalism in the arts, will discuss challenges and possible solutions. This vignette will be the first in a series featuring creative dance artists concerned about social issues.
Following this 19th edition, MAtv will co-produce the second season of the Festival Quartiers Danses series, still hosted by Marc Béland. The series is scheduled to air in 2022 on MAtv, the exclusive channel for Videotron customers.
For more information, visit quartiersdanses.com.
Special Mention:
Promotional sale from August 24 to August 31
With the purchase of 2 tickets, get a 25% discount on your order for the performances at the Cinquième de la Place des Arts.
