Fortier Danse-Création

Veritable meditation through movement, La part des anges is a choreographic voyage which takes one towards the discovery of the invisible. The “part des anges” or “angel's portion” means the amount of alcohol that evaporates during the wine-making process. Is a similar process possible in the human body? Using the tools of his trade, Paul-André Fortier fully contemplates the potential for the purification of the soul within the flesh. With each breath, the body completes a brief, but intense, cycle of life. From frenzied exhaustion to restful calm, the vitality of breath carries with it a succession of physiological metamorphoses. The choreographer punctuates the dancers' evolution with pauses and the flesh is progressively freed of its emotional tensions. It is a slow process throughout which the essence of life seeps through the porous confines of the skin and undertakes its ephemeral ascension.

Paul-André Fortier moulds the dancers interactions in a way which promises to defuse the emotional turbulence of the body. He has gathered together three other dancers of singular profile, made all the more keen through the craft of the choreographer. The performers continuous meanderings establish contrasts between the body and its double, between its essence and its shadow. To fully relish this emotional flux between four distinct beings, the spectator must forget generally accepted notions concerning the self, the soul and the flesh. Through gesture, through silence, the dancers of La part des anges transcend the material limits of the flesh and enter into the conscience of the Other, the spectator's included.

Text by René Donais

“La part des anges is a sumptuously spare and radiantly beautiful meditation in movement that comes miraculously close to explaining the essence of Fortier’s dance.” – Linda Howe-Beck, The Gazette, Montreal, September 28, 1996

La part des anges

Choreographer Paul-André Fortier. Dancers Peggy Baker, Gioconda Barbuto (followed by Liza Kovacs in 1999), Paul-André Fortier, Robert Meilleur. Original Music Gaétan Leboeuf. Lighting Jean Philippe Trépanier. Costumes Carmen Alie and Denis Lavoie

Premiered in September 1996 in l’Agora de la danse, Montreal, QC, Canada.