Fortier Danse-Création

Like Robinson Crusoë on his desert island, Paul-André Fortier plays a character who seems to have arisen from the ancient world bearing the knowledge of the world with him. The challenge is to become the character, to incarnate him, rather than trying to get rid of him. It is an effort at discovery, even if that means paying the price of solitude. Despite his human condition he still hopes to fly, vulnerable though he is in the spectacle of his inevitable failure. In passing, he leaves behind him the traces of his inner struggle, the way a dancer marks his clothing with his sweat. Michèle Febvre, who danced for Fortier for several years, says that “his characters were bearers, lugging stones, clasping each other like drowning men, running to nowhere. Today memory has dimmed and there is a knowing look, tender or ironic, that detects deep within men’s souls the fantasies of the unconscious” Tenderness is a new element in Paul-André Fortier’s work and it is directed at man, that remarkable creature whose journey he recounts as though not himself a traveller, even though this work is perhaps the most demanding of all journeys.

Text of Aline Gélinas

“A mature and experienced performer, Fortier’s power was so great that his concentration drew the audience into the vortex of his dreams” – Linde Howe-Beck, Dance Magazine, New York, February 1992

La tentation de la transparence

Choreographer Paul-André Fortier. Dancer Paul-André Fortier. Original Music Gaétan Leboeuf. Lighting Jean Philippe Trépanier. Set Design François Pilotte with the collaboration of Betty Goodwin. Costumes Carmen Alie et Denis Lavoie.

Co-producers National Arts Center, Ottawa, Canada; Canada Dance Festival, Ottawa, Canada.

This work is dedicated to Betty Goodwin whose work has been an inspiring influence to the choreographer. Premiered in September 1991 at the Festival international de nouvelle danse, Montreal, QC, Canada.