Fortier Danse-Création

Enter a man in a suit, sparing, serious and outwardly calm, but in appearance only. His body is home to drama, a conflict between sex and the scandalized soul, their combat dominated by the image of God crucified, heightening both the pleasure and the pain of succumbing to temptation. The man is now an animal, his body shaped by the memory of a dead dancer, now a beast gracing antique vases in the museums of Paris, now the detritus and relics of cultures past, now a veritable monster. At gut level, the man’s hands mime a pagan dance that threatens salvation of the soul. He bears within him the contradictions of a classical culture that retains of Racine only the vigour of verse, without giving voice to the powerful desire inherent in the words. He would like to fly like a bird, not just in spirit, but with his muscles and his body. He would like to cease longing for the sublime like the saints in rapture on marble sculptures in the churches, preferring to enjoy bodily pleasure while looking God in the eye. In his search and struggles in the deserted city, will he manage to find himself?

Text by Aline Gélinas

“Formally, the work explored the limits of presence and absence, of the existing body threatened with non-existence, of the body in a state of continual suspension. It is the magnificent and crucial moment that Fortier offers us in Les Males Heures.” – Chantal Pontbriand, Ballet international/Tanz aktuell, Germany, March 1995

Les males heures

Choreographer Paul-André Fortier. Dancer Paul-André Fortier. Original Music Gaétan Leboeuf. Lighting Jean Philippe Trépanier. Set design François Pilotte. Costumes Carmen Alie and Denis Lavoie.

Premiered on September 1989 at the Festival international de nouvelle danse, Montreal, QC, Canada.