Fortier Danse-Création

May 17, 2010

Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Paul-André Fortier was recently appointed Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. This prestigious award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the arts or literature in France or internationally. He will receive his badge this fall.

Cabane at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa
Paul-André Fortier will present his latest piece, Cabane, on June 10 and 11, 2010 in Ottawa, at the Canada Dance Festival. The modular cabin will be installed in a somewhat unusual location - the backstage paint studio at the National Arts Centre. Created in 2008, Cabane is a piece that is part installation, part site specific. It was designed to be performed in atypical locations as well as on a conventional stage. Within this environment, choreographer and dancer Paul-André Fortier and visual artist and musician Rober Racine, seem to be thrust into a surrealistic universe.

Cabane at the Marseille Festival
The cabin will then be flown to Marseille for four performances from June 27 to July 1, 2010 at the Festival de Danse et des Arts multiples de Marseille. An exciting and vibrant city, Marseille plays host to this prestigious festival which over the years has become a hotbed of contemporary multimedia creation. Designed to be performed in unusual venues, Cabane will be staged, among other places, in the courtyard of la Vieille Charité, a historic 17th-century cultural monument, as well as at Palais de la Bourse, and at Friche La Belle de Mai, an industrial site that has become a well-known centre for the arts.

Yannick B. Gélinas’ documentary film on Solo 30x30, Diary of a nomadic dancer, will also be screened at the Bibliothèque de L’Alcazar in Marseille on June 29, 2010. Filmed successively in Newcastle (UK), Nancy (France), Ottawa, Yamaguchi (Japan) and Montreal, the narration consists of excerpts from the choreographer’s diary. The viewer follows the adventures of Solo 30x30 and is witness to its travels, the vagaries of the weather, chance encounters and the choreographer’s emotions.

Solo 30x30 in New York at the River to River festival
After being seen in 11 cities including London, Rome, Montreal, Lyon and Vancouver, Solo 30x30 will be presented in New York by the Joyce Theater and Arts Brookfield Properties, as part of the River to River Festival. The performances will take place at noon between July 16 and August 14, 2010 at One New York Plaza. This will be a landmark event for Fortier Danse-Création. Just a reminder that Solo 30x30 is a 30-minute site-specific piece that takes place outdoors, in the same location every day, at the same time, for 30 days. After the New York run, Paul-André Fortier will have executed Solo 30x30 360 times, which represents an entire year of performances since the piece was created in 2006.
The Solo 30x30 blog will soon be updated with new photos, video clips, articles and comments on the daily performances at http://fortierdanse.blogspot.com.

Paul-André Fortier
His talents as a creator, performer and teacher have made Paul-André Fortier one of the leading figures in contemporary dance in Quebec and the rest of Canada. He first made a name for himself as a performer with Groupe Nouvelle Aire, then founded Fortier Danse-Création in 1981. He joined the faculty of Université du Québec à Montréal in 1989, where he taught in the dance department for ten years. Ever passionate about the crossover between generations and different art forms, he often invites artists from diverse media to join him in his work. His desire for renewal and his need to exceed his own expectations shape his work, which enjoys an international reputation. Winner of the Jean A. Chalmers Award and the Dora Mavor Moore Award, he was honoured to be named choreographer in residence at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts in Montreal. Over the course of his career, Paul-André Fortier has created more than 40 choreographies, which have been performed in more than 10 countries.

Co-producers of Cabane : Festival TransAmériques, Montreal / National Arts Centre, Ottawa / Canada Dance Festival, Ottawa. Co-producers of Solo 30x30 : Canada Dance Festival, Ottawa / Place des Arts, Montréal

Fortier Danse-Création is supported by : Canada Council for the Arts / le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Emploi-Québec / Le Conseil des arts de Montréal. Fortier Danse-Création is a member of Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique.