Fortier Danse-Création

Diary of a nomadic dancer – A documentary on Solo 30x30

Using a daring approach, Solo 30x30, offers an original concept proposed as an event/performance. Designed as a site-specific 30-minute performance, the solo piece is presented outside each day at the same place and at the same time for 30 days. The venue is an unusual place for a show. Although transitory, it is part of the city and its activities and allows for a privileged encounter between the artist, his surroundings and the public.

Paul-André Fortier has been traveling the world for the past five years with Solo 3x30 (2006), giving free, site-specific performances rain or shine, exposed to the vagaries of the weather and the gaze of passersby – their indifference or their curiosity, their admiration, mockery or desire. At outdoor locations he temporarily marked, with gestures repeated like a ritual, urban territories that are part of the unnoticed banality of everyday life. These places in transit, these thoroughfares and down-at-the-heels city sites, included bridges, public squares, vacant lots and overpasses for which he ascribed new functions. Oddly enough, the strangeness of the proposal bred a familiarity. Every day at the same hour, “a man who dances” would return to resume his odd but regular task, a combination of work and prayer performed by a dancing itinerant of no fixed address.” – Michèle Fevbre*

In his creations, Paul-André Fortier frequently encourages other artists, to contribute to his work. Solo 30x30 pursues this combination by having, in each city, one (or more) other creator working around it. This artist creates a video, photo, musical or writing piece from Fortier’s performance. Though the choreographer is not necessarily the subject, but he is always the starting point. At the end of the Solo 30x30, the creation is shown to the public, independently of the solo.

fortierdanse.blogspot.com – Through this blog, visitors from all over the world can discover Solo 30x30 and stay up to date on performances throughout the season and around the globe. Photos, videos, articles and comments highlight each step of the tour.

*Associate Professor of the dance department at UQAM, for the programm of Festival TransAmériques 2008.

Diary of a nomadic dancer

A documentary on Solo 30x30

Length: 52 min.

In 2006, choreographer-dancer Paul-André Fortier first presented Solo 30x30 in a tour that visited five cities on three continents. This first tour gave birth to the documentary Diary of a Nomadic Dancer, directed by Yannick B. Gelinas with a score by Martin M. Tétreault.

Shot in Newcastle (UK), Nancy (France), Ottawa (Canada), Yamaguchi (Japan) and Montreal (Canada), this film is based on Fortier’s own reading of selections from his journal. The spectator follows the adventures of the solo, as it is guided by the dance, the traveling, bad weather, chance meetings and the choreographer’s emotions.

The film, which allows the dance to dominate, is remarkable for its value as testimony of these performances as well as for its refined aesthetic. The film reveals the demands of rigor and constancy that this middle-aged dancer imposed on himself.

Fortier Danse-Création wishes to thank the Conseil des arts de Montréal for its support, which helped the making of this documentary.

Collection of artistic creations in connection with Solo 30x30
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Solo 30x30

Excerpt. Diary of a nomadic dancer

Choreographer and dancer Paul-André Fortier. Rehearsal mistress and Choreographer’s assistant Ginelle Chagnon. Costume designer Denis Lavoie.

Co-producers Canada Dance Festival, Ottawa, Canada; Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada.

Premiered on March 2006 at DanCity, Newcastle, UK.