Corps Amour Anarchie /
Léo Ferré

PPS Danse - Corps Amour Anarchie | Léo Ferré - Alexandre Désilets, Anne Plamondon, Jossua Collin-Dufour © Jean-François Leblanc

Photo : Jean-François LeBlanc

En tournée au Québec, du 21 mars au 28 avril 2018

PPS Danse - Corps Amour Anarchie | Léo Ferré - Bïa, Anne Plamondon © Jean-François Leblanc

Photo © JF Leblanc

Photo © JF Leblanc

Photo © JF Leblanc

Photo © JF Leblanc

Photo © JF Leblanc

A highly original encounter between the œuvre of Léo Ferré and contemporary dance.

Created in 2016 to mark the 100th anniversary of Léo Ferré’s birth, Corps Amour Anarchie / Léo Ferré (Body  Love Anarchy / Léo Ferré) celebrates the work of this great French poet and composer. Conceived and directed by Pierre-Paul Savoie, under the musical direction of Philippe B and Philippe Brault, this interdisciplinary show revisits Ferré’s work in a marvelous amalgam of poetry, music and contemporary dance. Featuring an impressive 15 artists on stage including four singers, five musicians and six dancers, the performance soars to the voices of Bia, Alexandre Désilets, Michel Faubert and Catherine Major and the choreographies of Anne Plamondon, David Rancourt, Emmanuel Jouthe, Hélène Blackburn and Pierre-Paul Savoie. The songs of Léo Ferré resonate now more than ever through their relevance and sheer magnificence.

Oscillating between love and anarchy, memory and sea, solitude and hope, Léo Ferré’s œuvre will spread its wings and appeal to our imagination, to show us the poetry of the world in all of its splendour.

The show Corps Amour Anarchie / Léo Ferré can be seen in France this fall, followed by a tour of several Québec municipalities between October 5, 2018 and May 3, 2019.

This creation benefited from a residency at Place des Arts.

Credits

  • Created and directed by Pierre- Paul Savoie
  • Choreographers:  Pierre- ­Paul Savoie, Anne Plamondon, David Rancourt, Emmanuel Jouthe, Hélène Blackburn
  • Arrangement and Musical Directors : Philippe B. and Philippe Brault
  • Singers : Bïa, Alexandre Désilets, Michel Faubert and Philippe B.
  • Dancers : Alexandre Carlos, Anne Plamondon, David Rancourt, Jossua Collin-Dufour, Roxane Duchesne-Roy et Sara Harton / Substitute : Marilyne Cyr, François Richard, Paco Ziel
  • Musicians : Alexis Dumais, David Carbonneau, Ligia Paquin, Philippe Brault  et Sheila Hannigan
  • Light design: Stéphane Ménigot
  • Video projections created by: Alejandro Jiménez

This show was presented in collaboration with ICI Musique – CBC Radio Canada.
PPS Danse benefited from a creative residency generously offered by Place des Arts.

Downlaods

PPS Danse - L'École buissonnière - Dany Desjardins © Rolline Laporte

L’École buissonnière’s Acadian Tour

L’École buissonnière — produced by PPS Danse in co-production with DansEncorps — finished a successful first run of 28 performances in New-Brunswick this fall. Performed by Moncton-based DansEncorps, this 60-minute show for youth audiences already received a successful reception at Montreal’s Petits Bonheurs Festival in May 2015 and was showcased more recently at ROSEQ in October 2015.

PPS Danse will perform l’École buissonnière in the province of Quebec as of Fall 2016. An English version, called Playing Hooky is also in the making.

L’École buissonnière
2015 New Brunswick Tour 
Performed by DansEncorps, Moncton

Grand Sault: 18 October
Edmundston: 20 October
Moncton: 22 October
Dieppe: 27 October
Shédiac: 29 October
Miramichi: 30 October
Caraquet: 2 November
Shippagan: 3 November
Tracadie: 4 et 5 November
Néguac: 6 November
Bathurst: 9 & 10 November
Campbelton: 12 November
Saint-Jean: 16 November
Frédéricton: 17 November
Dieppe: 18 November

BAGNE

More than 20 years after the original creation of Bagne, the co-creators and dancers Pierre-Paul Savoie and Jeff Hall revisit their most acclaimed success. Confined in a huge metal structure, two men embrace under the watchful eyes of captivated spectators. In this intense and moving amalgam of dance and theatre, a humanly brutal force transforms to a universal tenderness. The imprisoned beings entwine in raw and sensitive movement. It is a hymn to liberty and the power of  love.

In offering this creation to a new generation of male dancers and inviting the first-time collaborators to revisit the work, a fresh reality and timelessness is achieved, infusing the original statement. A re-creation whose universality profoundly touches the audience while being discovered by a new public and new generations.

« Un must et ce, que vous aimiez la danse, le théâtre, la vie… Une œuvre universelle, qui pourrait être présentée absolument partout et toucher à peu près tout le monde.
Chapeau. » Anne-­Marie Lecomte, La Presse (1992), Montréal

Production Credits

  • Original version (1998) : Pierre-Paul Savoie and Jeff Hall
  • Re-creation (2015) : Pierre-Paul Savoie and Jeff Hall
  • Dancers: Lael Stellick and Oliver Koomsatira
  • Music: Bernard Falaise
  • Sound Design: Larsen Lupin
  • Set Design: Bernard Lagacé
  • Light Design: Marc Parent
  • Costumes: Linda Brunelle
  • Make-Up: Florence Cornet

 

Documents to download

Workshop “The Chairs”

In addition to its performance of The Chairs, PPS Danse is giving choreographic initiation workshops at schools and community centres, based on Eugène Ionesco’s play, The Chairs, in a choreographic adaptation by the company.

The aim of these workshops is to spark participants’ interest in contemporary dance through the process of creating choreography in a theatrical setting. The workshop activities include reading excerpts from Ionesco’s play, exploring gestural movements, devising a choreographic sequence and, finally, staging a mini-performance. Participants assume the roles of actors and choreographers, becoming members of the cast and production crew too. In this way, they are stimulated to explore their interests and talents, trying out mini-roles in the fascinating worlds of choreography, acting and dance.

To create bridges between the artist and the public, the workshops offer access to contemporary dance through literature, theatre and music. They take the form of one or more group gatherings with half-hour workshops led by professional actors and choreographers.

Workshop “The Chairs” for children:

 

Workshop “The Chairs” for retired persons at Villeray :

View our workshop with retired people on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/74880162

 

Workshop “Tales”

Along with its performance of Tales for Naughty Children, PPS Danse offers a series of choreographic initiation workshops for elementary school students. Based on stories by Jacques Prévert, these beginner workshops in choreography spark participants’ interest in contemporary dance and the process of creating choreography.

Presented in the form of a game, the workshops use animal movements from Prévert’s Tales for Naughty Children as the subject of the choreography. The workshop activities include reading a story, exploring gestural movements, devising a choreographic sequence and staging a mini-performance.

To create bridges between the artist and the public, the workshops offer access to contemporary dance through literature, theatre, music and song. Presented at schools and community centres, they take the form of one-hour workshops led by professional actors and choreographers.

Photos “Tales for Naughty Children”workshop held in Mexico during our tour in 2014.

The Chairs

A theatrical-dance production for all ages, from 8 to 88

In this choreographic tragicomedy, an elderly couple, aged 94 and 95, to ward off boredom, solitude and isolation, welcome a steady stream of imaginary guests at their door. Among them we find a colonel, a Sleeping Beauty, a group of children, animal reporters and even the King himself.

An absurd melee ensues with an endless shifting of chairs for the phantom guests. Then suddenly, for all to hear, the awaited Orator arrives!

To everyone’s surprise, it is a dancing deaf-mute child who, through the language of dance, speaks a universal message, conveying the shared thoughts of the elderly and the children, and their hopes for a future world. This original adaptation of Eugène Ionescu‘s play seamlessly integrates dance, theatre and music.

« Un petit bijou …»
Mélanye Boissonnault, Radio-Canada (Montréal)

« Avec son adaptation des Chaises, le chorégraphe Pierre-Paul Savoie s’approprie avec bonheur, tendresse et sensibilité un joyau du théâtre mondial pour le jeune public. »
Olivier Dumas, Monthéâtre.qc.ca

« Toujours aussi pertinente la pièce… fait résonner plusieurs couches de sens … Leurs dialogues et monologues font valser le sublime et l’ordinaire. Leurs petites routines et querelle, et surtout leurs gestes de vieux un peu fourbus par la vie faisaient bien rigoler le jeune public… Car la danse se mêle aux dialogues surtout sous forme d’acrobaties livrées avec la drôle de maladresse que leur âge impose.

Décors, costumes et maquillages, tous en noir et blanc, font un clin d’œil à une esthétique expressionniste, jouant à la fois sur le clownesque et le grave. Des changements de registres qui plaisaient visiblement aux jeunes spectateurs. »
Frédérique Doyon, le Devoir

 

Crédits

  • Adaptation and dramaturgy: Lise Vaillancourt
  • Choreography and staging: Pierre-Paul Savoie
  • Choreographic collaboration: David Rancourt
  • Performers: Sylvain Lafortune, Heather Mah and Marie-Ève Carrière
  • Music: Benoît Coté
  • Sound: Thierry Gauthier and Benoît Côté
  • Set design and lighting: Jocelyn Proulx
  • Costumes: Linda Brunelle
  • Make-up: Florence Cornet
  • Accessories: Rachel Tremblay and Ève Turcotte

Downloads

Tales for Naughty Children

This stage adaptation of eight stories from Jacques Prévert’s book, Tales for Naughty Children, fuses dance, theatre, music and song to create an imaginative work where fantasy and surprise set the pace of the journey. A delightful tribute to childhood.

Chosen for the poetic and human qualities expressed by the author, these Prévert tales offer an eccentric cast of characters and exotic animals who transport the children, 3 to 6 feet tall, through exciting adventures. In this exuberant show, a bell-eating ostrich chats with Tom Thumb, the antelopes are melancholy and a dumbfounded dromedary is irked at being called a camel, while an elephant seal lolls on its belly, juggling unlikely items. It’s a sight to see!

Tales for Naughty Children celebrates the world of children and critiques the adult world for its human exploitation and destruction of natural riches.

Production Credits

  • Texts: Jacques Prévert, Tales for Naughty Children
  • Original idea: Pierre-Paul Savoie
  • Adaptation, choreography and staging: Marie-Josée Chartier and Pierre-Paul Savoie
  • Dramaturge: Lise Vaillancourt
  • Music: Benoît Côté
  • Performers: Mathilde Addy-Laird, Dany Desjardins, Amélie Rajotte, Edward Toledo
  • Costumes: Marie Muyard
  • Accessories: Claude Rodrigue
  • Lights: Valérie Bourque
  • Set and lighting consultant: Jocelyn Proulx
  • Production Managers: Arnold Brookhuis, Valérie Bourque
  • Length: 50 minutes

Danse Lhasa Danse

Lhasa De Sela left us in 2010, but her enchanting songs and music remain with us. Danse Lhasa Danse was created to honour the late Lhasa De Sela, whose spirit and soul shall ever remain in our hearts.

Artistic Director, Pierre-Paul Savoie guides this performance as if for a choir in a cathedral. Words, music and dance harmonize in a single voice as a moving tribute to a beautiful being who called us to fully celebrate life. Five musicians, four singers and seven dancers touch our hearts in a soaring affirmation of Lhasa De Sela’s words and music.

« Pas besoin de mots (…) ici il n’y a que la véhémence du geste, l’émotion du chant, l’impalpable de la musique pour rendre hommage à une œuvre forte et éternelle ». Marie- Christine Trottier, Espace musique

« Au final, une soirée magnifique, où la danse a su montrer comment elle peut exprimer ce qui ne peut être dit, en paroles ou en chanson. Un contexte qui ne pouvait être plus parfait pour Lhasa, qui portait, au­delà de ses mots, ce supplément d’âme qui a touché tant de personnes à travers le monde. » Iris Gagnon­Paradis, DFDANSE, 15 novembre 2011

« (…) et le coup de maître de Pierre­-Paul Savoie qui a porté la danse à Coup de cœur francophone avec le très réussi Danse Lhasa Danse. » Fabienne Cabado, Voir, 22 décembre 2011

Crédits

  • Conception and staging: Pierre-Paul Savoie
  • Artistic directors: Pierre-Paul Savoie and Louise Beaudouin
  • Choreography: Pierre-Paul Savoie, Myriam Allard, Hélène Blackburn, David Rancourt, Roger Sinha and Edgar Zendejas
  • Singers: Bïa, Alexandre Désilets, Alejandra Ribera and Karen Young
  • Dancers: Myriam Allard, Sébastien Cosette-Masse, Tom Casey, Élise Legrand, Roxane Duchesne-Roy, Sara Harton, David Rancourt
  • Musicians: Frédéric Darveau, Denis Faucher, Sheila Hannigan, Pascal Racine-Venne and Jocelyn Tellier