Agora is much more than dance performances. It is also creative workshops of all sorts, participative projects with schools, get-togethers, discussions and audience development activities. For close to 30 years we have been presenting numerous initiatives aimed at promoting contemporary dance and dance artists, bringing dance into the lives of young people, adults and families.
Families & Young Audiences
Since its inception, Agora has established close ties with young audiences by performing in schools and inviting students to attend shows along with their classmates or families. Every year, nearly 2000 elementary and high school students are introduced to contemporary dance through our outreach activities.
For more information about our youth activities and school matinees, please contact
Frédérique Doyon : commissaire@agoradanse.com
514 525-7575 poste 242
You can also complete tehe forms below. There’s one for each school levels.
Make a reservation (elementary)Make a reservation (high school)
Puzzle danse
An educational digital dance
For children 8 to 13
Enjoy this free, playful and educational activity on the Web!
Puzzle dance combines a digital puzzle with creative choreography.
4 unique puzzles to create a dream dance
3 exceptional choreographers: Ismaël Mouaraki (Compagnie Destins Croisés), Alexandra ”Spicey” Landé (Ebnfloh) and Helen Simard (We All Fall Down)
Designed for kids aged 8 to 13 years old
FREE and accessible on tablet and computer
Note that the Puzzle danse is available only on computers and tablets and that the game uses French language.
Discover Puzzle Danse
Our sincere thanks to the Canada Council of the Arts for its support.
The students select the dance style and the music, and then cobble together bits of dance movement to create a choreography. They can then view and share the videos they have made.
Extras
- Two video tutorials that presents the steps of a short dance excerpt.
- Learn some Hip-Hop moves with Ebnfloh or explore contemporary with We All Fall Down
- Two teaching kits, produced in association with the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal, are also available.
- Workshop in-school dance workshops inspired by the Puzzle Danse with Destins Croisés, Ebnfloh or We all Fall Down are available.
For reservations or questions, please contact Frédérique Doyon at commissaire@agoradanse.com
Conceived by our audience development specialist Frédérique Doyon.
School Matinee
Autumn 2024
Winter-Spring 2025
ON/OFF – Grand Poney
November 26, 2024 – 1 PM (FULL)
November 28, 2024 – 1 PM (FULL)
Primary cycle 3 and all high schools cycles
What if life were a crazy dance on a treadmill?
Five dancers evolve on a rolling device, exploring themes of self-expression, identity, community, freedom and all the emotions that run through our lives.
Dirt – Tentacle Tribe
April 9, 2024 – 10 AM (FULL)
April 10, 2024 – 1 PM
Primary cycle 2+3 and all high schools cycles
Take root so you don’t fall.
Tentacle Tribe returns to the sources of break and hip hop to explore as a group the essential connection that bonds us to the earth. A small ecological fable takes shape between the choreographic lines. “So the plants may bloom”
Spect’atelier
Not quite a show, much more than a workshop, our Spect’atelier takes students into the process of creating a dance work.
How it works: excerpts from a show in creation and moments of interactive facilitation with the students. A concept developed by Agora de la danse in close collaboration with the artists. To experience dance differently!
Koros – A Virutal Reality Experience
High School Students
Introducing a whole new way to learn, live and experience dance at Agora! Through the magic of the virtual reality headset, dive into the universe of two choreographic works: The Complex Simplicity of Love by Margie Gillis and Allegro Barbaro by Hélène Blackburn.
The experience is accompanied by a movement workshop led by an artist.
Please contact Frédérique Doyon for any questions commissaire@agoradanse.com
Koros can be experience at school or at Agora de la danse
Mediators bring VR headsets into the school.
Dance Discovery Workshops
Adapted to specific age levels, the Agora workshops include a warm-up session, improvisation or exploration games and the learning or creation of a mini-choreography. Available at any time upon request.
Artists Emmalie Ruest, Sonik Boom, Zoé Delsalle
Initiation to Movement
Artist-facilitator: Emmalie Ruest
Preschoolers and Grades 1 to 3
Discover the infinite possibilities of movement and the pleasure of dancing!
In the style of…
Artist-facilitator: Zoé Delsalle
Grades 4 to 8 preferably
Students discover the keys to creativity and dance performance (physical awareness of the space, listening to others). They learn a dance excerpt from the company repertoire in the comfort of their living rooms, or they build a dance from scratch to be presented as a school show. Plunge into dance!
Introduction to Breakdance
Artist-facilitator: Sonik Boom
All ages
Students have fun learning the basic elements of breakdance and the primary tools for creating dance choreography: Top Rock, Go Down, Foot Work, Freeze, Power Move and Bounce.
Intro to Popping
Artist-facilitator: Forward Movement
All levels
Have fun learning the basics of this street dance with its famous robotic style.
Prix Agora de la danse
For 20 years, these awards have been appointed annually to the top dance students selected in dance departments or extracurricular dance programs at schools across Quebec (secondary and college levels). By doing this since the early 2000s, Agora de la danse hopes to light a spark, or even better, to nurture a lasting passion for dance among the young generation.
Recipients receive an Agora certificate, a pair of tickets for a series of our season’s shows and are invited to take part in a dance workshop in our studios conducted by a professional artist.
Registrations open in April 2025.
Unique rendezvous with artists
Dance-related activities all year long. Agora de la danse offers many activities to a public curious about new ways of interacting with contemporary dance. Come into the studio and chat with the artists, attend a public rehearsal or take part in a movement workshop.
Midi-coulisses
Keep an eye out for our Midi-coulisses lunchtime events! Enjoy an exclusive 30-minute get-together with a choreographer featured this season as he or she puts the finishing touches to a new work. Free sandwiches for the first to arrive!
Take a peek behind the scenes and talk to the artistic team a week before the premiere. Discover the finishing touches to a new dance piece, a close-up look at the work that features one or more live excerpts as well as an interview with the artist. The public can also ask questions during the course of the conversation.
Midi-coulisses events are an opportunity to discover specific aspects of different approaches to dance creation. What is the choreographer working on one week before the première? How does she or he portray the body, that vital component of movement as art? How does he or she work with the dancers and other collaborators? These and other questions are part and parcel of the event.
12:15 to 12:45 Free event. Join Us !
Aianishkat | Soleil Launière | September 25, 2024
Wahsipekuk : Au-delà des montagnes| Ivanie Aubin-Malo| November 6, 2024
Hors Scène
A new activity to experience dance in a different way.
What are the artists in residency doing? What do they reflect on in their everyday lives? How do these reflections enrich their pratice? By exploring some of Agora’s artistic residencies, Hors-Scène moves beyond the strict scope of choreography and performance to take a broader look at dance and create new encounters between audiences and artists.
Autumn 2024
Squat – Exploration of a posture with Kim-Sanh Chau
Originally from Vietnam, Kim-Sanh Chau has been working for several years on the “squat” or crouching position. Common in Southeast Asian cultures and associated sometimes with submission, sometimes with resilience, this position represents something completely different to Westerners. From a short demonstration taken from her current creative work, she investigates, with the public, the multiple meanings and references of this position through the varied Asian and American cultural implications.
October 16, 2024 | 6 pm – 7 pm – Espace blanc – Free admission
Please confirm your prescence commissaire@agoradanse.com
Élégie II: Creative residency with Annie Gagnon
In her creative residency at Agora de la danse, Quebec City choreographer Annie Gagnon invites the public to come see an excerpt from her new work in creation. Emerging from a vital impulse, Élégie II denounces and explores the multiple repercussions that violence provokes in us. A discussion with the choreographer and her artistic team will follow.
December 5, 2024 | 6 pm – 7 pm – Espace blanc – Free admission
Please confirm your prescence commissaire@agoradanse.com
Meet the Artists
Post-show encounters. A series of interdisciplinary discussions full of opinions and unruly voices. Meet the artists on Thursday evenings after the performance.
