Catherine
Gaudet + Brigitte Haentjens

Mains moites

6 - 14 Sep 2023

Compagie Catherine Gaudet + Sibyllines

The stage director Brigitte Haentjens and the choreographer Catherine Gaudet joined forces, along with the performer Francis Ducharme (a long-time accomplice of theirs), to take on the titanic challenge of embodying the myth of the tragic hero.

Heroes must confront evil forces and monsters of all kinds. In tragedy, they face the temptations of pride and excess. They stand out with their arrogance, err on the side of caution and undermine the balance of the world by transgressing its laws. Their fates are implacable, from meteoric rise to downfall, victims of their own excesses, atoning for the burden of human vanity.

Ducharme will be facing the monsters that appear in this dense, risky script, a hodgepodge of great classic tragedies, underscored by an epic, complex, huffing and puffing choreography of movement. An extremely ambitious challenge, in keeping with the talent of this exceptional performer.

Compagnie Catherine Gaudet

Compagnie Catherine Gaudet produces and presents contemporary dance works. It supports research and the creation of new works, producing and presenting dance pieces by Catherine Gaudet both here and abroad. The company is a meeting place for remarkable, free-spirited artists dedicated to the insatiable pursuit of a variable relationship with reality, and to exploring the complex ramifications of the body and psyche.

For the past 18 years Catherine Gaudet has been probing the complexity and the ambiguity of the psyche, and how its contradictions are inscribed in the flesh. She depicts an elusive reality, a presence in the world driven from within yet mobilized by external forces. Based on that concept, she has developed a world of fluctuating and endlessly intersecting identities. Her dance is a descent into the self, an interpenetration into the deep layers shoring up beings doomed to perpetual mutation.

She presented her first choreography in 2004. Since then she has created eight long works as well as several short form pieces, presented in Quebec and elsewhere. Catherine is artistic and general director of Compagnie Catherine Gaudet, a member of Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique, an associate at DLD – Daniel Léveillé Danse and an associate at Agora de la danse.

Brigitte Haentjens / Sibyllines

Sibyllines was founded in 1997 to create a space of freedom around the director and writer Brigitte Haentjens, a freedom apparent in the dramaturgical choices made and in the methods and rhythms of production pursued. From one project to the next, Sibyllines remains focused on the quality of not only the creative process, but also relations with both artists and audiences.

The artistic director of Sibyllines since 1997, Brigitte Haentjens has directed over 50 stage productions in a prolific, award-winning 45-year career. With its free, uncompromising approach, her company is a vital force in the artistic milieu, where commitment to the creative arts allows for singular voices to emerge. The result is a powerful body of work, critical of notions of power and subjugation in a world marked by the loss of reference points and by information overload.

Catherine
Gaudet + Brigitte Haentjens

September 6-7-8, 2023 – 7 p.m.
September 9, 2023 – 4 p.m.
september 13-14, 2023 – 7 p.m.

Duration : 60 minutes

29$ | 35$


Meet the Artists on September 7, 2023 after the performance.
Text in french

Credits

Company Compagie Catherine Gaudet + Sibyllines

Choreography and staging Catherine Gaudet and Brigitte Haentjens

Performer Françis Ducharme

Sound and music design Tomas Furey

Set design and props Julie Measroch

Lighting design Martin Sirois

Stage manager / technical director François Marceau

Costumes Marilène Bastien

Production manager Mégane Trudeau

Video Gabriel-Antoine Roy

 

Co-production Agora de la danse

Creative residencies Le LAVI (Laboratoire Arts Vivants et Interdisciplinarité), La Cité-des-Hospitalières en transition, Agora de la danse

 

Catherine
Gaudet + Brigitte Haentjens

Mains moites

6 - 14 Sep 2023

Compagie Catherine Gaudet + Sibyllines