Students get a lift from online competition

Dance students are used to being told exactly how to move. A virtual choreographic competition called Concours de création et musique is now offering them a chance to break free and let the music move them as it may. Once the dancing is done, contemporary dance icon Louise Lecavalier will pick the winners.

“She is such a darling, darling person,” competition organizer Elaine Gaertner said. “I called her and she said yes right away.”

Lecavalier’s athleticism and artistry took the dance world by storm during her years with Edouard Lock’s La La La Human Steps. After stepping away from the company, she forged an international career that has garnered her a trunk load of honours including the French Dance Critics’ Union/paris Dance Personality of the Year (2010-2011), the 2013 Léonide Massine Most Outstanding Female Dancer on the Contemporary Scene and, in 2017, an honorary doctorate from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Gaertner has been working as an accompanist and music teacher at what is now called École supérieure de ballet du Québec since 1986. She has seen many the dance student rise through the ranks to join the world of professional dance here and away.

“The synergy between dance and music — that’s what I’m all about,” Gaertner said. “You rarely get it, but when you do, the angels sing. George Balanchine’s quote ‘See the music, hear the dance’, was my inspiration for this competition.”

She has selected eight musical excerpts — all classical — and supplied brief explanations for each to help creators understand more about its rhythm and structure. Competitors in two age categories — 9-12 and 13-16 — make their musical choice and create the steps for one- to two-minute choreographies.

Choreographing for the first time can be overwhelming, so ESBQ teachers Anne Dryburgh and Nathalie Gérard have supplied simple choreographic suggestions to be expanded on by the dancer.

The cutoff date for submitting videos is July 30.

As the videos come in, Gaertner will pass them on to Lecavalier. After Lecavalier has finished analyzing all the videos, she will announce three winners in each of the two age categories. Date to be determined.

Prizes for the contest include gift certificates from chic dancewear suppliers, a $300 ballet barre and virtual mentoring or teaching sessions from a long list of wellknown dance names, including Alexandra Wells, Sarah Gibson, Andrew Skeels, Hélène Blackburn and Linda Rabin.

This is Gaertner’s second dance challenge since the pandemic shut down the ballet school.

“(The students) were sitting at home, depressed,” she said. “I wanted to do something to lift their spirits.”

So she selected snippets from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker score and asked participants to create a series of exercises to be done at the ballet barre. Dance students from all over the province participated. Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal dancer Maude Sabourin and Janie Richard — the winner of Season 2 of the television dance contest Révolution — were the judges and ESBQ dancer Emma Perron, 14, was the winner.

There is no fee to enter the competition. For details, visit www. mouvementetmusique.com.