Learning to speak through the power of silence
‘IT’S QUITE RESTRAINED … LIKE HAIKU’ Veteran dancer Febvre encounters unique challenge in Cantin’s minimalist Cheese
When Toronto Mayor Rob Ford waited eight long seconds before replying to a city councillor’s question about whether he’d bought illegal drugs, his hesitation spoke volumes. Latenight comedians deliciously mocked the significance of the mayor’s pregnant pause. In the arts, the dramatic value of silence is well exploited by actors, but what about dancers? How often are they called upon simply to stand still?
In his latest work, Cheese, Nicolas Cantin has reduced actions to the point where silence can “speak.”
“I found the minutes of silence were a bit difficult for me,” admitted the work’s solo performer, Michèle Febvre, 70, following a recent rehearsal. “We’re accustomed to ‘do- ing’ something. Here, it’s not a question of ‘not doing anything.’ It’s in those moments of silence that I think the show begins.”
Little in the way of movement occurs during this unclassifiable 35-minute work, which largely involves Febvre sitting and talking about aspects of her life, or listening to her voice on a recording. Throughout the work, music wafts in and out.
“It’s a project that almost took place sitting down,” laughed Cantin, 40, an artist in residence at Usine C. “It wasn’t about doing or making something. It’s autobiographical, but we kept only fragments of Michèle’s life. A lot of space surrounds these fragments.”
Febvre wasn’t sure at the start that her talking sessions with Cantin would make it to the stage.
“We were concentrating more on revealing stories than on creating a self-portrait,” she said.
“It’s quite restrained on all levels … like haiku.”
Japanese poets take great pains to whittle their poems down to fit the short haiku stanza. During rehearsal, Cantin kept taking bits away to find what he felt was the right balance. At times, Febvre would raise an arm, only to be admonished.
“Nicolas would often say, ‘Don’t do too much,’ even while I was doing practically nothing!”
Minimalism for its own sake was not Cantin’s goal. Rather, he was seeking to remove whatever seemed extraneous.
“Sometimes a lot of things are moving on stage but nothing is really happening,” he said, expressing a sentiment that could describe all those overproduced dance shows whose pretensions far outweigh their accomplishments. “I knew that I couldn’t include just anything. Michèle’s presence relates something essential.”
In 2011, Cantin choreographed a fine duet, Belle Manière, that featured Ashlea Watkin and Normand Marcy in a confrontation that had spectators wondering who was the aggressor and who was the victim. Décor was spare, not much more than a few props, but the pair’s movements at times were vigorous. A year later, as director of Patrick Léonard’s wildly theatrical solo Patinoire, Cantin put together a décorstrewn set whose pièce de résistance was a precarious mountain of boxes on which Léonard performed a heartstopping balancing act.
Cheese — the title evokes a photographer’s plea for a smile — is one in a series of works that Montreal dancer/choreographer Katya Montaignac has initiated as encounters between dancemakers of different generations. Montaignac suggested Febvre to Cantin as someone with a richness of experience that could suit the project.
Older dance fans know Febvre as a pioneer of Montreal contemporary dance. A native of France who came to Quebec to teach rhythmic gymnastics, she performed in the 1970s with the groundbreaking Montreal troupe Groupe Nouvelle Aire, and later with Fortier DanseCréation. In 1979, she joined the newly created dance faculty at UQÀM, where she still assists in teaching a course on performance and stage presence. Febvre has contrib- uted to several books about Montreal dancemakers.
Her heart belongs, however, on or near the stage. She last danced in Montreal around 20 years ago, when she was 50, in a piece by Louise Bédard. Despite her extensive experience, Febvre had never spoken on stage.
“In my time, no one asked the dancers to talk,” she said. “I hadn’t done it before, but it didn’t surprise me inordinately. What I most recall is the ease of the process, the flow of energy between two people.”
The fact that she and Cantin are both French-born and share tastes in films and music helped bridge the 30-year age difference.
“I wasn’t interested in this project because it was intergenerational,” Cantin was quick to point out. “I didn’t work with this in mind, at least not consciously. It was simply a meeting of one individual with another.”
How refreshingly non-generational.
Cheese is performed from Wednesday to Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. at Usine C, 1345 Lalonde Ave. Tickets cost $20 to $25. Call 514-5214493 or visit usine-c.com. Dance notes: For some rousing entertainment next week, try the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble in its touring show Gypsy Romance. Forty dancers and musicians interpret dances inspired by Hungary’s folk tradition, which also famously inspired symphonic works by Brahms, Liszt and Bartók. A show like tasty dumplings, expertly performed. One performance, Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts. Tickets cost $37.95 to $65.55. Call 514-842-2112 or visit pda.qc.ca.
Dance fans should definitely take note that Danse-Danse is bringing Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch to Place des Arts next year, about 30 years after this world-famous company last performed here. The company will stage Bausch’s work Vollmond for five performances in November 2014. Tickets go on sale Nov. 30 at noon via Place des Arts (514-842-2112; pda.qc.ca). Bausch, an incontestable genius, died four years ago, leaving a legacy of dance/ theatre works that have greatly influenced generations of dancemakers.