The Misfits is less dance and more a rapport between man and woman where no one wins

It would be easy but inaccurate to describe The Misfits as a theatre piece about an older couple, PaulAndré Fortier says in a telephone interview from Montreal. The work really grew out of the celebrated Montreal choreographer’s desire to work with dance artist Robin Poitras, whose long career has been based in Regina. “I had made a solo for Robin called She,” says Fortier. “Over the past few years I had done two duets with men and thought it was time to dance with a woman. I knew she was the one. I’d say to her: ‘Let’s have a conversation in gibberish,’ and she’d be up for it. “The work is extremely playful, a big collection of small events. There are moments of tenderness, madness, cathartic fighting — cathartic for us, and for the audience — reconciliation.” Fortier was 66 when he made The Misfits, Poitras a decade or so younger. It is arguably a dance piece in name only, but there is no real text either (Fortier calls the dialogue a “slavish idiom we create spontaneously.”) It is performance art that mines the rapport between a woman and a man where, Fortier says, “no one wins. We are both nasty. We are both bitches. We are both tender. It’s about us, this moment in time. We are both funny and stupid in Misfit Blues. When you’re younger, you’re so aware of what others think. You’re on your guard. Now we dare to make fools of ourselves.” Misfit Blues features set pieces designed by Edward Poitras, a visual environment that includes a round white floor and a coyote that sits just outside the patch of white. John Munro lights the space, Denis Lavoie dresses the dancers, and Alexander MacSween contributes original music. Fortier says “everything came together to create a singular production. Nothing is there that should not be there. It’s like cooking: if the ingredients love each other, the cake tastes better.” Fortier will also be represented at Dancing on the Edge by a free outdoor work called 15X At Night, a one-hander which will be performed multiple times during the festival at different locations on Granville Island. The piece builds on Fortier’s solo 30X30, which he performed at the festival in 2009. Simon Courchel, a Parisian dancer based in Brooklyn saw Fortier perform 30X30 in France and asked if he could do the piece. Fortier offered one better: he made 15X At Night especially for Courchel, a 25-minute work which highlights the dancer’s “beauty, generosity and presence.” “You don’t expect to see a man dancing outside at 10:30 at night,” says Fortier. “It’s mysterious. People stop, they shut up, they dive in. It’s very satisfying, for the performer and for viewers. The audience surrounds you, they are close to you, you can see them and they can see each other.”