March 27, 2006 -

OTTAWA -- FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS, a corrosive comedy of manners textured with the DNA of science fiction, will be performed in the Theatre of the NAC on Friday April 7 and Saturday April 8, 2006 at 19:30. Choreographer/dancers Meg Stuart and Benoît Lachambre and composer/musician Hahn Rowe create a brutally honest work which explores the landscapes of the body and the inner/outer geographies of our relationships to one another and the environment. A ruthlessly revealing psychological landscape forces transgressive extremes of behaviour when all hard-edged distinctions are dissolved. FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS was hailed as one of the nine best productions for 2004-2005 in Flanders and the Netherlands.

PLEASE BE ADVISED: this production contains scenes of nudity.

Are these people campers or drifters, friends or lovers, humans or animals? This intimate, tender, and, at moments, brutal dance-theatre work explores the psychological landscapes traversed in the search for personal connection. Atop a monumental onstage hill, three artists create a world that is part Beckett, part science-fiction, and part Charles Darwin.

Meg Stuart is an American powerhouse, now living in Europe, who has grown into one of the most influential choreographers of her generation. Her work with Damaged Goods features the search for new forms of cooperation, presentation contexts and the crossbreeding of theatre, architecture, and visual art. She now returns to North America to perform with Montréal dancer Benoît Lachambre and New York composer Hahn Rowe, whose stunning live music, performed onstage, envelopes the audience.

With roots in the East Village scene in mid-1980s New York, the pathways of Stuart and Lachambre have intersected on numerous occasions, such as in Meg Stuart’s No Longer Readymade (1993) and in improvisational cooperative projects such as Crash Landing (1996-1999) and Not to Know (2002). Now Meg Stuart and Benoît Lachambre find each other again as onstage dancing partners in a duet that is sonically surrounded by Hahn Rowe’s musical undulations.

“FORGERIES . . . recycles and filters the apocalyptic fantasies and clichés from movies and emo-culture. [It] is muggy and complex, defiant and humoristic and above all shameless theatre.”

De Morgen, Belgium

“…a very impressive performance which showed life on the border of existence… the audience was kept in a spell from beginning to end.”

PHOSPHOR*Live

FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS (2004)
CHOREOGRAPHY and DANCE Meg Stuart & Benoît Lachambre
LIVE MUSIC Hahn Rowe
DRAMATURGY Myriam Van Imschoot
SCENOGRAPHY Doris Dziersk
COSTUMES Tina Kloempken
LIGHT Marc Dewitt

FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS will be performed in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Friday April 7 and Saturday April 8, 2006 at 19:30. Tickets are $42.25, $40, and $30.50, $22, $21, and $16.25 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $10 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card. NEW for 2005-06! Groups of 10+ save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call 947-7000 ext. 384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations,
NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

The American choreographer and dancer MEG STUART moved to New York in 1983 to attend New York University, where she received a BFA in dance and continued her training, following classes in release technique and contact improvisation at Movement Research. She was a member of the Randy Warshaw Dance Company from 1986 to 1992, where she was also assistant to the choreographer.

At the invitation of Klapstuk 91, she made her first full-length production Disfigure Study (1991). It was the start to an impressive series of productions Stuart made with her company Damaged Goods, which has been based in Brussels since 1994: No Longer Readymade (1993); No One is Watching (1995); Insert Skin #1 – They Live in Our Breath (1996) with visual artist Lawrence Malstaf; Splayed Mind Out (1997) with video artist Gary Hill; appetite (1998) with visual artist Ann Hamilton; ALIBI (2001) and Visitors Only (2003), both in co-operation with scenographer Anna Viebrock, video artist Chris Kondek and composer Paul Lemp; and FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS (2004). The company’s newest work is REPLACEMENT, which had its world premiere on January 11, 2006 in Berlin. Meg Stuart also created Swallow My Yellow Smile (1994), commissioned by the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and, in association with graphic designer Bruce Mau, Remote (1997) for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. She also made choreographies for actors: for Comeback (1999), Snapshots (1999) and Henry IV (2002), all directed by German director Stephan Pucher; for Das goldene Zeitalter (2003), a joined project created by Meg Stuart, Stefan Pucher, Christoph Marthaler and Anna Viebrock for Schauspielhaus Zürich; and for Der Marterpfahl (2005), directed by Frank Castorf at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. In 2004, Somewhere in between, a film by French filmmaker Pierre Coulibeuf, adapted from a special creation by Meg Stuart, was made.

A recurrent feature in the work of Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods is the search for new forms of co-operation, presentation contexts and the crossbreeding of theatre, architecture, and visual art, heralded in the dance installation for the exhibition ‘This is the Show and the Show is Many Things’by curator Bart De Baere at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst [Museum of contemporary art, now SMAK] in Ghent (1994). Together with Christine De Smedt and David Hernandez, between 1996 and 1999 Meg Stuart was also involved in Crash Landing, an improvisation project for dancers, musicians, video and sound artists and designers. Crash Landing ran into five editions: Leuven, Vienna, Paris, Lisbon and Moscow. Between March 2000 and March 2001, Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods created Highway 101, in close collaboration with theatre director Stefan Pucher and video artist Jorge Leon. In conjunction with a partly varying artistic team, movement, sound and video material was developed with a view to a number of specifically chosen places. Highway 101 thus gradually evolved into a continuous self-commemorative and redefining project, focussing on memory, the relationship with the audience and the use of space. In March 2000, Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods presented a first series of showings of Highway 101 at the Kaaitheaterstudio’s in Brussels. Then it appeared in Vienna, Paris, Brussels, and Zurich. The installation sand table and the solos soft wear, private room and I’m all yours were originally part of Highway 101, but went on to lead a life of their own, and since 2001 have often been presented in a programme shared with writer, director and performer Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment). In 2005, Meg Stuart initiated Auf den Tisch!, a new improvisation project for which she invites artist, dancers and musicians for performances and improvisations.

From 1997, Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods was one of the artists-in-residence at the Kaaitheater in Brussels. From 2001 until 2004, the company took up residence at the Schauspielhaus Zürich at the invitation of Christoph Marthaler. Since the 2002–03 season, Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods have also collaborated with the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin.

Along with her choreography, Meg Stuart has also been teaching workshops in composition and improvisation at organisations such as Forum Dança in Lisbon, Movement Research in New York, PARTS in Brussels and ImPulsTanz in Vienna.

In 2000, Meg Stuart and Damaged Goods received the Culture Prize K.U.Leuven.

Choreographer, performer, improviser, and teacher, BENOÎT LACHAMBRE (born 1960) danced for Marie Chouinard, Meg Stuart and Jennifer Lacey before creating his own company in 1996. Based in Montreal and baptised par b.l. eux (for “par Benoît Lachambre and eux”), the company is devoted primarily to contemporary choreography, as well as international and interdisciplinary collaboration. Since 1996, Lachambre has been creating for par b.l.eux: L’Âne et la bouche, Dédanse d’elles, Délire défait, L’Aberration des traces, Confort et complaisance, Not to Know and 100 Rencontres – as well as for other companies, as guest choreographer. He is also in demand as an artistic collaborator and has lent his signature to a great many projects. He has worked alongside such choreographers as Lynda Gaudreau, Felix Ruckert, (Danse-Cité, Montreal), Catherine Contour (TNT, Bordeaux), Boris Charmatz (for the creation of héâtre-élévision), Sasha Waltz, and Isabelle Schad; as well as with visual artist Laurent Goldring. With Meg Stuart and musician Hahn Rowe, he created FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS, hailed as one of the nine best productions for 2004-2005 in Flanders and the Netherlands. In addition to a solo piece for Louise Lecavalier, to be presented in 2006, Benoît is currently working on Lugares Comunes, a work for nine dancers and par b.l.eux to be created at the Quartz, Scène nationale de Brest, for the Antipodes festival in March 2006. Elements of improvisation and performance art in dance are also an integral part of Lachambre’s work. Intrigued by the dynamics of communication and of perception, he is a regular participant in improvisation events – notably Crash Landing, an initiative from Meg Stuart, David Hernandez and Christine de Mestz. His workshops and intensives (improvisation and body consciousness) are as popular in Europe as they are at home in Montreal. Winner of the Jacqueline-Lemieux Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts (1998), Benoît Lachambre has also received two Dora Mavor Moore awards: ‘Best New Choreography’ and ‘Best Performance’ for his solo Délire défait, presented in Toronto in 2001. In 2003, he shared the honours for ‘Best Performance’ at the Moving Pictures festival (Toronto) with dancer Carole Prieur, for his rôle in Marie Chouinard’s film Cantique no 1 et no 2.

HAHN ROWE (born 1961), composer, producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist, has migrated freely between the realms of New York City’s rock, electronic, improvisation, and new music spheres for nearly twenty years. Arriving in NYC in the early 1980s, he initially worked as a recording engineer with artists such as Bill Laswell, Roy Ayers, Sly and Robbie, and John Zorn, among many others. Soon thereafter, Rowe began exploring the city’s overlapping art and music scenes. He was featured on violin and guitar in composer Glenn Branca’s ensemble, where he met members of the then nascent band Hugo Largo, joining the group soon after. Hugo Largo went on to release two critically acclaimed records on Brian Eno's Opal label: ‘Drum’ (produced by Michael Stipe and Hugo Largo) and ‘Mettle’ (produced by Rowe). Hugo Largo toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, showcasing Rowe's original electric violin stylings. Other musicians that Hahn Rowe has performed and/or recorded with include Swans, Moby, Foetus, R.E.M., Hassan Hakmoun, KRS-1, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Syd Straw, John Zorn, Michael Brook, Angels of Light, and Tom Cora. Production work includes David Byrne’s album ‘Feelings’ and ‘Soak’ by Mimi (Luaka Bop/Warner Brothers). Rowe has also been an active member of NYC’s electronic music world, DJ-ing and performing in events created by collectives such as SoundLab, Unity Gain, and Phonomena. Under the moniker Somatic, he released the drum and bass album ‘The New Body’ on the Caipirinha label. Hahn Rowe has created many scores for film and television, including Married in America (directed by Michael Apted), Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan), Spring Forward (Tom Gilroy), Paternal Instinct (Murray Nossel for HBO/BBC), Stealing the Fire (John Friedman and Eric Nadler), Black Kites (Jo Andres), and The Transformation (Susana Aikin and Carlos Aparicio). Rowe has contributed music to dance pieces by John Jasperse (‘Madison as I Imagined It’), Margarita Guergué (‘We Were Never There’) and by Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods. He composed the music for Disfigure Study, No Longer Readymade, Swallow my Yellow Smile, participated in four editions of Crash Landing, composed and performs the music live for FORGERIES, LOVE AND OTHER MATTERS and has now created the score for REPLACEMENT, the new work by Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods. Most recently, Hahn Rowe has collaborated with Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons, Lou Reed) on a remix of ‘Toy Boat’ by Yoko Ono, and has produced tracks for Antony and the Johnsons’ forthcoming release.