April 19, 2007 -

OTTAWA -- Compagnie Marie Chouinard has dazzled the world with bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS. This National Arts Centre co-production -- which is part of the NAC's Quebec Scene -- struts into the Theatre of the NAC on Friday April 27, 2007 at 19:30. Prolific high priestess of dance Marie Chouinard -- at the peak of her creative powers -- explores the stark beauty of emotional extremes. One critic referred to the theme of bODY_rEMIX as "the erotics of disability." An interpretation in movement of Bach's Goldberg Variations -- performed by Glenn Gould, distorted by Louis Dufort – bODY_rEMIX weds dancers to prosthetic devices: crutches, walkers, parallel bars, straps, harnesses, and sex toys. Repetitive movements twist limbs into orthopaedic poses of pleasure and pain as the devices liberate the dancers' movements, restrict them, or even create them. With lighting, set design, and props all by Marie Chouinard.

Please be advised there is nudity in this production

An invigorating and original choreographer, Marie Chouinard, "a virtuoso innovator of the primeval", presents an exhilarating body of powerful dances to audiences worldwide. Chouinard views dance as a sacred art and the body as a vehicle of that art, inventing striking new universes for each work. It is no exaggeration to say that Marie Chouinard has helped to revolutionize contemporary dance.

Created at the Venice Biennale's International Festival of Contemporary Dance in 2005, bODY_rEMIX/ gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS displays to advantage the company's ten dancers as they execute variations on the exercise of freedom. The dancers often appear on pointe: on one, two, and even four at a time. The use of accessories gives rise to unusual bodily shapes and gestural dynamics and opens onto a universe of meticulous and playful explorations. Solos, duos, trios and group work -- in their labour, pleasure and invention -- echo the human condition. Subtle and extravagant, sumptuous and wild, the work's movements plumb the insoluble mystery of the body.

"Marie Chouinard is a visionary … her new piece is filled with remarkable imagery. Nobody puts living art on stage better than she. The dancers are very, very beautiful to watch … Chouinard has assembled a stunning company and her 10 dancers are poetry in motion…."

Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, November 2005

"A dissonant symphony, bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG _vARIATIONS transcends all habits and customs to fire the imagination of the body in movement […] The most mutant of today's ballet troupes."

Rosita Boisseau, Le Monde, Paris, 2006

"A work cut with jewel-like precision […] with powerful and fleshed-out images […] that goes well beyond an exercise in style or destruction to show the suffering, and especially the spontaneous pleasure, of dancing."

Isabelle Danto, Le Figaro, Paris, 2006

"…a wild visual fantasy in a dizzying continuum."

Paola Bruna, Il Gazzettino, Venice, 2005

"Chouinard was stunningly creative ...dance and music met in a totally new way."

Stuttgarter Nachrichte, Ludwigsburg, 2005

"bODY_rEMIX is a rich, wildly entertaining compilation of playful associations, sensual and erotic imagery and stunning virtuosic dancing enhanced by a cleverly woven mesh of percussive sounds, music, recorded speech, breathy sighs, grunts, orgasmic gasps and squeals."

Suzanne Jaeger, The Dance Current, 2005

"Completely innovative. Truly dazzling."

Gabrielle Zimmerman, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 2005

"The audience cheered Chouinard."

Isabella WallnöferDie Presse, Vienna, 2005

"Chouinard and her excellent dancers achieve a virtuoso meditation on the beauty and frailty of the human body."

Sandra Luzina, Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 2005

"Crutches and prosthetics change into instruments that incite the dancers to ever higher performances."

Michaela Schlagenwerth, Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, 2005

The National Arts Centre's Quebec Scene
From April 20 to May 5, 2007, 700 artists from Québec will take over the arts and culture scene in the Ottawa/Gatineau region in a 16-day festival featuring over 100 different events. Musicians, actors, dancers, visual and media artists, writers, acrobats, storytellers and master chefs will invade theatres, concert halls and museums, clubs, galleries and even the streets, with a new creative energy. More than 90 national and international presenters will be on hand to discover the best of contemporary Québec talent. (www.quebecscene.ca)

bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS(2005)
CHOREOGRAPHY and ARTISTIC DIRECTION Marie Chouinard
MUSIC Louis Dufort:Variations on the Variations,
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, Variations 5, 6, 8
Vocal Extracts of Glenn Gould
LIGHTING, SET DESIGN, and PROPS Marie Chouinard
COSTUMES and HAIR STYLIST Liz Vandal

A Compagnie Marie Chouinard production, co-produced with the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Montreal High Lights Festival, Schlossfestspiele (Ludwigsburg), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Venice Biennale, White Bird (Portland), with the support of ImPulsTanz (Vienna)

Compagnie Marie Chouinard performs bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Friday, April 27, 2007 at 19:30. Tickets are $44.50, $42, and $32.50 for adults and $23.50, $22.25, and $17.50 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. Same-day Live Rush tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students (aged 13-29) are $10 at the NAC Box Office between 14:00 and 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid 'Live Rush' card. Groups of 10 or more 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.

New! Dinner packages at Kinki, Social, and Meditheo are available with the purchase of tickets to any NAC Dance performance. Book your package by visiting Ticketmaster at one of the following links: http://www.ticketmaster.ca/promo/24375, http://www.ticketmaster.ca/promo/24364, or
http://www.ticketmaster.ca/promo/b5kfde

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

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

MARIE CHOUINARD
Marie Chouinard is an individualistic and innovative choreographer. She began her choreographic career in 1978 with the solo work Cristallisation. She continued her initial exploration of solo choreography in other early works, including STAB (Space, Time and Beyond) (1986).

Chouinard established Compagnie Marie Chouinard in 1990, which allowed her to investigate group choreography. Several critical successes followed, including her first group work Les Trous du ciel (1991), as well as Le Sacre du Printemps, which premiered in 1993. Since 1994, Le Sacre du Printemps has been performed in tandem with her 1987 solo work L'Après-midi d'un Faune.

Chouinard's work suggests a creative restlessness. Throughout her career, she has created action-performances, vocal works, and installations that challenge the artifice of disciplinary boundaries. In particular, in several of her choreographic works, including L'Amande et le Diamant (1996), Chouinard has been intrigued by the coupling of movement and sound. Chorale (2003), a technically sophisticated and viscerally riveting group piece inspired by the image of a wolf pack, included both dance and vocalization. In 2003, Chouinard expanded her interdisciplinary explorations when she made Cantique, her first film.

Compagnie Marie Chouinard is in demand internationally and has appeared at numerous important festivals and theatres throughout the world, including the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Biennale in Venice and the Julidans Festival in Amsterdam, among others. Most notably, Chouinard's choreography has been co-produced by the National Arts Centre for over twenty years and her company has been a perennial favourite at the Canada Dance Festival.

In 2003, Chouinard was the recipient of a National Arts Centre Award in the field of dance as part of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.

Compagnie Marie Chouinard was recently allocated a subsidy of $1.2 M from Quebec's ministère de la Culture et des Communications, to which will be added $768,006 from Canadian Heritage. Those amounts have been administered for the relocation of the company and the fitting-out of a new centre for choreographic creation. The opening of the new building is planned for July 2007.