By Philip Szporer The rapturous crowd at this past year’s Prix de la danse de Montréal listened when Ginelle Chagnon launched into her acceptance speech. The beloved figure had just received the Ethel Bruneau Prize, an award created expressly to put the spotlight on members of the dance community who work in the shadows. “Having been
By Michael Crabb Thanks to Digidance, an initiative by a consortium of major Canadian dance presenters, a new generation will this month have the opportunity to see why Jean-Pierre Perreault’s 1984 work Joe is considered a landmark in the evolution of Canadian contemporary choreography. Perreault, who died in 2002 at age 55, originally made Joe
By Victor Swoboda A few months after his 70th birthday in February 2020, Daniel Soulières stepped down from Danse-Cité, the Montreal contemporary-dance production house that he founded in 1982. Some 400 people sent congratulatory messages reflecting admiration for Soulières as a driving force in staging contemporary dance, as a dancer and as a teacher. Undoubtedly