Compagnie Marie Chouinard

Marie Chouinard
Montreal, Quebec

The Rite of Spring

Any choreographer who decides to create a work to Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring issues a challenge to the past. Choreographer Marie Chouinard did just that when she created her avant-garde interpretation of the pulsating score. Far from contradicting the rhythm of her dance, the cadence and force of the music inspire, accompany and energize the work, forming both the echo and the musical counterpoint of an organic, vigorous and vivid choreography. Unlike other choreographic interpretations of this work, Chouinard has constructed her Rite around solos, seeking to awaken in strong, clear movements the initimate mystery of each dancer.

“There is no story in my Rite”, she explains, “no development, no cause and effect. Only synchronicity. It is as if I were dealing with the very moment after the instant life appeared. The performance is an unfolding of that moment and feeling that just before that moment there was an extraordinary burst of light, a flash of lighting.”

“Marie Chouinard’s Rite of Spring is in short, a masterpiece”. Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Prélude à L’après-midi d’un Faune

Originally created as a solo for herself, Faune, is like the original Nijinsky choreography in that Chouinard has created a dance of flat and horizontal profiles which recall ancient Egyptian frescoes and Greek vases. With its syncopated gestures, animal-like energy and sound environment, her choreography brings to life a Faune that is fiercely rooted in its time.

“Savage and infinitely refined...terrifying, exhilarating, mysterious, immediate...” Village Voice, New York

Saturday, July 8, 8pm
Sunday, July 9, 8pm
Centennial Theatre