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M.Body.7
a stone's poem
FLUID STABILITY
VOYAGES INTO THE INTERIOR LANDSCAPES
Photos: Michael Slobodian
M.Body.7
Specially conceived to celebrate her 35th anniversary season, M.Body.7 is Margie’s first group piece created under the auspices of the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation. Woven together of solos, duets and group work segments, the program is tailored to complement each invited performer’s unique style.
M.Body.7 features seven principal dancers/soloists: Gioconda Barbuto, Anik Bissonnette, Holly Bright, Laurence Lemieux, Emily Molnar, Risa Steinberg, and Margie Gillis. An all-female cast of dancers 40 to 60 years of age– with the exception of Ms Molnar - and special appearances by 72 year old dancer Eleanor Duckworth and
10 year old Sandrine Bissonnette-Robitaille – each choreography was designed with care to showcase the personalities of every invited dancer and, as such, highlights their ageless beauty and spirited talent.
The Pieces:
The program opens with an 18 minute solo piece for west coast dancer Holly Bright entitled The Hem of my Northern Coastal Clouds. Cinematic in scope, it revolves around a woman musing on her life in relationship to the great expanse of the northern coastal Canadian sky. It is set to the second movement of Ravel’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G, as arranged by the legendary Herby Hancock.
The celebrated Miss Gillis then takes to the stage performing a new solo, demonstrating the ageless and indefatigable nature of her talents as both choreographer and dancer.
The second half of the evening is a 40 minute ensemble piece set to the music of Chopin, Bach (as performed by Glenn Gould) and other notable composers.
Miss Gillis’ desire to use dance to illuminate the human condition and to reveal the natural raw beauty of our experience is clear within the style of movements she’s chosen for this program.
Exploring interactions, differences, uniqueness, and collectivity, this group work reflects the struggle between the pressures and obligations of society and the instinctual desires of our individual natures. As such, the characters can be seen as being different facets of a singular woman, or as individuals within a collectivity.
photo:Cylla Von Tiedemann
a stone's poem
printable version - PDF
In "a stone's poem", Margie Gillis explores her deep connection to nature, and searches to glean the wisdom and revelations inherent in the processes of the natural world.
The forms and forces in nature are expressed as profound reflections of the inner life - its terrain of emotions, psyche, and soul.
Throughout their choreographic process, Margie Gillis' and Paola Styron' guiding intention was to "listen in" to nature, to hear and see what might lie beneath the surface of a silent stone, or in an ephemeral ray of light.
Margie Gillis evokes and travels through a landscape that bridges earth and spirit, the raw and refined.
Here are a few examples of some of the imagery and themes that inspire the evening's work:
•In Spring, the resilience in a birch tree's rebound toward the sky, after
being bowed to the ground with burdens of ice.
•The shock of lightning, how it reverberates and rearranges the
atmosphere.
•How things break: the broken tree, broken rock, broken ice.
•How things lift: a leaf, dust, mist.
•The strength of water.
•The playful humor of some birds and creatures, the mystery and dignity of
others.
•The rawness and beauty in death, and rebirth.
With her many years of experience in dance, Margie Gillis brings a unique physical vocabulary to this piece. It is derived from the excavation of a language of the inner self,
a language whose roots lie deep in an ancient communion with the earth and its ways - the sound of a stone's poem that still speaks to us.
Lighting by Pierre Lavoie, recorded music by Larsen Lupin, Kilmartin and Gordon Monahan complete the world of "a stone's poem".
"a stone's poem" was created in several locations including a research trip to Norway, sponsored by Lundh's Labrador Quarry
in collaboration with international sculptor Darrell Petit; in Martha's Vineyard (USA) supported by THE YARD, in Canada on Cortes Island supported by Hollyhock Educational Retreat Centre,
in Whitehorse (YK) supported by the Yukon Arts Centre and in Baie-Comeau (QC) at the Théâtre de Baie-Comeau.
photo: Lois Greenfield
FLUID STABILITY
printable version - PDF
"Fluid Stability" has been created to embrace the unique requirements of each community. It draws on 30 years of mature and creative work.
This program can contain:
1) The active repertoire
2) New works
3) Favourite requests (like Waltzing Mathilda)
4) Unique requested work (e.g. a show that would include singers or local musicians)
Here are examples of what we can offer:
Breathing in Bird Bone
When Skin Seperates from Bone
Complex Simplicity of Love
Intermission
Broken Bone
Observation from the Horizontal Vocabulary
What the Wind Whispered
or
Blue
Little Animal
Meditation
Waltzing Matilda
Intermission
Untitled (new work)
Breathing in Bird Bones
Grace (new work)
Length of performance: 90 minutes with a 20 minutes intermission.
Most of the Repertoire is possible to do, proposal will be made upon requests.
Photo: Michael Slobodian
VOYAGES INTO THE INTERIOR LANDSCAPES
printable version - PDF
"As she celebrates a 30-year career, her timing, her gestures, and her focus are fine-tuned to a perfect pitch. She performs as if the stage were her home, and there is no place she'd rather be."
- Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice New York, 2004
Margie Gillis is a master artist. Her unique and magnetic style as a solo contemporary dancer continues to captivate both audiences and critics alike.
At 50, she radiates an extra dimension of maturity which gives even more power to the integrity and richness of her work.
With her exceptional stage presence and the intricate precision of her movement, she reaches into, embodies and reveals the human soul.
"Voyages into the Interior Landscapes", takes us on a journey through landscapes which spring from and resonate with the depths of inner life.
As well as "Voyage", a 25-minute solo created in 1997, four other works from Margie Gillis' repertoire are integrated into the program: "Bloom", "Loon", "Blue" and "The Complex Simplicity of Love".
"Voyages into the Interior Landscapes" speaks of the risk that is love, the devastation that is loss, the mystery that are life and death.
From abandonment to hope, from anger to forgiveness, this show is an unforgettable exploration of the adventures of the soul.
With all her wisdom and knowledge, Ms. Gillis invites us on a journey, creating a unique physical transparency and vocabulary where time is shifted and where body and soul amalgamate in a theatrical ritual.