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Dejode & Lacombe
Merlin Ettore (percussions), Andrew Tay (choreography) and
Shirley Marquis, Andrea Sproule, Walter Rivera, Amanda Wurts, Angie Cheng, Livia Pellerin (dancers)
present
Dancing in Paradise
From Jan. 12 to Feb. 10, 2007
Opening / Musical
Friday, January 12, beginning at 8 PM
Doors open at 7 PM
Meet the artists on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 3 PM (in French)
Floating Band Concert (Joël Aimé, Benoit Rolland, Merlin Ettore)
with Alexis O’Hara (performance)
Saturday, January 13 at 8 PM – Free admission!
To all the fish who fled boredom and jumped out of the bowl.
Camille de Toledo
Skol has teamed up with Centre Est-Nord-Est to present Dancing in Paradise, a bold new production by the French artist duo Sophie Dejode and Bertrand Lacombe. Dancing in Paradise is a more complete sequel of Singing in Paradise, organized in 2004 by Joyce Yahouda and shown on the 51/2 floor of the Belgo.
Assisted by composer Merlin Ettore and choreographer Andrew Tay, the artists reappropriate the spectacular medium of musical comedy, leaving troubles and woes behind to produce something beautiful, light, dreamy. Set within an installation/decor, the show will only be presented once, the night of the opening: a crack corps of rats perform a dance in the icy atmosphere of a giant fridge, an allegory representing a struggle against the refrigerate dreams of human beings anaesthetized by mass consumption and mass media. Subverting the ritual of art openings, the artists expose the art world’s tacit complicity with the very system it presumes to criticize.
In this new ramification of Floating Land — a nomad territory of encounter that evolves from one exhibition to the next, involving in their successive productions, an ever fluctuating community of participants — the “modern” work of art is replaced by a setting that invites spectators to complete the project, to imagine its sequel, transforming visitor inertia into action, cynicism into enchantment. The decor will remain in place for the duration of the exhibition, allowing spectators to invest the space and to extend the work in unforeseeable ways.
The artists wish to thank the following people for their generous support: Caroline Andrieux, David Armstrong, Alexis Bellavance, David Bettan, Nicolas Bougaieff, Pierre Bourgault, Guillaume Briand, Jean Brillant, Patrice Caron (from BANG BANG), Raphael Ettore, Emmanuel Galland, Pierre Giroux, Joannie Labelle, Nathalie Lafortune, Maryse Larivière, François Maes, Aude Moreau, Geneviève Nobert, Denis Raby, Jean-Michel Ross, Laurent Teissier, Marie-Ève Tourigny, Chang Wee, Fondation pour l'art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon, Galerie Metropolis, Manufacture de matelas Sélection Inc. and everyone else who got involved. They are also especially grateful to the dancers for their exceptional contribution.
This interdisciplinary project is part of Skol’s 20th anniversary As If All Were Well programming, which also celebrates artists’ capacity to act locally, in a truly self-run project.
Biographical Notes
Sophie Dejode (Lyon / Berlin) and Bertrand Lacombe (Berlin) have been collaborating on the Floating Land project for four years. Always seeking out new opportunities to expand the project in surprising and serendipitous ways, the duo has shown earlier incarnations of the project in Montréal (Singing in Paradise, 2004) Geneva (Floating Bowl, 2003) and Lyon (Floating Land, 1999).
More info: http://www.floatingland.com/
With his enigmatic, in-your-face-and-ears drumming wizardry, Merlin Ettore (Montreal) mystifies his listeners with an eccentric yet organic stage presence. Genetics were also good to Merlin: he began playing drums before he even stood or spoke. Today, after 500 concerts in the US, Canada and Europe, his numerous projects and contributions still titillate the entire globe. Amongst his latest collaborations: Guy Nadon, Don Preston (Frank Zappa's ex-keyboardist), the eclectic bass and drum duo MetriK and the Floating Land project in collaboration with Sophie Dejode and Bertrand Lacombe.
More info: http://www.myspace.com/blandiloquentia
and: http://www.myspace.com/hybriddrum
Andrew Tay (Montreal) was born in Windsor Ontario where he attended the Walkerville Centre for the Creative Arts. Since finishing his B.F.A in contemporary dance at Concordia University, Andrew has had his work presented at Espace Tangente, Studio 303, the National Theatre School, Festival Vue Sur La Releve (Montreal) and the Square Zero Dance Festival (Ottawa). Residencies have included the Foundation Jean-Pierre Perrault, the summer artist in residency program at studio 303, and a week long, intensive workshop with Kathy Casey and her dance company Montreal Danse. He is currently working as artistic director of Wants and Needs danse a new dance company in Montreal which he formed with choreographic partner Sasha Kleinplatz. They will present their new full length work Because We Can in April of 2007 at Espace Tangente.
More info: http://www.myspace.com/andrewtay
and: http://www.youtube.com/?v=ypnMAqgarDY
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