trailerpilot

Photo of Dorotea Saykaly by Marie Chouinard.

I’ve been meaning to test out the new imbeddable previews available from the MCA, and what better occasion than a clip of suddenly-almost-here, fearless Montréalaises Compagnie Marie Chouinard? I’ve only seen the group once before, but here’s the story: While I was a member of [bjm_danse] we shared a bill with Chouinard’s company at the 2005 CINARS presenters’ conference. They opened, performing an excerpt from 2003’s Chorale. Watching from the wings at the Théâtre Monument-National, we were stunned by the dancers’ conviction; it seemed less like they were presenting a work they had learned and developed and more like they had been collectively possessed by some greater (and somewhat demonic) force. Rather than go to some quiet place and digest the experience, however, we had to take the stage immediately thereafter and present our work, an excerpt from Crystal Pite’s xspectacle, or The Stolen Show in English. Now, mind you, I think The Stolen Show is brilliant and performing it for a year was one of the most incredible experiences of my career, but something about having to follow Compagnie Marie Chouinard onstage was terrifying, and I’ll never forget beginning our act thinking I knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about what I was doing.

Anyway, here’s a series of clips from Chouinard’s Orpheus et Eurydice, coming to the MCA April 17-19.

UPDATE: I’ve been informed that WordPress doesn’t allow embeddable videos from unapproved sources and the clip isn’t mirrored on YouTube or anywhere else from where I can nab it. However, you can watch it in a separate window by clicking here. This one’s for you, WordPress: