Plenty of Dance to Go ‘Round at the Montreal Highlight Festival

I’m a dick. So when the Montreal Highlight Festival asked me to write about their activities to have access to their shows, I decided to drop it rather than go with it. I hate doing previews. Writing is something I do because I’m a geek, I like the review format, and I love contemporary dance; hence why I ended up writing dance reviews. But writing a preview is about as much fun as writing the instructions to a recipe. It leaves very little place for actual creative writing.

My other issue with previews is that I don’t like to promote an event unless I can vouch for its quality. I wouldn’t want to be part of the people who build the hype for, say, Peter Jackson’s King Kong only to realize after watching it that I’ve been encouraging people to see a film that’s really not great.

But the truth is that chances are really good that the Montreal Highlight Festival will be great. How do I figure that out? There are plenty of reasons:

1- Out of the top ten dance shows I saw last year, two were presented at the festival: Dave Saint-Pierre’s La Pornographie des âmes and, what many considered the best dance show of 2006, Marie Chouinard’s bODY-rEMIX/les vARIATIONS gOLDBERG.

2- Opening the dance section of the festival this year will be les Ballets Jazz de Montréal. Last summer, they presented a series of short choreographies at Théâtre de Verdure. While the shortest piece did manage to ruin Rufus Wainwright’s “One Man Guy” in a mere four minutes, all their other works were bursting with life and humour. They will be celebrating their 35th anniversary at Place des Arts with a North American première from Thursday, February 22, to Saturday, February 24. Tickets are 30-50$ (with a 10$ reduction for students) and can be purchased by calling 514-842-2112 /514-790-1245.

3- On Thursday night will also begin the Biennale de Gigue contemporaine at Tangente. Last year’s presentation of tap dancing with a contemporary dance twist was for the most part a refreshingly unpretentious affair that was thoroughly enjoyable. This year, it’s been turned into a two-week stint that will include a work by choreographer Jean-Philippe Lortie in its first week, a talented young artist who impressed me two years ago at Théâtre de Verdure. From Thursday, February 22, to Sunday, February 25, and from Thursday, March 1 to Sunday, March 4. Tickets are 18$, 13 for students. For more information, call 514-525-1500/514-790-1245.

4- Finally, the Montreal Highlight Festival is the perfect opportunity to get introduced to dance if you’re not all that familiar with the medium and aren’t yet confident enough to part with your hard-earned money. With their now famous All-Nighter (this year taking place the night of March 3 to 4), the festival allows night owls to enjoy a wide variety of free activities, including a few dance happenings in and around Place-des-Arts. From 10pm-2am, Imprudanses (one of my favourite reasons to go out in Montreal) will be performing in competitive matches of improvised dance at the Musée d’Art Contemporain. Right next door at Cinquième Salle, from 11pm-3am, La 2e Porte à Gauche will offer a night of interactive dance where the ideas of a dozen choreographers and interpreters will be presented to the public. From 1-5am at Place-des-Arts metro station itself, URBAN-ELEMENT’s dancers will present a breakdance and hip-hop competition with guest musicians and DJs.

So there’s really no good reason not to support one of the few remaining Montreal festivals that still sports a dance programme. I know I’ll be there.

For more information, visit their website: http://www.montrealenlumiere.com/