Preview: Clash, OFF.T.A., OFF UQAM

As if there wasn’t enough dance in Montreal right now with the FTA, there is also the OFF.T.A., the OFF UQAM, and Clash. Looks like the perfect time to check out dance or theatre or whatever-you-call-that performance, especially since all of the shows at these events are cheap or even free.

Clash is already underway at Tangente, with two more shows Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. It is first come, first served for this free show that comprises works from four different choreographers, including Anne Thériault who blew me away with her wildly imaginative VA2 – Valeur ajoutée ajoutée last year.

On Saturday the 24th also begins the OFF UQAM, with all of its free shows taking place in the empty pool in the basement of the Agora de la danse building. I would especially recommend that you check out Virginie Brunelle’s Les cuisses à l’écart DU COEUR, which may very well be the most outstanding dance created by a Montreal student in the last few years. It is brutal, incisive, but also the kind of show that will make you laugh as you grind your teeth. An intelligent critique of contemporary sexual practices all in movement that you can catch Wednesday, May 28, at 2pm.

Also taking part in OFF UQAM is well-established choreographer Daniel Léveillée. He will present his sober and mechanical La Pudeur des icebergs on Monday, June 2, at 1pm. As the title suggests, the dance attempts to work the “pudeur” found in nature back into human beings, exposing the naked body not as an object of eroticism or shame, but as a tool to be admired for its strength and efficiency. It will make you look at your body in a way you never have before.

The OFF.T.A. also has its share of events worth checking out, starting with Série Danse on May 27 and 28 at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, where Mélanie Demers will present her stunning Les Angles Morts. As if that wasn’t enough for your 12$, you also get to see George Stamos’s Liklik Pik, and Jean-Sébastien Lourdais’s NoSc117735.

Katie Ward’s Hawks and Doves

Pixel Projects also makes a return on June 1 at the same venue. For a mere 10$, you can get a glimpse of the work of no fewer than eight young creators from Montreal. Whether it’s to check out Andrew Turner’s witty Duet for One Plus Digressions, Katie Ward’s hysterically funny Hawks and Doves, or Hinda Essadiqi and Aladino Rivera Blanca’s haunting L’absence/la ausencia, Pixel Projects has over twice the number of offerings needed to make it an event worth checking out.

On June 3, also at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, is a triple-bill dance program that you shouldn’t miss if you can help it. The program includes El fin del infinito, another amazing work by Hinda Essadiqi and Aladino Rivera Blanca, which strives to find out what happens when what we thought to be endless meets its end. It is followed by Simon Boulerice’s Simon a toujours aimé danser, an excessively charming autobiographical one-man show that turned out to be one of my coups de coeur at the Fringe last year. The evening will end with Tony Chong’s Delusions of Enchantment. Chong has not presented one of his works in Montreal since his excellent I see much less than it is to come a few years ago, so you should definitely make an effort to check him out. After all, it’s three works for only 12$.

For more information on Clash: http://www.lyndagaudreau.com/clash/f/nouve/index.html or http://www.tangente.qc.ca
For more information on OFF UQAM: http://www.dfdanse.com/article952.html
For more information on OFF.T.A.: http://www.offta.com/