GRAVEL WORKS

This is the full version of a piece begun in 2006. Its elastic geometry allows for stand-alone or ensemble presentation of its component scenes featuring the touchstones of contemporary dance, in a style ranging from raw virtuoso dancing to the mingling of artistic genres. Cultivating paradox and irony in nonchalant fashion, the mastermind and clear-headed commentator Frédérick Gravel turns the presentation upside down to reveal the “traceability” of the artistic process. In league with the audience, he thumbs his nose at the avant-garde and the exclusive preserves of the elite. In an offhand way, he takes popular culture and establishment culture out of their assigned roles and brings them together, top to bottom and bottom to top – from the head, to the heart, to the genitals – together or separately. The Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup (GAG) is a variable collective of multi-talented artists who work together to “create extensively, try prolifically, persist enormously” and have fun while doing so. In intelligent fashion.

Concept and Direction : Frédérick Gravel

Created and Performed by : Francis Ducharme, Ivana Milicevic, Lucie Vigneault, Jamie Wright, Frédérick Gravel

With the musicians : Stéphane Boucher, Hugo Gravel

Lighting Design & Technical Direction : Alexandre Pilon-Guay

Dramaturgy : Katya Montaignac

External vision & Dance Coach : Anne Lebeau

Production : Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup (GAG) (Montréal)

Coproduction :

Festival TransAmériques

Text: Michèle Febvre

English Translation: Neil Kroetsch

Photos: Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup