L’affadissement du merveilleux

Endless rounds, circles and loops become cosmic and haunting rituals. Five dancers advance and retreat, staring straight at the audience, their hypnotic presence front and centre, prisoners of unremitting cycles, swept along by the wheel of time. Mutants forever starting over, they are transformed in unison into a slow forward march, part trance and part infernal whirling and twirling.

In her new clean-lined geometric piece, the choreographer Catherine Gaudet abandons her study of inner conflicts to probe the life force. A sampling of humanity from its atomic beginnings to its final heartbeat, L’affadissement du merveilleux investigates the mystery of existence by means of repeated movement, with stultifying routine transformed into bedazzlement. Fluid and ecstatic, this obsessive journey evokes the sacred as well as its resurgence in our blasé rites. An ode to the beauty of being alive, right up to death. Breathtaking.

Produced by Lorganisme
Choreographed by Catherine Gaudet
Performed by Dany Desjardins + Francis Ducharme + Caroline Gravel + Leïla Mailly + James Phillips
Music Antoine Berthiaume
Costume Design Max-Otto Fauteux
Dramaturgical Assistant and Rehearsal Director Sophie Michaud
Lighting Design Alexandre Pilon-Guay
Technical Director and Stage Manager François Marceau
Technical Director (Creation) Olivier Chopinet
Intern Performer Marie-Philippe Santerre
Production Director Dominique Bouchard

Coproduction Agora de la danse + Centre chorégraphique national de Tours

Creative residencies Agora de la danse + Centre chorégraphique national de Tours + Centre de Création O Vertigo + Compagnie Marie Chouinard + Danse à la carte + École de danse Louise Lapierre + Maison de la culture Frontenac

Presented in association with Théâtre Rouge du Conservatoire

Written by Elsa Pépin
Translated by Neil Kroetsch

Premiered at Agora de la danse, on September 26, 2018