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© Mathieu Doyon

Post coïtum

Mélanie Demers

A decadent, ecstatic and disturbing bacchanal, this over-the-top carnival quivers with euphoric agony. Wedding and funeral marches for humanity on the decline.

Details

Faces wracked by joy and terror. Carefree times are gone, yet the human species continues to advance. Or is it perhaps on the decline, condemned, hurtling toward death? With Post coïtum, a sort of reverse sequel to Animal triste, Mélanie Demers orchestrates a post-coital parade, a cortège of our impending demise. A decadent, ecstatic and disturbing bacchanal, this over-the-top carnival quivers with euphoric agony.

After the climax, the intoxication and the excess comes dissolution, the exhausted body. In a sequence of movements that alienate with their repetition, shifting from kitsch to the postures of ancient statues, the dance becomes a nuptial trance, a swirl of shouts and cries, the penultimate orgasm. These sad buffoons look like us, creatures in search of a long-lost humanity, preening archetypes torn between glory and disgrace. They struggle and rejoice, cry and laugh. What sort of rebirth do they imagine comes after the downfall?

Credits

Produced by MAYDAY
Conceived, directed and choreographed by Mélanie Demers
Performed by and choreographed with Marc Boivin + Brianna Lombardo + Chi Long + Léa Noblet di Zinaraldi + Riley Sims + James Viveiros
Rehearsal Director Anne-Marie Jourdenais
Dramaturgy Angélique Willkie
Music Jean-Sébastien Côté
Lighting Design Alexandre Pilon-Guay
Technical Director Rodolphe St-Arneault

Co-produced by Festival TransAmériques + Agora de la danse + KLAP, Maison pour la danse (Marseille) + Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours + Centro per la Scena Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa) + The Dance Centre (Vancouver) + Quick Center for the Arts (Fairfield)

Creative residencies Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique + Agora de la danse + Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours + Quick Center for the Arts (Fairfield) + L’Espace le vrai monde

MAYDAY is a member of Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique + Art Circulation, associate company at the Agora de la danse, in artistic collaboration with Centro per la Scena Contemporanea/Operaestate Festival (Bassano del Grappa)

Presented by Infopresse in association with Théâtre Rouge du Conservatoire

Written by Elsa Pépin
Translated by Neil Kroetsch

Premiered at Festival TransAmériques, Montreal, on May 28, 2020

 

© Sabrina Reeves

Mélanie Demers (Montreal)
MAYDAY

After establishing her dance company MAYDAY in 2007, the dancer and choreographer Mélanie Demers created works renowned for their intensity, raw poetry and social engagement.

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