Vancouver International Dance Festival presents Catherine Gaudet’s Se dissoudre, February 28 to March 2

Solo danced by Marie-Philippe Santerre explores sensations of dissolving and solitude

SPONSORED POST BY Vancouver International Dance Festival

Marie-Philippe Santerre in Catherine Gaudet’s Se dissoudre. Photo by Mathieu Doyon

The Vancouver International Dance Festival presents Quebec choreographer Catherine Gaudet’s Se dissoudre at the Annex from February 28 to March 2 at 8 pm.

A solo piece danced by Marie-Philippe Santerre, Se dissoudre (French for “to dissolve”) is a space where solitude reveals what remains when everything is on hold. Santerre explores the slow feeling of dissolving—not disappearing, but amalgamating, like sugar in a cup of tea. Delicately, she follows an unknown trajectory composed of contrasts and modulations, repetitions and pulsations. Face to face with herself, Santerre is reconciled to waiting, cognizant of her own transformation. She is raw potential, a wealth of possibilities.

Se dissoudre is produced by Compagnie Catherine Gaudet in collaboration with Agora De La Danse and executive producer Daniel Léveillé Danse. Music for the piece is by Antoine Berthiaume, with lighting design by Alexandre Pilon-Guay and costume design by Justine Bernier-Blanchette.

Gaudet completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in contemporary dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and began her career working for various choreographers before turning her attention to her own choreographic research in 2004. Her works include Grosse fatigue (2005), L’arnaque (2006), Sourire forcé (2009), L’invasion du vide (2009), Je suis un autre (2012), Au sein des plus raides vertus (2014), La très excellente et lamentable tragédie de Roméo et Juliette (2016), and Tout ce qui va revient (2018). They have been presented in Québec, France, Denmark, Belgium, and beyond.

After her piece L’affadissement du merveilleux made a big impression on Agora de la danse audiences in 2018, Gaudet has continued to pursue her interest in ambiguity as a vector of sensation and evocation. With a deft, subtle touch, she brings forth an intriguing blend of hardness, complexity, and simplicity. Her physicality is complemented by theatricality that subtly combines absurd dramatic tensions with dark humour.

Gaudet is a founding member and co-director of Lorganisme, as well as a member of Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique. She is among the minds behind the new Centre de Création O Vertigo, and is an associate creator at Daniel Léveillé Danse.

Tickets to Se dissoudre and more details are at VIDF.

Post sponsored by Vancouver International Dance Festival.