ODE, by Catherine Gaudet | On the tightrope

Between control and ecstasy, unison and tension, being and appearing, Catherine Gaudet and her 11 dancers tackle the inextricable knot of multiple paradoxes with ODEpresented as a world premiere at the Festival TransAmériques (FTA)

The paradox seems to nourish Gaudet’s creations, which are based on both constant doubt and faith in the creative act. The choreographer has often said that, in her opinion, the work already exists, latent, at the very threshold of the creative process. However, the path to finding it is littered with obstacles and questions.

Met 10 days before the premiere of her largest creation – in terms of number of performers, there are 11 – Catherine Gaudet says: “It’s a great challenge, let’s put it that way! There are insoluble issues, like before every premiere, it seems to me. We’re in the final knots… Do I usually change things that much? », she asks, turning to the three interpreters that we brought together with her for this interview, Francis Ducharme, James Phillips and Aurélie Ann Figaro.

“It’s always tortuous, anxiety is still your driving force! », replies Ducharme. The fiery performer knows something about this, having performed in several of Gaudet’s creations, including Within the stiffest virtues, The fading of the marvelous And The pretty thingsall presented as part of the FTA in recent years.

Launched two years ago, the process of creatingODE experienced a pretty major turnaround after a “dry” spring residency. “It was dry, dry, dry, exactly! says Catherine Gaudet. There was to be no music, only voices. I decided to dress it up a bit, change a lot of things. Initially, there was a very pop, musical comedy side, songs that we repeated over and over. I refined it a lot, pruned it to get to the heart… Find the one thing we wanted to say. »

On stage, identities and states are multiple. A personal growth group, a sect that performs a sacrificial ritual at Midsommar… or would it ultimately be an amateur theater troupe rehearsing a musical? No, it’s a Zumba class at a gym or, perhaps, beings possessed by strange entities. “With Catherine, it’s never one thing, it’s always communicating vessels,” remarks Francis Ducharme.

“All these images, these fluctuations interested me, seeing the performers move from one state to another. I think they are still there, but in a very subdued way, underground,” adds the choreographer.

“It’s also ‘fake it’ til you make it,” adds Ducharme. They express this desire, but do they suffer it, or the more they manifest it, the more it happens? Does it do them good or harm? Will the public be contaminated… or repelled? »

And it is undoubtedly somewhere on this fine line, in this point of balance near the seesaw, that lies all the fascination that Gaudet’s works exert on the spectator. A blurring, a crackling, where reality is one thing and another, simultaneously.

Dancing Gaudet

The balance sought is elusive, difficult to grasp, within this group in unison-tension, where the leader is sometimes the sacrificed and vice versa, notes Aurélie Ann Figaro, for whom this is a first experience with the choreographer. And perhaps the last, the others tease her, bursting out laughing.

Because dancing in a piece by Catherine Gaudet means agreeing to test your limits. Physical and mental. A simple, naive, repeated, accumulated gesture, with an implacable rhythm, superimposed on words and breathing, becomes this ritual with an inexorable deployment, which requires total dedication.

“You have to be ready to give this thing away, to lose it, having this confidence that through the ritual of the play, it will come back to me. Before each rehearsal, I have to decide how much I’m willing to give. But am I capable of giving a little less? Good question ! “, says James Phillips.

It’s “enjoyable” according to Ducharme, who says he is incapable of not “giving everything”. But there is this notion of gift, of “price to pay”. “We must remain very rigorous in our outfit and gesture, even if the energy [baisse] and the masks fall. Despite the trance, the ecstasy, the outburst… you have to be very careful; there is a formula, a code in the precision of the gestures which allows… the magic to appear. »

“I see them giving everything and getting tired of the task. When is it too much, when is it gratuitous, necessary, self-indulgent? asks the winner of the Grand Prix de la danse in 2022. For three or four pieces I have been trying hard to find these hypnotic, ecstatic, altered states. I may be at the end of a cycle, but right now more questions are popping up. »

Visit the show page

ODE

Company Catherine Gaudet

Jean-Duceppe TheaterThe 1^er and June 4 at 8 p.m., June 2 at 3 p.m.