For the third time, the Brazilian choreographer Alex Neoral comes to the Festival Quartiers danses (FQD) with his company Focus Cia de Dança to present his triptych on the music of Jean-Sébastien Bach. He proposes a somewhat special evening, since this one leaves the usual dance halls and settles in the Bourgie hall.
“I met Rafik Hubert Sabbagh, the artistic director of the Quartiers danses Festival, in 2015. He was visiting Rio de Janeiro at the time and immediately suggested that I create a piece for the Bourgie Hall”, says Alex Neoral. .
From its first season, 11 years ago, Bourgie Hall has welcomed art forms other than music. “We occasionally program cinema, circus, literature… lists Isolde Lagacé, general and artistic director of the place. With the FQD, it happened quite naturally. Thus, we try to present at least one show at each edition. »
Able to accommodate up to 462 people, Bourgie Hall is a fairly small room compared to others in Montreal. “On the stage, only small formations can be accommodated. We are talking about 15-20 people maximum for music and less than ten for dancing, ”explains Mme Lagace. A limit which perfectly suits Mr. Neoral, who had already staged two pieces with a reduced number of dancers. ” In-finitoI created it expressly for the festival, and we showed it for the first time in 2016,” explains the choreographer who founded his company in 2000.
For meme Lagacé, Bourgie Hall “is original and much loved by the public”. “Its large stained glass windows mean that the light changes according to the time of day, and the seats are very comfortable, it creates a very intimate atmosphere. »
In addition, the symbolic character of the place, which is an old church transformed into a concert hall, “pleases a lot” to Mr. Neoral. “Unfortunately, the opposite is happening in Brazil: theatres, concert halls… become churches. And not historic churches, churches of fanatics, it’s a shame,” he laments.
Musical dance and dance music
The primary inspiration of Alex Neoral, in all these creations, is music. For his triple programme, the famous Johann Sebastian Bach “touched his heart”. A meeting that happened late, when Mr. Neoral was already a professional dancer. “When I started to listen to his works, I saw the dance, the choreography, the movements. My body was moving on its own, drawing in space. Bach is one of the composers who make me create easily”, says the man who has also produced several pieces on Steve Reich.
For M. Neoral, Bach is “not just any music”. “These are melodies that have survived the centuries, which have been analyzed and worked on by a lot of people around the world, it’s strong,” he continues. This attraction for classical music also weighed in the balance for the presentation at Bourgie Hall. “Promoting and programming classical music is our mission,” says the woman who set up Bourgie Hall the year Maison symphonique was born.
In Bach dance focus, the three musicians (violin, cello and harpsichord) come from Quebec. They were also selected by Mr.me Lagacé: “It’s my job, I know all the classical musicians of Quebec, their strengths and their specialties. “Expertise “highly appreciated” by the choreographer, who believes that the technical level of the musicians here “is very high”.
On the dance side, the choreographer had to adapt his piece, since they are not the same dancers as in the first part, in 2016. He even worked this year with two dancers from Montreal, from a distance, thanks to virtual meeting platforms . Whatever the origin and training of the dancers, “it’s always a new show”, according to the creator. “Even if we keep the same choreography, it changes. We make living art, and that’s what’s beautiful, explains the man who also works a lot with improvisation. It allows me to really create with them and for them, according to their talents, their body specificities, etc. It brings a diversity of movements, and that’s very important to me. »
Finally, for Mr. Neoral, dancing to live music is a real challenge. “We make two arts of the living work together, it creates more tension, there can be errors, accelerations of tempo, on the side of music or dance, oversights, an unfortunate silence, he concludes. But that’s the beauty of it. I seek to create a real dialogue between dance and music. »