“Old people don’t move. Their gestures have too many wrinkles, their world is too small”, sings Jacques Brel in Old, his heartbreaking song about the “shipwreck” of old age. Not for Margie Gillis. The dancer moves and will move again, animated from within by a light source that always pushes her to dance.
“You have to see old age as something beautiful, natural, then welcome it with open arms, instead of rejecting it with artificial means”, confides the artist in an interview, specifying the theme of his new solo, Oldwhich will premiere this week.
Margie Gillis will be 70 next July. She’s still as beautiful and charismatic as ever, with her long mane moving as she talks.
In the middle of the interview, she will stand up to illustrate her point, and start dancing for a minute or two for the representative of The Pressin the beautiful winter light of the Espace Wilder café.
According to her, our aging bodies must always draw and renew energy to move forward… Despite their weaknesses. “Of course, our intellectual and physical abilities decline with age. That’s why we have to change our way of seeing things in life. You can eat differently, choose other types of activities, among other things,” explains the dancer and choreographer.
PHOTO SASHA ONYSHCHENKO, PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
In OldMargie Gillis invites us to empathize with our grief and loss as we age.
Margie Gillis speaks with knowledge because her family has good genes. One of her aunts turned 100 last year and she’s still smiling at life. “When my aunt was 95, she took a parachute jump, because she had become too old to do bungee! she says, pulling out a photo of the feat on her phone.
The spirit of the times
For Margie Gillis, dancing is a need. Like breathing. Since his youth, dance has allowed him to transform his vulnerability, the fragility that inhabits him at every moment of his life, into something strong and powerful. Like a river flowing in motion. “When we understand that our vulnerability is a gift, not a flaw, we become more sensitive to the people around us, to nature, to the planet, etc. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Margie Gillis’ art draws on the strength and fragility of life.
His life is a series of twists on this theme. As a child, she was very ill and lost all her hair until her teenage years. At 20, when she began to perform, she was told that her career as a solo dancer would last two or three years, at most. “I couldn’t even find an agent to organize my tours,” she recalls.
It must be said that her style at the time (a cross between Isadora Duncan and Pina Bausch, it was said) did not stick to the formalism of modern dance.
I wanted to get away from the technique, to move towards a more natural, organic gesture. My gesture feeds on the continuum of life, energy in the universe. I am not looking for a specific shape or point. Today, I’m happy when people tell me that I’ve opened doors for other choreographers.
Margie Gillis
In Old, Margie Gillis therefore invites us to accept with empathy the bereavements and losses on the path of life. Is she afraid of aging? “Yes, it scares me. Anything mysterious is scary. However, we must leave the past behind and move forward, towards an unknown, unstable, vague world… But inevitable. »
“Basically, you have to cultivate your curiosity,” she continues. When one is curious, one does not fear the mysterious. We are open to discovery, to the unknown, to the new movements of life. My choice will always be on the side of nature, and not artifice to stay young. »
After 50 years of career and 150 creations (solos, duos, collective pieces), does the dancer think she will stop working one day? “Yes sometimes, I consider retirement… But I still have too many ideas to explore with my art and with my foundation. I am constantly in research mode in my head. »
” Forever Young »we can conclude.
From March 9 to 12, at the Agora de la danse (Édifice Wilder) in Montreal.