From April 4 to 13, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé will present Monad on the stage of La Chapelle. The choreographer of the Ebnflōh company will reveal herself for the very first time in an intimate solo, embodying the “mōnad”, from the ancient Greek “ monas », “unity” which represents the idea of a unicellular and self-sufficient organism which contains several universes on its own.
It is a bit by chance that the creation Monad took shape, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé explains to us when we ask her about the origins of the project. “Initially, Sophie Corriveau, Ellen Furey and I wanted to collaborate on something, quite simply, without it being a commission or a traditional broadcast. Just a desire,” explains the choreographer.
During discussions between the three artists, the idea of a solo quickly emerged. “I was thinking of starting perhaps with 30 minutes alone, then bringing in three dancers to have a shared hour,” recalls Alexandra Landé. Then, finally, Sophie and Ellen wondered if, as long as I was doing 30 minutes of solo, I couldn’t do an hour [rires] ! »
Although she has performed extensively on stage in the past, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé has never created a solo for herself. A process which “surprised” the experienced choreographer since “the spatial occupation, the composition of the scene, the use of the large black box, the major questions of the scene” were less important than usual. “I realized that my desires as a choreographer with groups were totally different from what I wanted for myself, as an artist. It’s certain that we can find similarities, images that we will recognize, my universe, but we are really elsewhere,” explains the artist, who had a major influence on hip-hop dance in Quebec.
A discovery which also interferes in the gestures of the choreographer, who worked on specific movements to Monad, but who did not create a fixed structure, a choreography. “Even if the freestyle is always present in my group pieces, I still impose a choreography, with very present constraints, she notes. For me, I didn’t want to know anything about that, not even a little [rires] ! »
When she was younger, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé loved performing alone and in groups. But when she looked into choreography, she understood that creating for herself, solo, made her vibrate less. “What I like is to create a universe with bodies and images, whether for a group or a single dancer. I use bodies to draw a portrait in space, but for me alone, I have no interest,” she adds. She also emphasizes that every evening will be different. “When I arrive on stage, many elements speak to me, and not just the dancing. It’s very performative, it’s dance-performance, I would say,” she emphasizes.
Personal moment
“I don’t really want to talk about this project, but we have to do it. I did everything to slow down the promotion process, even when it was necessary to make a visual, a video, I didn’t want to… But in the end, this solo, it’s not that I want to do it, it’s is that I have to do it, I feel it,” confides Alexandra “Spicey” Landé.
Although she was surrounded during the creation, notably by her lifelong accomplices, such as Pax, Helen Simard and Tash, but also the sound designer Jai Nitai Lotus, who will also be on stage, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé found herself very often alone to create. She then dissected the word “mōnad”, a reference which resonated in her own personal and professional journey. “Like many other people, I have the impression of having had several lives in one, the impression that there is always an eternal beginning again and that, despite all the stages we go through, there is something that happens in a single universe, ultimately one person, she says. I also thought a lot about the present, the past, the future, the idea of the trinity, but also about mourning, reincarnation, the eternal… Reincarnation is something that we often experience in a life, but we don’t see it like that. We also go through traumas, traces remain, but we get through it. »
“I am not here to fulfill expectations, please or correspond to what is expected of me,” expresses Alexandra “Spicey” Landé. I just want to be in the moment and communicate what’s going through me.” For her, Monad is a “personal moment”, a space she uses to simply express herself. “I have done a lot for the stage and for others. This piece is a moment for me, she concludes. It’s hard to be selfish for all kinds of reasons, but after 20 years, I can afford it, spoil myself, and what others hope for, what they want or what they think, it’s not up to me. »