The O Vertigo Creation Center (CCOV) will have to leave the creative premises it has occupied at Place des Arts since 2004, to make way for the Jean Duceppe company, which had been looking for suitable creative spaces for several years.
The management of Place des Arts announced the news to the CCOV several months ago. The latter obtained an extension of the lease until February 2023. For the CCOV, this news is perceived as “a disaster”, says its director general, Paul Caskey. “So far, it’s a big loss. The studio at Place des Arts is not just a rehearsal studio. It’s a studio where dance artists could do residencies, test light and music, for example. »
Founded by Ginette Laurin, the CCOV has hosted around fifteen residencies per year since 2016. “Place des Arts is not renewing our lease, it’s as simple as that. It is 100% their decision. We are a very healthy company. Our new directions were launched in 2016 and we have demonstrated our very high value over time,” says Paul Caskey.
On the Place des Arts side, we assure you that we want to maintain the best possible relationship, even to continue a collaboration with the CCOV. This decision was made to favor companies that are in residence at Place des Arts, of which the Jean Duceppe company is a part.
“We welcomed O Vertigo within our walls with exceptional conditions for all these years with happiness”, specifies the CEO of Place des Arts, Marie-Josée Desrochers. “We had to make responsible choices. »
As for Duceppe, the prospect of finally having an adequate creative space is obviously good news.
“We’ve been looking for a rehearsal space for a very, very long time,” says Amélie Duceppe, the company’s general manager. In the current premises, I raise my arm and touch the ceiling. We are the only theater company that does not have an adequate place to create, to the point where we rented a warehouse in the east end of the city to rehearse. It is not acceptable. It doesn’t make any sense. We have been looking for a solution to this for years. »
At the CCOV, we still hope that these circumstances will manage to propel the center into a place as good as, if not better than, the creative premises of Place des Arts. “Spaces like that, you don’t find anywhere,” says Paul Caskey. These are highly specialized spaces according to their dimensions. »
While waiting to find this dream place, the CCOV will probably have to find a “transitional solution”, he says. “These spaces cannot be found, they must be created. You have to do the ideation, the planning, the fundraising, all that work,” he says, adding that he would have preferred five years to get there.
In the current state of things, “we undress Pierre to dress Paul”, he laments.