Those who bring culture to life, everywhere in Quebec | Make Marsoui dance

In this summer series, our journalists meet people and institutions that promote culture outside of major centers.

When she decided to leave the city, Priscilla Guy did a search on Centris to see what was available for her small budget. It led her to Marsoui, in Haute-Gaspésie, where she found much more than a house: she found a village that was just waiting to dance.

“I wanted to create an artistic residency outside of Montreal,” explains the choreographer, whom I met this spring in her adopted homeland.

Priscilla Guy does contemporary dance and has done some performances in situ in Marsoui, when she settled there in 2017.

“It was surprising,” admits Renée Gasse, the mayor of the village of almost 300 inhabitants which is located on the seaside, a 25-minute drive from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.

“At first, it was like a little bug arriving in Marsoui,” says the woman who has been mayor since 2021, but who was president of the city’s development committee for 15 years.

Let’s be honest: there isn’t much to do in Marsoui. When winter comes, the wind hits hard. It practically washed away the municipal wharf more than once. The coastal landscape is changing, marked by sometimes violent weather. The sea no longer freezes. You have to have a tough skin to survive the months when the sun sets early.

But there is an artistic fiber there that just wants to vibrate.

Mayor Gasse is also an author. She signed the text of the feminist play Chez Gina, hair salon for ladies. It was the general director of the municipality, Anne Sohier, who staged it.

The play, performed by the women of Marsoui, was presented twice in the village to packed houses. About 130 people saw it. That’s half the population of the municipality.

The mayor is working on a sequel.

In addition to letters, there are some very good dancers in Marsoui, led by Sister Annette. They are specialists in line dancing.

Priscilla Guy was introduced to the style – apparently not simple at all. A dialogue began around art. “It is part of art, culture, movement, the passing on of traditions,” says the choreographer. “These are all women who lead these intergenerational projects.”

There is now a Feminist Cabaret in the village which includes performances, readings and discussions. It is preceded by a feminist writing retreat, which lasts a few days, in the spring.

A major festival

Marsoui will also host this year, for the fifth time, a major contemporary dance festival called Furies, at the end of July. About ten artists from the Compagnie Marie Chouinard will present a performance on the beach. The program includes about thirty shows and workshops over three days: virtual reality, polka, hip-hop, concerts, voice baths. Lots of dancing.

In total, 75 entertainment professionals are arriving in Haute-Gaspésie for the event.

Line dancing also has its place. “A lot of Montreal artists have never done that because they don’t come from a family where folklore was nurtured,” says Priscilla Guy. “They discover a part of Quebec folklore by coming to Marsoui.”

Visitors are accommodated wherever possible, considering that the Haute-Gaspé municipality has no hotels or inns.

This is also an issue that is slowing down the tourist development of the village, where the restaurant La Couquerie is empty and has not found a buyer, despite the undeniable potential of the heritage building.

Tourism has been neglected in the development of the village, concedes the mayor, who cites more affluent neighbors to attract travelers. But Marsoui’s heart beats strong at L’Hybride, a friendly café-bookstore that belongs to the municipality. It has become a haunt of artists, but also of all the villagers who feel included there.

“The gentleman who went to get his coffee at Sainte-Anne now comes to L’Hybride every other time,” emphasizes Priscilla.

Village life encourages transgenerational friendships. Likewise, a festival like Furies is welcomed with great honesty by the population, like all the other artistic events that take place in Marsoui.

Experimental and daring works are well received there, but not always loved, which is just fine.

According to Priscilla Guy, people from the village who go to Furies feel included, whether they like it or not. “There’s a pride in having the right to say you don’t like it here,” she says. “When you feel intelligent and challenged, you can be part of the conversation.”

A dollar for the church

There is therefore vitality in this small town which is located in the heart of the most devitalized MRC in Quebec – Haute-Gaspésie is 104^e on the list of 104 MRCs in the province, classified by vitality index.

This probably won’t stop Marsoui’s feminist and artistic faction: Mandoline Hybride, Priscilla Guy’s company, has just acquired the church, which closed four years ago. The project, supported by the municipality, is to create an artistic and community space, possibly with affordable housing and artist residencies. The purchase, paid for a symbolic dollar, is conditional on a feasibility study that will be carried out in the coming year.

Last year, the municipality unveiled its five-year action plan called the Musée des paysages marsois, the aim of which is to turn the village into an open-air museum.

The recreational center – the former Marsoui cinema – has also been renovated to make it a permanent venue.

“Art can be an economic lever and a lever for development in a village,” says Priscilla Guy, who points out that managers in the cultural sector have skills in administration and promotion.

Space for new ideas

Artists of all kinds represent around 10% of the population of Marsoui. It could increase, because dancers and choreographers will have residencies there on the banks of the river. The mayor hopes that some, like Priscilla, will decide to settle there.

Because Marsoui is lacking new recruits, Priscilla Guy and Renée Gasse say in unison. For the administration, to buy the Couquerie and make it a profitable project, to take over from the volunteers who provide lunch service at the school. There is a shortage of teachers.

The choreographer chose to settle in the valley – what she calls the suburb of Marsoui –, in the last house on the asphalt road.

His house, called Salon 58, is a place of life and creation, sometimes of diffusion.

“There’s a lot of space here to bring in new ideas,” she says. And you feel that you are useful, that you make a difference. When you come up with new things, it resonates right away. People are curious. »

The Furies festival takes place from July 25 to 28

Visit the festival website