The red thread of the festival is quality, explains the choreographer and dancer Guillaume Côté, who is the artistic director of the FASS. We try to have the most exceptional artists in all styles of dance and music.
After two years of pandemic, the festival is marked this year by the return of artists from abroad. On Saturday, American tap dancer Caleb Teicher will perform Counterpointin duet with renowned pianist Conrad Tao. Caleb Teicher is like a modern Gene Kelly
enthuses Guillaume Côté.
On Sunday, the public will be able to discover One. One & One performed by the Israeli contemporary dance company Vertigo. On August 7, the Malpaso dance company, from Cuba, will present three works to close the festival.
On Thursday and Friday, classical dance enthusiasts will be able to attend the star party in which dancers from different ballet companies around the world will participate – the Paris Opera Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet and The Royal Ballet located in London. Maude Sabourin and Melih Mertel of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens will also be on stage.
Also note the presentation of the shows EssenceLes Ballets Jazz Montréal, on August 6, and Crypto, by Guillaume Côté, on August 4th. This will be a new version of Crypto first shown at FASS a few years ago.
A creation of the Malpaso company.
Photo : Roberto Baelli
Carte blanche to two Quebec choreographers
Anxious to support creation, the FASS gave carte blanche to choreographers Virginie Brunelle and Anne Plamondon, who each created a 30-minute work to be discovered on August 3. These are two big names in Montreal contemporary dance that are taking off
explains Guillaume Côté.
Virginie Brunelle drew on her old creations given the short time she had to design blowing.
She decided that music would unify the different elements of her work and she set her sights on The four seasons of Buenos Airescomposed by Argentinian Astor Piazzolla.
It’s music that will make us travel between all the paintings that have been chosen in my pieces
she says.
Finally, blowing promises to be of great intensity. I took my favorite bits, but they’re all in the physicality.
Virginie Brunel
Photo: Anne-Marie Baribeau
Hip-hop will also be honored during the FASS with the organisation, for the second time, of the FASS dance battlewhich will see fifteen hip-hop dance specialists compete on Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
As for classical music, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct the Orchester Métropolitain on August 5, but the concert is already sold out.
Dancing among the trees
During the pandemic, the FASS had imagined other ways to bring dance to life despite the health restrictions. The festival team thus had the idea of filming performers dancing in the forest and posting these videos online. Back in the forest on July 29 and 30 and August 5 and 6, but with the public!
Three times per followingnoon, people will be able to borrow for free The paths of dance, whose marked trail in the forest is punctuated by three stops. Each time, a little dance show of regarding fifteen minutes will be waiting for them.
With the beautiful trees of the Laurentians, it’s the most beautiful setting possible
welcomes Guillaume Côté.
This text was written from interviews conducted by Claudia Hébert, cultural columnist on the show All one morninget by Stephanie Gagnon, cultural columnist on the show The 15-18. Comments may have been edited for clarity or conciseness.