Cléopâtre

In residency from September 10 to 30 (with Andréane Leclerc) and October 15 to 28, 2018 (with Julie Favreau)

Cléopâtre will be an interdisciplinary performance piece that honors all those who make a living with their body. This evening-length work will merge a live dance performance, documentary film, and a discussion into a sensuous, immersive piece that illuminates the similarities between the labor of both sex workers and contemporary dancers in Montreal and Berlin. This innovative, interdisciplinary approach will create a platform for re-examining the absurdity of conventional judgments of all bodyworkers – whether they work in socially acceptable spaces, such as theatres, or in marginalized spaces, such as strip clubs and brothels. Cléopâtre aims to dispel these myths by creating a wholly new approach to understanding working with the body.

OPEN STUDIO:
Wed Sep 26, 2018, 18:00 (Studio 4)
Wed Oct 24, 18:30 + Thu Oct 25, 18:00, fabrik stage.
Entrance free.

Gerard Reyes is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher based in Montreal. In 2013, he was awarded a joint grant from the NYSCA and the CALQ to support an artistic residency in New York, where he studied voguing with legendary voguers. Since then, voguing has become an important part of Gerard’s artistic practice. In 2015 Gerard premiered his first solo work, The Principle of Pleasure, which explored themes of desire and control through voguing, stripping, BDSM and drag. Set to a soundtrack of original remixes by pop icon Janet Jackson, the seductive solo has been presented at festivals across Europe and Canada. In 2017 Gerard established a House Ballroom Scene in Montreal through teaching weekly vogue classes, leading open practices, as well as producing and hosting balls featuring international ballroom icons. As a dancer, Gerard has worked for many reputable choreographers, including Marie Chouinard, Jérôme Bel, Bill T. Jones, and Benoît Lachambre.
gerardxreyes.com

Andréane Leclerc is the founder of Nadere Performing Arts, a graduate of the National Circus School (Montreal), and holds a Masters degree in Circus Dramaturgy from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Driven by a desire to harness contortion technique as a malleable form which is capable of generating sensation and imagery beyond the spectacular, Andréane has been creating and touring her seven experimental and conceptual performances since 2008. She performs for choreographers and directors such as Peter James, Angela Konrad and Theatre Republique in Denmark. Andréane also leads international workshops for circus artists (Acrobatic Dialogue and Contortion Technique), as well as for non-professionals (Contortion for All) which aim to deconstruct clichés inherent to the art of contortion.
www.nadereartsvivants.com/en/

Julie Favreau's practice lies at the intersection of visual arts and choreography. Her research on performative gesture and movement feeds the production of sculptural objects and vice versa. Through video, sculpture, performance, photography, and installation, she creates characters, objects, and gestures that compose enigmatic and troubling universes that navigate between the intimate and the unconscious, inspiring a heightened sensorial awareness in the viewer. In her recent projects, eroticism is approached as a form of power: the artist is interested in exploring the erotic texture of the world, the way animate and inanimate things touch and affect one another. Julie Favreau lives and works in Montreal and Berlin. Her work has been presented at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2017); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2016); Darling Foundry, Montreal (2016); Edinburgh Art Festival (2015) and Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal (2011) among others. She is the recipient of the Pierre-Ayot Award (2014) and Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art (2012).
www.juliefavreau.com