Do You Know?.....Sylvie Bouchard....of course you do.




Sylvie Bouchard has had an impressive and diverse career so far and to add to that spectrum of work she is part of Denise Fujiwara's EUNOIA, premiering March 19-22 at Harbourfront Centre's Enwave Theatre as part of World Stage.




Sylvie is originally from Montreal and came to Toronto to train at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 1983. Her career has spanned so many things, we can't mention them all here but a few include:co-founding CORPUS, creating Dusk Dances and launching Bouchard Danse as well as dancing for Kaeja d'Dance, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, Dancemakers, Susie Burpee, Sashar Zarif and Roger Sinha.

Here is Sylvie's perspective on EUNOIA.
What were your first impressions or thoughts about EUNOIA the poem and the dance project when you first got involved in Denise's process?
With Eunoia, I plunged in such unknown territories with speaking text, especially this absolutely beautiful but difficult text, for me, because English is my second language. I felt frustrated at times and wanted to speak French because it is easier for me to make sense of words and poetry in my own mother tongue. The poetic and playful way Denise made us use our bodies with the poems was extremely challenging, but at the same time felt so freeing, full of discoveries, surprises, details and new possibilities.
 
What is the greatest challenge of your role in the project?

In the piece, we often have to quickly and radically change who and what we are on stage, how we engage with one another, how we set-up our body and mind, how we connect with the audience. These transitions are challenging and demand a lot of focus, commitment and practice. But perhaps the greatest challenge for me is that you can't try to be a "good dancer" in this work,  you rather have to do the tasks as skillfully as possible, and be as present, open and committed as you can with those tasks.
 
Do you have a favourite poem from Eunoia? 

Fishing till twilight, I sit, drifting in this birch skiff......
I absolutely love this story and the vivid imagery that comes with it. To me, it is a story of survival, with images of fishing, a sinking ship, and swirling waters, but to me, it also parallels times when you feel like you are drowning inside, when an internal tempest makes you sink.
 
What has been your relationship or experience with words-and-dance in the past?

None. I have always been interested in a somewhat theatrical approach to dance, but I have never spoken text on stage before. Eunoia is my first.... The training we got with Gerry Trentham and Cindy Block was incredibly thorough and thoughtful, I could not have asked for a better way to delve into speaking text on stage!
 
How do you think the 4 year process of Eunoia will inform or influence your own work in the future?

Working with Denise has already informed and influenced my own practice both as a dancer and choreographer. It is very powerful work, and relentless at teaching you about performance, about your habits as a performer and about openess. I became aware, for instance, that the element of air was always very present in my work, and I also often apply some of the exercises we do in Denise's process to prepare for other performances.

EUNOIA
choreographed by Denise Fujiwara
March 19-22 at 8pm
Enwave Theatre
part of Harbourfront's World Stage 2014
tickets:
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage/eunoia/


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

experimenting, sifting through memory and bravely: Allison Cummings at Summerworks 2016

Image
Allison Cummings' work album  -- a collaboration with actor and sound designer Lyon Smith -- is a compare and contrast visit through the memories of Allison's and Lyon's lives. Just writing those words creates a vibrating potency. An album contains captured moments of life, often visual and visceral triggers, for something bigger than the paper or the 0s and 1s that make them up. There's a trend in the dance contributions of the Summerworks festival this year, undoubtedly shaped by curator Jenn Goodwin, of simple, strong ideas guiding creations. They lead to deeper things, by way of the body not a philosophical, conceptual or technical approach. Below is a short interview with Allison Cummings, a wry, passionate, uncompromising woman who surprises with each performance work she makes. Her show opens THIS AFTERNOON at 2pm. Go see it and be moved. photo of Allison Cummings by Jan Blythe LR: OK, so the obvious but important question is what triggered the creati
Read more

John Brumell: the light and the space to figure things out

Image
This is the first thing I see when I reach the Cell Biology Lab at the Hospital for Sick Children. After fumbling my way through security and fobs and confusing elevators, I meet the director of the lab in this beautiful lounge. This is actually what we spend the first 15 minutes talking about: the architecture, the way this vista and lounge area connects three floors of research in a communal space of air and light. Dr. John Brumell speaks about watching the Nobel awards, FIFA World Cup and the action of city in this space. How all of this space and light induces collaboration, new ideas, and quick problem solving. Dr. Brumell is Co-director at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children, Head and Senior Scientist at the Research Institute for Cell Biology, a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, and the Pitblado Chair in Cell Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children He is also the father of one of my
Read more
Image
MY BATTERY IS PURE LOVE part one by Lucy Rupert for D and P, always. for Badie, David, Edan, Esperanza, Josh, Jovia, June, Patrice, and Yuki, with whom I shared time and space at the Ucross Artist Residency program in April 2023. And for Tawni, who understood the song. ** I fly through utter blackness. On one of those small planes that seats 50 people, the depth of the blackness is vivid. I am passing through a portal. Who knows what is on the other side? Well, most of the other people on the plane know. This is their daily commute. But for me it is flying into a myth. ** I am nervous. I am running. I am obsolete. I am stumbling. I am a calculator. I am a bird watcher. I am perpetual motion. I am an elevated heart rate. I am scared that I am not enough. I am full of love. ** I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel waiting for Tawni, the Ucross Artists’ Residency  Manager. I am allowing the almost nothing that is happening to be profoundly something. I eat scrambled eggs, toast, and coff
Read more