From Montreal to Tokyo

 

The company has been invited to perform at several prestigious festivals, including New York's Next Wave Festival, the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, Dance Umbrella in London, the Biennale internationale de la danse de Lyon, the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, the Dance Triennale of Tokyo, the HELLERAU Festival Theatre in Germany, the Festival de Danse et des Arts multiples de Marseille F/D/Am/M, and the Festival international de nouvelle danse in Montreal.

 

Acclaimed by critics internationally, the O Vertigo productions Chagall, Don Quichotte, La Chambre blanche, Déluge, Luna, La Vie qui bat, and Onde de choc (Shock wave) were performed in more than one hundred cities, including New-York, Tokyo, Mexico City, Săo Paulo, Vienna and London.

 

 

Ginette Laurin

 

O Vertigo is first and foremost Ginette Laurin. Since the beginning of her career as a choreographer over thirty years ago, Ginette Laurin's work stands out by its ceaseless renewal of dance, in both the movements and the images that she offers us. Her training as a gymnast, her insatiable appetite for movement, her pleasure in placing the body in limit-situations has led her to develop a unique inventive and energetic language, but also, from one creation to the next, a world full of poetry and emotion.

 

"The choreography by Ginette Laurin connected the dancers through its organic movements, and the whole stage pulsated."

Takao Norikoshi, DDD dancedancedance magazine, January 2010.

 

 

The collaborators

 

O Vertigo is also made up of the collaborators and the group of performers that Ginette Laurin gathers around her. The dancers, generous and enthusiastic, are passionately involved in the process of creation, leaving the imprint of their personalities on each new work.

"Fearless, tireless, and multiskilled, they embody an ideal of late 20th century prowess."

(Los Angeles Times)

 

 

A vertiginous adventure

 

Creating a work is taking a plunge into the unknown. O Vertigo surrenders itself to this process body and soul, with ardour and ambition, defying the physical, aesthetic, and evocative possibilities of dance.

 

 

Our partners

 

O Vertigo is supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Montreal Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, and Emploi-Québec.

 

 

O Vertigo has charitable donation status with Canada Revenue Agency.





   
 

THE CREATION CENTRE

Dance in all its forms

 

Since its founding in 1984, O Vertigo has been dedicated to dance creation, research, and training, as well as the development of the discipline in all its aspects. With the opening of the Creation Centre (CCOV), the company has reaffirmed its mission and broadened its activities.

 

As the company's home base and a pole of attraction for the contemporary dance milieu, the CCOV is a flexible and multiform structure designed to meet the creation, research, and training needs of choreographers, dancers, interdisciplinary artists and diverse creators from here and elsewhere. The Centre offers a full and highly diversified program of training and teaching workshops; research labs with multidisciplinary collaborators; creation residencies on a local, national, and international level; and awareness activities for the public. Reconfirming the company's new interdisciplinary focus, choreographer Ginette Laurin's work now includes various kinds of artistic projects: large–and intimate–scale dance creations, choreographic installations, video, film, and photography.

 

In Quebec and more specifically in Montreal, in spite of the effervescence and vitality of the contemporary dance scene, there are very few appropriate sites for the creation of works and the exchange of ideas. The CCOV's purpose is to improve this situation by offering artists access to its resources in an environment provided with optimum conditions for practising the discipline. Inaugurated in January 2005, the Centre is located in the heart of downtown Montreal inside Quebec's largest cultural hub, Place des Arts; the greater part of its space is occupied by the 3,875-sq.-ft-studio, which is equipped with specialized facilities. O Vertigo is presently developing the Centre's activities through joint projects and exchanges with Canadian and international partners.

 

MISSION

 

• To promote creation, research, and innovation in contemporary dance and to contribute to the development of the discipline;
•

To produce activities that foster creation and research in contemporary dance to ensure its promotion and dissemination, encouraging greater public access to it;

 

• To carry out training activities for professionals and advanced-level students (international workshops, seminars, master classes, etc.);

 

• To encourage interdisciplinary projects;
• To offer residencies to choreographers and companies from Canada and abroad;

 

• To establish a network of local, national, and international partners.

 

ACTIVITIES

 

Creation Residencies

Every year, the O Vertigo Creation Centre offers residencies that allow choreographers to benefit from the ressources available at the CCOV.

 

Classes and Workshops

The Centre offers master classes, and creation and training workshops given by renowned guest choreographers from Canada, the United States, and Europe. In addition, O Vertigo offers an annual three-week intensive workshop which attracts an international clientele.

 

Public Rehearsals

Occasionally, the company opens the studio doors to give a wider public an opportunity to discover the company's current activities.

 

Creation Labs

Devoted to research and creation, O Vertigo's dance labs can be qualified as exploration sessions in diversified forms, with choreographer Ginette Laurin, the company's dancers and collaborators.

 

 

REALISATIONS

 

Residencies

2004-2005

Danièle Desnoyers, Le Carré des Lombes (March 2005)

 

2005-2006

Hélène Langevin, Bouge de là (August 2005)

Marie-Claude Poulin et Martin Kusch, kondition pluriel (January 2006)

Lynda Gaudreau, Compagnie de Brune (March 2006)

Estelle Clareton (June 2006)

 

2006-2007

Frédéric Gravel, La 2e Porte à Gauche (July 2006)

Dana Gingras, Holy Body Tattoo (August 2006)

Emmanuel Jouthe, Danse Carpe Diem (December 2006)

Daniel Léveillé Danse (January 2007)

Martin Bélanger, Productions LAPS (June 2007)

 

2007-2008

Erin Flynn (July 2007)

Katie Ward (July 2007)

Marie-Julie Asselin, Compagnie de la tourmente (March 2008)

 

2008-2009

Andrew Tay (July 2008)

Dean Makarenko (July 2008)

Andrew Forester (October 2008)

Anne-Marie Boisvert (March 2009)

Emma Waltraud Howe (March 2009)

 

2009-2010

Susie Burpee (October 2009)

Gerald Trentham (October 2009)

Frédéric Marier (December 2009)

 

2010-2011

La 2e Porte à Gauche (October 2010)

Katie Ward and The Choreographers (November 2010)

Jacques Poulin-Denis (March 2011)

Martin Messier (March 2011)

Amélie Rajotte (June 2011)

 

2011-2012

Sasha Ivanochko (July 2011)

 

 

International Residency

• Antje Pfundtner, Germany, Dec. 2007

 

 

Classes and Workshops

2004-2005

• Butô workshop with choreographer Jocelyne Montpetit, Sept. 2004

• Choreography worshop with Ginette Laurin, Nov. 2004

• Workshop with Andrew de L. Harwood, Jan. 2005

• O Vertigo technique classes, March 2005

• 7th O Vertigo Intensive Workshop, April 2005

 

2005-2006

• Master classes with Ted Stoffer, dancer and choreographer, Sept. 2005

• Workshop with Andrew de L. Harwood, Feb. 2006

• Regroupement québécois de la danse technique classes, August, September, October, November, December 2005 and March 2006

 

2006-2007

• Regroupement québécois de la danse technique classes,

October, November, December 2006 and January 2007

• O Vertigo technique classes, February to May 2007

• Workshop with Andrew de L. Harwood, April 2007

 

2007-2008

• 8th O Vertigo Intensive Workshop, August 2007

• O Vertigo technique classes, December 2007 to March 2008

• Regroupement québécois de la danse technique classes, October 2007

 

2008-2009

• 9th O Vertigo Intensive Workshop, August 2008

• Regroupement québécois de la danse technique classes, February 2009

• technique classes with Isabelle Poirier, April 2009

 

2009-2010

• 10th O Vertigo Intensive Workshop, August 2009

• Regroupement québécois de la danse technique classes,

October, November, and December 2009

• Chi Kung classes with Marie-Ève Nadeau, November 2009

 

2010-2011

• Regroupement québécois de la danse technique classes,

January 2011

 

 

Public Rehearsals

Passare, Journées de la culture, Sept. 2004

ANGELs, Journées de la culture, Sept. 2005

étude #3 pour cordes et poulies, International Dance Day, April 2006

La Chambre Blanche (re-creation 2008), rehearsals for schools,

January, February and September 2008

• Presentation by the O Vertigo Intensive Workshop's dancers, August 2007 and August 2008

La Vie qui bat, rehearsal for a school, September 2009

Onde de choc, rehearsal for a school, October 2010

 

 

Creation Labs

• Lab no1: Men/Women, Dec. 2004
• Lab no2: Stéphanie Jasmin, 2004
• Lab no3: Wajdi Mouawad, Jan. 2005
• Lab no4: Space/Body, April 2005

architects: Frédérique Harnois et Étienne Côté and visual art artist: PK Langshaw
• Lab no5: The Resonant Body, Nov. 2005

Larsen Lupin
• Lab no6: Body&litterature, April 2006

Stéphanie Jasmin
• Lab no7: Chanti Wadge, June 2006

• Lab no8: Body & Light, September 2006

Pipon

• Lab no9 : Collective Body, March 2007

Jeremy Mimnagh

• Lab no10 : Christian Rizzo, September 2007

 

Choreographers in Residence

• Chanti Wadge, 2005-2006

• Karine Denault, 2007-2008

 

 

 

 

 

   
 

"If the mystery of the human body meets the crystalline clarity
of its unveiling, perhaps there will be more light within us...
For me the art of Ginette Laurin offers this illumination."

Rober Racine, 2000

 

 

Biographical Notes

 

With more than 50 choreographical works to her credit and acclaimed worldwide, Ginette Laurin is one of the foremost figures in contemporary dance in Canada. Trained as a gymnast and in modern dance and classical ballet in Montreal and New York City, Ginette quickly became a sought-after performer when she began her dancing career in Montreal at the beginning of the 1970s. After creating several works as an independent choreographer, in 1984, she founded O Vertigo, a company now known for its expressive power and the unerring realization of its artistic vision. By 1986, consecutive critical and popular successes brought Ginette Laurin national recognition when she was awarded the Jean A. Chalmers Prize. Since then, she has established an enviable international reputation by creating, year after year, striking works in which she shows an extraordinary ability to renew her gestural language and images to better evoke the underlying themes. Her works have been performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, Central America, and Asia. Besides her activities at O Vertigo, Ginette Laurin choreographs dance pieces for other companies and transmits her knowledge as a professor and lecturer at home and abroad.

 

In recent years, Ginette Laurin has reoriented her approach to embrace creation in multiple forms. The Resonance of the Double, created at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2004, constituted a series of six installations incorporating dance, performance, video projections, and photographs, and was representative of the choreographer’s new multidisciplinary avenue, which was reaffirmed with the inauguration of the O Vertigo Creation Centre (ccov) at Place des Arts in 2005. She has also branched into filmmaking, in particular with director Oana Suteu, with whom she created the feature Wire Frame (2005), a prize-winning adaptation of the dance piece Passare. Ginette’s latest choreographical productions, ANGELs (2006) and étude #3 pour cordes et poulies (2007), reflect her commitment to experimentation, collaboration with the dancers, and research relating to – among other things – identity and the double.


In 2008, Ginette Laurin proposed the re-creation of one of her most important works, La Chambre Blanche (1992), which is also the subject of a film that she directed.Since its re-creation, the work has had a lively success, leading to some forty performances in Canada and in England – including at London’s prestigious Dance Umbrella festival –, as well as in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Mexico.

 

In autumn, 2009, O Vertigo presented the revival of La Vie qui bat (1999) at Dance Triennale Tokyo in Japan. The work then opened both the Festival de Danse et des Arts multiples de Marseille in June, 2010 and the Montreal/New Music Festival in February, 2011.

 

With Onde de choc (2010), Ginette Laurin delves deeper into the mysteries of that wonderful machine, the human body, this time by amplifying body's movements and heartbeats of the dancers. After its premiere at Montreal’s Festival TransAmériques in May, 2010, the work toured Europe, with presentations in France, Germany, Austria, and Scotland, at Glasgow’s New Territories festival, before returning to Montreal for performances at Usine C in April, 2011. It was recently presented last December in Halifax at the Sir Dunn James Theatre with Live Art Dance Productions.

 

Invited by CCN - Ballet de Lorraine and the Opéra national de Lorraine (Nancy), Ginette Laurin presented a choreography of Le Sacre du printemps in October, 2011, in Nancy, France. With 70 musicians of the Opéra national de Lorraine conducted by Tito Muñoz, and 25 dancers of the Ballet de Lorraine on stage, Ginette Laurin was flanked by two collaborators from Quebec in this formidable challenge: Marilène Bastien designed the set and costumes, and François Marceau the lighting.

 

 

 

Honours

 

• Award for Best Canadian Work at the International Festival of

Films on Art in Montreal for Wire Frame, a television adaptation

of the work Passare, 2006
• Cinedance Award for Best Direction at the Moving Pictures Festival

in Toronto for the short film Passare, 2003
• Prix Reconnaissance de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM),

Arts Faculty, 2002

• Émergence Prize awarded to Ginette Laurin by the Regroupement des diplômés-es de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, 1997

• Dora Mavor Moore Award for La Chambre Blanche, Toronto, 1994
• 1992 Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal
for the excellence of the production La Chambre blanche and for O Vertigo’s contribution to the artistic community, 1993
• Jean A. Chalmers Award, to Ginette Laurin for outstanding choreography, given by the Ontario Arts Council, 1986

 

 

   
 

The Dancers

 

David Campbell. Bio.

 

Dominic Caron. Bio.

 

Marianne Gignac-Girard. Bio.

 

Caroline Laurin-Beaucage. Bio.

 

Chi Long. Bio.

 

Robert Meilleur. Bio.

 

James Phillips. Bio.

 

Gillian Seaward-Boone. Bio.

 

Andrew Turner. Bio.

 

Wen-Shuan Yang. Bio.

 

 

Rehearsal

 

Annie Gagnon. Bio.

 

   
 

 

 

Artistic Director: Ginette Laurin

Director: Diane Boucher

Administrative Director: Jacques Vecerina

Technical Director: André Houle

Development and Touring Assistant: Véronique Ménard

Communications Assistant: Mélissa Basora

Rehearsal Mistress: Annie Gagnon

 

To join us, visit the Get in touch section

 

 

Canada & International Touring Agent

(except Belgium, France, and Switzerland)

Menno Plukker

 

Touring Agent - Executive Producer

(Belgium, France, and Switzerland)

Didier Michel

Skype: transfert10777

 

 

Production Team

 

Technical Director: André Houle

Lighting Director: Maude Labonté or François Marceau

Sound Engineer: Jean-François Gagnon

Stage Manager: Jason Pomrenski

Wardrobe Mistress and Dresser: Nicole Langlois

 

 

 

Board of Directors

 

President: Ginette Laurin, Artistic Director and Choreographer, O Vertigo

Vice-President and Treasurer : Julie Halde, Senior Manager, Accenture

Secretary: Claude Brunet, Lawyer, Norton Rose

 

 

Administrators

 

Robert Côté, MBA, ASC, Sinergis international

Nathalie Francisci, Chief, Corporative Development, Jobwings

Caroline Ménard, Partner, Brio Conseils

Marie-Hélène Nolet, CFA, Assistant Vice President, Strategic Projects - Corporate Relations, Banque de développement du Canada

Jean-Philippe Parent, CA, Director, KPMG s.r.l./s.e.n.c.r.l.

 

 

Financing Committee

 

Laurent Vernet, Cultural Development Officer, Montréal’s Public Art Office, Ville de Montréal, with the help of all members of our Board of Directors