Onde de choc warmly received in Germany

Since its creation last May, Onde de choc met with a lively success at Festival TransAmériques in Montreal and at the Festival de Danse et des Arts multiples de Marseille. Audiences and the press gave it an equally warm reception on the occasion of its German premiere. In Dresden, where the work was performed at the Hellerau as part of the TonLagen contemporary music festival, journalist Karsten Blüthgen wrote: "The TonLagen Festival also delivered a highlight [...]: Onde de choc by Ginette Laurin's Canadian company O Vertigo. Extracting and incorporating the sounds of dance, the choreography and acoustics blended to produce a fascinating inside view of the human body." (Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden, October 18, 2010)

The critics were just as enthusiastic in Nuremberg and Frankfort: "It all amounts to a shock wave, whose impulses always originate in the bodies themselves and are intensified through contact with the ground, finding themselves echoed in the flickering strip of light projected over the backdrop. [...] the experiment conducted here is amazingly exciting, highly aesthetic" (Nürnberger Nachrichten, Nuremberg, October 18, 2010)

For coming performances of Onde de choc, consult our calendar.

To see an excerpt of Onde de choc.

After Tokyo and Marseilles, La Vie qui bat will be performed in Montreal

In 1999, La Vie qui bat was presented in Montreal for the first time. The stage was shared by O Vertigo's dancers and the musicians of the Ensemble de la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec performing Drumming by Steve Reich. Revived last year and recently presented in Japan and France, Montrealers will have a chance to revisit this unique event on February 18 and 19, 2011, when the work will open the Montreal/New Music International Festival. As journalist Olga Bibiloni of the Marseilles daily La Provence describes it: "The piece that the Canadian choreographer imagined for Drumming by Reich […] is all power and restraint. A fascinating balance in the total mastery of movement, down to its most intensive repetition. […] The whole is very strong." (June 18, 2010)

These performances will constitute a unique opportunity to see this piece, highly regarded by Montreal audiences since its creation: "A perfect mariage has produced sensational offspring. Laurin’s best among several masterpieces, La Vie qui bat contains too many vividly innovative and magical moments to enumerate [...] La Vie qui bat has to be seen to be believed." (The Gazette, Montreal, April,1999)

To see an excerpt of La Vie qui bat.

The film la chambre blanche to screen in Amsterdam

Directed by Ginette Laurin and produced by Amérimage-Spectra with the collaboration of Bravo! and ARTV, la chambre blanche features nine characters imprisoned by their madness. The dancers are placed in a situation of extreme fragility in which the body has no choice but to abandon itself to disequilibrium and dizziness. After Montreal and New York, the full-length film will be presented on December 12 and 13 in Amsterdam at the eighth edition of the Cinedans festival. You may recall that last year, the short film Coppia 2, also directed by Ginette Laurin, was selected to show at this festival.

To see the first few minutes of the film.

Announcing the dates of the 2011 O Vertigo workshop

For a number of years now, O Vertigo and the Creation Centre have held a three-week workshop for professionals, advanced-level students, and performance artists familiar with dance or movement. The theme of this year’s workshop is "dance and creative processes." The program will include workshops on the sound dimension of Onde de choc and creation labs given by Ginette Laurin based on the creative process of the same work. You can already take note of the schedule: from Monday, August 1 to Friday, August 19, 2011.The workshop will take place at our Creation Centre in Montreal.

Further information is available here.