Onde de choc: Ginette Laurin’s groundbreaking choreography returns home

Montreal born and based, Ginette Laurin is among Canada’s premier choreographers of contemporary dance and a key player in this city’s celebrated dance scene. Herself a trained gymnast and former ballet dancer, Laurin founded her own company, O Vertigo, in 1984 and has since made use of her rigorous, poetic and innovative artistic direction to wow critics the world over with over 50 chorographical works.

Under Laurin’s direction, O Vertigo has also opened a creation centre at Place des Arts, where dancers, choreographers and multidisciplinary artists have been welcomed for research, residencies and workshops since 1997. The company’s interdisciplinary mission and mandate for innovation and education, combined with Laurin’s and the dancers’ own talent has combined once again to create an international hit.

Opening to rave reviews last May at Montreal’s own Festival TransAmériques, Laurin’s latest show Onde de Choc returns to local audiences this month at Usine C. Fresh off a four-country European tour, the critically acclaimed show delves deep into the primitive movements of the machine that is the human body. Ogranic and physically demanding, though the blood is fake, Onde de Choc is as much an exploration of and an experimentation with the stage and body.

Accompanied by the musical compositions of Michael Nyman, whose award-winning minimalist piano scores adorn countless films, and set amidst the electro-acoustic soundscape of Martin Messier’s aural vision, the April instalment of Onde de Choc promises to prove why this groundbreaking show has been praised as pure magic, from its overarching vision down to the most seemingly minute of details.

Onde de choc
April 8, 9 and 13 to 16
Usine C | 1345, Lalonde
overtigo.com | usine-c.com