Multidisciplinary Indigenous artist, Soleil Launière interweaves the presence of the two-spirit body and experimental audiovisual while drawing inspiration from the cosmogony and sacred spirit of animals from the Innu world. This fall, she is making her musical debut by presenting, in collaboration with the Musique Nomade label, a laboratory show for the launch of her first album, Taueu.
This evening of “waacking” competition, a dance born in Los Angeles that is similar to New York “voguing”, brings together a community of young queer dancers of diverse origins. Organized by the Asymmetry collective, the evening is orchestrated by an Afro-descendant street dance artist from Montreal, the flamboyant Axelle Munezero. “Among others, she coached the French figure skaters Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis, who won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games,” explains D. Kimm. In all, 16 dancers will perform to disco music in front of judge Bill Goodson, who was a choreographer for Diana Ross and worked at the famous Moulin Rouge in Paris. The evening will be hosted by Mautassime.
Inspired by the intimate and artistic journey of Julie Vincent, “this show tells the moving battle of Julia – by turns actress, poet, itinerant and sentimental warrior – who walks armed with her imagination. Through the journey of the actress, from Mourir à tue-tête to today, it is also the history of modern Quebec, seen through the eyes of a woman who is building herself as an artist,” says D. Kimm . The artist offers a summary of life divided into cabaret numbers “which celebrates theater and reveals the strength and fragility of a woman who deconstructs herself and is reborn in a world built on the base of patriarchy,” she continues. The production is by Julie Vincent and Philippe Soldevila.
After Dalida, it is the turn of Céline Dion to be celebrated at the Phénomena festival, in a cabaret under the artistic direction of Claudia Chan Tak. “Artists from all walks of life are invited to this extravagant evening with the same instruction: it is strictly forbidden to use the artist’s original recordings. So we hear Céline’s successes… without Charlemagne’s diva voice,” explains D. Kimm. The public will be welcomed with panache by the drag queen Bijuriya.
The festival also offers an evening dedicated to African-American street dance entitled Steppin Into the Void. All codes and aesthetics will be presented during this evening organized by Forward Movements, a company involved in its community in Montreal North. An MC, Ford Mckeown Larose, will host the evening, accompanied by the group R
Phénomena also continues its commitment to the deaf community by presenting, at the Grande Bibliothèque, the exhibition Portraits of women on imagined landscapes IV, produced by photographer Caroline Hayeur and D. Kimm. In this project, 22 costumed deaf women were photographed in front of a neutral background and then integrated into an imaginary landscape.
