Revealed to the general public thanks to the show Révolution, Charles-Alexis Desgagnés is preparing to present his first solo show, L’appel des embraises, at the Agora de la danse, from October 11 to 14. The fiery performer has also been chosen to dance in New York in 2024 in the new creation from the producers behind the immersive show Sleep No More.
The dancer is impatiently awaiting his artist visa in order to participate in the rehearsals planned for next November. At the end of winter, he will participate in the first performances of the show about which he can say very little for the moment. “It’s the biggest production I’ve been part of: we’re talking about a show of 35 artists which will last a year,” explains the man who dazzled the critics in Seul ensemble, a tribute to the work of Serge Fiori , in 2019.
Three years later, he directed 24 performers in I cried this morning in the metro, the first show of his dance company initially named Les sans-papiers. “With this name, I wanted to evoke the journey of artists who did not receive training in schools, like me, but I had not made the link with immigration. Since I don’t want to be colonialist or have people talk more about the name of the company than the works, I decided to change. »
Here he is again with Personne Danse, a nod to the individual, to anonymity and to the body in movement. A body which, this fall, will dance in the singular.
Do not think that his return to his former loves as a soloist comes at the expense of group works. Next February, at Danse Danse, he will participate in Midnight Somewhere, a multi-headed creation with renowned choreographers such as Marie Chouinard, Virginie Brunelle, Anne Plamondon and Lydia Bouchard.
“The solo helps me define my choreographic signature to eventually share it better with others,” he says. This is my response to several experiences as a performer with choreographers who lacked clarity, often because they did not dance themselves. »
If fans of Revolution remember the virtuosity of the solo dancer, the main person concerned does not have the impression of being in his comfort zone.
Desgagnés nevertheless knows what he is capable of when the spotlights come on. “I know I perform well, but I can’t say I’m in a comfort zone solo, because I don’t have any space to crash. It requires a high level of rigor and great confidence in my collaborators, who are my primary audience. »
Placing physicality at the center of his creation, the creator invites the public to follow him in a very simple idea: witness the journey of a person over time and through space. A way for him to integrate different parts of himself, such as his incandescence and his tenderness, in order to reconnect with his animality. “When I talk about shapeshifting, I often make an analogy with Mystique in X-Men, the one who can change her appearance and who is all blue when she is in neutral. I want to show what I am when no one is looking at me. »
An exercise that imposes a great degree of vulnerability. “I have experienced different forms of breakups and grief over the past few years, and I use my creation to make it pass. I take them out of myself, I transform them and when the object is created, it relieves me. »
Acclaimed by critics and the public, the musical theater show Hedwig and the Furious Thumb, starring Benoit McGinnis in an adaptation and production by René Richard Cyr, will be on view at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, in starting October 20. “The very athletic performance of Benoit McGinnis and the very successful rock-which-moves atmosphere almost manage to make us forget the somewhat dusty side of the text, written at the end of the 1990s by John Cameron Mitchell,” underlined Stéphanie Morin , in his review at the creation of the show in Montreal last January.
La République hip-hop du Bas-Canada is a rap musical with performers from the Quebec region. “The work seeks to bring people into the state of mind they have during intoxicating evenings. The piece is freely inspired by the world of the music group Alaclair Ensemble. We discover a Lower Canadian culture where the verb is sharp and the repartee is thunderous, as if daily exchanges had become rap battles,” we write in the production press release.
The Théâtre de la LNI presents its show La LNI tackles cinema in various Montreal boroughs as part of the CAM on tour. At each performance, a major challenge: improvise from cinema to theater in the style of a renowned filmmaker! On stage (and simultaneously on screen), three performers, a film crew and a musician invite you to (re)discover the world of the seventh art. And the creation of a live film. Based on an idea and direction by François Étienne-Paré, with among others Salomé Corbo, Mathieu Lepage and Joëlle Paré-Beaulieu.
Théâtre Tableau D’Hôte, known for exposing the other side of Canadian history, will present Mizushōbai (The Water Trade) at the Segal. The play explores the life of Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto, a mail-order bride turned underground businesswoman in 1930s British Columbia. The production is noteworthy, among other things, because it brings together an all-female cast of Japanese-Canadian performers from across the country. In addition to being the first production in Montreal by Yvette Nolan, award-winning artist from the Algonquin nation.
As part of the 5 to 7 at La Licorne, the text Les prémonitions de Mikaël Morneau, by Frances Poet, translated by Marc-André Thibault, will be directed by Clara Prévost. The story revolves around Mikaël, played by Olivier Barrette. Plagued by various nightmarish visions, the young man has isolated himself for some time, to the point of having missed the funeral of the mother of his best friend Éliane. But he now sees a dark future and must change his trajectory at all costs… The play tackles the theme of mental health head-on with humor and casualness. It also touches on themes of complex friendship, mourning and anxiety in the face of societal issues.
