Daina Ashbee brings her intense, unflinching vision to her first group work
The artist, celebrated in Quebec and abroad, brings J'ai pleuré avec les chiens (Time, Creation, Destruction) home
- Created and choreographed by Daina Ashbee
A hypnotic work for five intergenerational women performers, J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (Time, Creation, Destruction) is a durational performance by creator and choreographer Daina Ashbee. For her largest work to date, Daina uses repetition to insist, to reach points of trance, transformation and catharsis, to evoke rhythm, to manifest energetic states, to ask both performer and witness to endure and to carry the room to a climax and back, again and again.
J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (Time, Creation, Destruction) explores lightness, pleasure and celebration as the result of the liberation of violence, the occupation of space and the exploration of the body from within and without. The darkness she has explored in previous works is present but challenged by the notion that the body is energy, and that energy can transform.
Company
Daina Ashbee is an artist, performer and choreographer based in Montreal, known for her radical works at the edge of dance and performance. Recognized as one of the most promising young choreographers of the next generation, since 2015 her work has been presented more than 100 times in a dozen countries by some of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals. Daina is currently the artist-in-residence at Agora de la danse in Montreal and the associate artist of Centre de Création O Vertigo - CCOV.
Creative team
- Created and choreographed by Daina Ashbee
- Music Burmis Tree (Sean MacPherson)
- Lighting and technical direction Elaine Helguera
- Rehearsal Director Gabriel Nieto (Nomad of the South)
- Performed by Gabriel Nieto, Angelica Morga, Briseida López, Irène Martinez, Greys Vecchionace
- Tour Director Areli Moran
National Creation Fund investment
The National Creation Fund’s investment of $145,000 made it possible for Daina to collaborate with an international team of artists during an extended series of creation and technical residencies.
Credits
Co-production partners: Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (France), Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV (Canada), KVS Brussels Stadstheater (Belgium), Festival TransAmériques – FTA, Agora de la danse, National Arts Centre (Canada), BIT Teatergarasjen (Norway)
Residency partners: Résidences KVS Brussels Stadstheater (Belgium), Conjunto Santander de Artes Escénicas (Guadalajara), MOVES Production, Gestion et promotion des Artes de Scène (Mexico), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto)
Funding partners: Canada Council for the Arts, la Délégation générale du Québec, et le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
Performance dates
Past performances
June 9 and 10, 2021: World Premiere, Le Pavillon (Paris), presented by Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis
June 15 and 16, 2021: KVS Brussels Stadstheater (Belgium)
March 9 to 12, 2022: Scotiabank Dance Centre (Vancouver), presented by the Vancouver International Dance Festival
May 17 and 18, 2022: Fabrik Big Stage (Potsdam), presented by Potsdamer Tanztage 2022
June 4, 2022: Studio A, Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique (Montreal)
Articles & reviews
Daina Ashbee aboie sur les Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine Saint Denis (In French)
"À la fois classique et déroutant."
Review: A Fierce Clarity of Vision in ‘J’ai Pleuré Avec les Chiens’
The Indigenous artist Daina Ashbee’s first group piece, at the Gibney, simmers with tension and offers an approach to healing.
