A hypnotic work for five intergenerational women performers, J’ai pleuré avec les chiens (I cried with the dogs) 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 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.
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.
The National Creation Fund’s investment of $125,000 makes it possible for Daina to collaborate with an international team of artists during an extended series of creation and technical residencies.
Co-production partners: Festival TransAmériques – FTA, Agora de la danse, Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV, National Arts Centre, KVS Brussels Stadstheater, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis and BIT Teatergarasjen
Residency partners: Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Harbourfront Centre, Agora de la danse, Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV, KVS Brussels Stadstheater, Cardiff Festival (Wales)
Funding partner: Canada Council for the Arts
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
May 27 - 30, 2020: World premiere, Espace Orange (Montreal), presented by FTA - postponed
June 4 & 5, 2020: Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis (Paris) - postponed