Fou glorieux | Louise Lecavalier

Louise Lecavalier worked with Édouard Lock and La La La Human Steps from 1981 to 1999, a period of exceptional intensity punctuated by works that have since become mythical such as Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel, Human Sex, New Demons, Infante and 2, along with scintillating collaborations with David Bowie and Frank Zappa. Her extreme dance, filled with a fiery energy, caught the imagination of a whole generation. Since that time, with her own company, Fou Glorieux, a flexible structure that she founded in 2006, Louise has continued to pursue, in solo and duet form, research based on virtuosity, the surpassing of limits and risk-taking – a quest for the absolute in which she seeks to unveil the “more-than-human within the human.”

After fruitful collaborations with iconoclastic choreographers Tedd Robinson, Benoît Lachambre, Crystal Pite, Nigel Charnock, Fabrien Prioville, Deborah Dunn, and Jakob Ahlbom, and with artists in other disciplines, such as musicians Mercan Dede and Hahn Rowe, visual artist Laurent Goldring, and lighting designer Alain Lortie, Louise created her first full‑length choreography, So Blue, in 2012, followed by Battleground in 2016. Both pieces have been touring internationally. Louise has received many prestigious awards during her career. In November 2017, she won the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction in the performing arts awarded by the Quebec government, and in December that same year, she received an honorary doctorate from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

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Robert Abubo is a graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. He worked with Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa from 1994 to 2006 under artistic director Peter Boneham, and with Dancemakers from 2008 to 2015. As an independent artist, he has worked with Tedd Robinson, Sylvain Émard, Lynda Gaudreau, Shannon Conney, Bill James, Luc Dunberry, Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Heidi Strauss, Kate Hilliard, Ame Henderson, Dana Gingras, Ben Kamino, Robyn Breen, Kate Nankervis, Plastic Orchid Factory and Jordan Tannahill.

His choreographies have been presented at the Canada Dance Festival, Tangente, Dancer’s Studio West, Kaeja d’Dance, Dancemakers, Nuit Blanche Toronto, DJD (Calgary), and Short & Sweet (Guelph). Robert was Louise Lecavalier’s partner in the duet Lula and the Sailor and the piece Cobalt rouge, both choreographed by Tedd Robinson.

Antoine Berthiaume, a Montrealer, is a composer and guitarist active in the fields of improvisation, contemporary music, dance, and theatre. His work has been enriched by collaborations with artists such as Gilles Poulin-Denis, Mélanie Demers, Annie Gagnon, Thierry Huard, Aurélie Pedron, Audrey Bergeron, Louis-Élyan Martin, Jessica Serli, Alan Lake and Louise Lecavalier, as well as with Cavalia and Cirque du Soleil. Antoine’s music features on dozens of albums on the Ambiances Magnétiques, Audiogram, Vos Records (Japan), Incus Records (U.K.), Saint-Cécile, Sony and Starkland (U.S.) labels. A contributor to Classical Guitar Magazine, Antoine just completed his PhD in digital music at l’Université de Montréal under Robert Normandeau.    

Alain Lortie has pursued his chosen career with passion for over 30 years. First associated with multidisciplinary artists Michel Lemieux, Marie Chouinard and Édouard Lock, he went on to collaborate with Québécois and European singers Jean-Pierre Ferland, Diane Dufresne, Robert Charlebois, Daniel Bélanger, Peter Gabriel, Francis Cabrel and Eros Ramazzotti. Named Lighting Designer of the Year several times at the ADISQ Awards, he also received the Masque for Best Lighting for Les âmes mortes (1996), and the Dora Mavor Moore Prize in Toronto for Œdipus Rex (1997). Among his major achievements are Starmania (1993), Notre-Dame de Paris (1998), Arturo Brachetti (1999), Cavalia (2003) and Odysseo (2011). He also worked on the Cirque du Soleil shows Soleil de minuit (2004), Delirium (2006), Zarkana (2011) and Toruk, The First Flight (2015). He also designed the lighting for several musicals in Asia.

Born in Vientiane, Laos, Montreal-based Siphay Southidara, better known as Yso, holds a diploma in fashion design from the Collège Marie-Victorin in Montreal. Passionate about fashion design, artistic direction, and all forms of contemporary creation, he applies his many talents to each of these domains. A long-time collaborator with fashion designer Denis Gagnon, he has worked as artistic director on several of his shows. All sectors of the artistic community have called upon his creative talents, including Guy Maddin, Brigitte Haentjens (Sibyllines), Louise Lecavalier, 45 Degrees (Cirque du Soleil), Moment Factory, Julie Charland, Lhasa de Sela, Patrick Watson, Tedd Robinson, Sylvain Émard, BJM Danse, the Biennale de Montréal, etc. In 2010, Yso joined the Folio Montreal Agency as a stylist.

Classically trained, France Bruyère quickly widened her field of interest to include contemporary and jazz dance. After her professional debut at age 17 with Groupe Nouvelle Aire in Montreal, she danced for numerous choreographers and with several dance companies which, besides Nouvelle Aire, included Groupe Axis, the Louise Latreille dance troupe, Pointépiénu, and the Danny Grossman Dance Company in Toronto. After working as rehearsal director for La La La Human Steps for 10 years, she taught at UQAM until 2017 and works for Louise Lecavalier as artistic assistant and rehearsal director.