Dance / Festival / 17-18 May 2023

The Pretty Things 

Show Time: 19:30 | 55mins

In this critically acclaimed dance work, award-winning Canadian choreographer Catherine Gaudet brings us on a journey from naivety and conformity to liberation and power. 

Five bodies move to the rhythm of a metronome, their mechanical gestures endlessly repeating. The machine runs wild, demanding their absolute compliance. Together with her loyal collaborators – the dancers – Gaudet wields her highly accomplished choreographic language to study the false pretenses of the show business apparatus and seek out a space where desires can be reborn. 

As the dancers become consumed by the rigorous choreographic score, the relentless repetition becomes unbearable. Pushing open the whistling valve, the release of pressure is the opposite of phony grandeur – necessary, authentic, cathartic, and powerful. 

Accessibility

This show contains flashing lights.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at access@projectartscentre.ie or call 01 8819 613. You can find the latest information about Project’s accessibility here.

Credits

Choreography: Catherine Gaudet

Performers: Dany Desjardins, Lucie Vigneault, Scott McCabe, James Phillips, Lauren Semeschuk

Music: Antoine Berthiaume

Assistant Dramaturg and Rehearsal Director: Sophie Michaud

Lighting Design: Hugo Dalphond

Costume Design: Marilène Bastien

Produced by: Compagnie Catherine Gaudet

Biographies

Catherine Gaudet / Compagnie Catherine Gaudet

Compagnie Catherine Gaudet was founded in Montreal in 2019 with Catherine Gaudet as the general and artistic director. Its repertoire consists of several short pieces as well as six longer dance works: L’invasion du vide (2009), Je suis un autre (2012), Au sein des plus raides vertus (2014), La très excellente et lamentable tragédie de Roméo et Juliette (2016), Tout ce qui va revient (2018) and L’affadissement du merveilleux (2018). Produced in Montreal, they have been presented locally and internationally, notably in Denmark, France, Belgium, Germany and the U.S., and also at prestigious festivals such as Festival TransAmériques – FTA (Montreal), the Lyon Biennial, the Tanz im August Festival (Berlin) and Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris). In 2021, she created the solo Se dissoudre, which deals with the perception of time as an illusory phenomenon, and presented The Pretty Things, her most recent creation with five dancers, at the Festival TransAmériques 2022.

Press

“Gaudet fascinates, astonishes and destabilizes with her choreographic proposals, which often involve the repetition of gestures and the modulation of bodies until the surface of things cracks, until the cathartic state is reached.” La Presse

“A dance that oscillates between the civilized world and the space of impulses, where the bodies are in turn subjected to social constraints and then to a burst of animality and sensuality … she has reached a stunning virtuosity this time.‘’ La Pointe

“Les Jolie Choses is a tour de force ” Westmount Magazine

Funding

Co-produced by: Festival TransAmériques; Agora de la danse; Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen; Réseau CanDance (Toronto); Centre national des Arts (Ottawa); Harbourfront Center (Toronto); DLD-Daniel Léveillé Danse. Creative Residencies: Daniel Léveillé Danse & Agora de la danse DEVELO

Supported by Québec Government Office

Dublin Dance Festival is proudly supported by the Arts Council and Dublin City Council.

Project Arts Centre is proudly supported by The Arts Council and Dublin City Council.

Disclaimer

This show contains flashing lights.

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