Trailblazing dancer-choreographer Louise Lecavalier brings Stations to Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre

In the realm of contemporary dance, Louise Lecavalier stands out as a Canadian trailblazer. The dancer and choreographer is returning to Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre with her newest work, Stations from November 23 to 25, 2023. This solo show, which is part of the Torque Contemporary International Dance Series, is more than a return to a familiar venue: it’s her most introspective piece yet.

Stations is an exploration of liberty that demonstrates Lecavalier’s skill in transcending physical limits, in order to turn movement into impactful narratives. The performance is divided into four sections, each symbolizing a different life phase. It blends lively, reflective choreography with physical and emotional depth, pushing the boundaries of contemporary dance and proving again Lecavalier’s dedication to continuous creative progress.

The 60-minute performance is enhanced first by Alain Lortie’s innovative lighting, which uses four movable light columns. It also enjoys a varied musical score, with contributions from guitarist Antoine Berthiaume, saxophonist Colin Stetson, electronic group Suuns and Jerusalem in My Heart, and singers Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld. Each part of the show builds in musical and emotional intensity, paralleling the dance’s thematic and physical development.

A recipient of the Order of Canada and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Lecavalier has long been at the forefront of contemporary dance. Her tenure with Édouard Lock’s La La La Human Steps (1981-1999) and collaborations with artists like David Bowie and Frank Zappa have garnered broad renown. And in 2006, she founded Fou glorieux, further broadening her artistic scope.

First shown in Düsseldorf in 2020, Stations received praise for its energetic presentation and Lecavalier’s magnetic performance. Toronto audiences now have the opportunity to experience the dance icon in action, with the bonus of a special post-show Q&A on November 24. This Harbourfront Centre event offers a rare glimpse into the work of an artist who is continually recrafting how the body expresses and communicates on stage.

Ahead of the opening of Stations, Lecavalier spoke with SesayArts Magazine about the work’s origin, structure and themes, how dance is an act of resistance against aging. . . and why she often skips wearing her glasses.  

SesayArts Magazine: “Stations” is recognized as your most personal choreographic work to date. How does this solo  show reflect your journey through dance and what does it mean to you on a personal level? 

Louise Lecavalier: Stations seems maybe more personal because it is a solo. It is difficult to escape yourself in a solo: personal and artistic levels become hard to separate or differentiate. What is specific to  Stations is that it started with the reading of Le Miroir des âmes simples et anéanties, a book by Marguerite Porete, mystic woman of the 13th century, avant-gardist beguine du Libre Esprit, who, for the writing of this unique book, got burned for heresy. 

I came into contact with it for a part I played in a dance/theatre project with le Theatre UBU in Montreal. Trying to be  close to this woman’s thoughts allowed me to find a different approach to my dance, and made me elaborate a specific dance vocabulary. For this project, I created a 25-minute solo in which I  tried to bring movements at their simplest and purest essence, filled with simplicity and  abandon, in order to reflect a sense of annihilation and rigor of thought. 

At the beginning of the creation of Stations, I wanted to pursue and extend this dance piece to make a whole evening show; but I finally reshaped it into a shorter version of 18 minutes….

In Stations, I think that I let the audience come to me, more than I go to them. They come into my house – a house with no roof and no walls. 

SesayArts Magazine: Stations is divided into four distinct stages, each representing different aspects of life. Could  you delve into the symbolism behind these stages and how they relate to the overall theme of  freedom in the performance? 

Louise Lecavalier: I didn’t choreograph the stations thinking they should have a specific symbolism. But they each have specific themes. 

QUINTESSENCE

As I said . . . Station 1 is triggered by the heart and words of this mystical woman Marguerite Porete, a quintessence. I tried to touch or imagine a state of annihilation that can be named meditative. Even if the movements gradually get more technical, I put myself in a  place where I must find abandon in the difficulty – not perform by pure will, but with a renewed  and refreshed state of presence. Antoine Berthiaume created the music for this section. 

NATURE

I then discovered the music of Colin Stetson, so Station 2 is linked to the fury of a saxophone. It is a music of urgency, of a fire-soul. I thought that Stetson’s music was similar to a dance that is always in me, and that it spoke of the state of the world. The specific music I chose from him has an obsessive and dangerous feeling. It is Nature, and I am the bird and the elephant…  He, Colin Stetson, blows air endlessly, with continuous breath in his saxophone, and sings through it at the same time. He also mics the flurry of the notes made with his fingers. I have had a connection with this musical instrument for a long time. I heard lots and lots of saxophone music, and it was only 15 years later that I suddenly needed to dance again to this instrument …

HUMAN 

The third piece is my rencontre with the music of Suuns and Jerusalem in My Heart: playful, fun  music. A too-short six-minute song that I let play in loops endlessly in the studio, as I never had enough of it to keep improvising non-stop. The show version of this music is now 13 minutes  long… not a loop, but an extended version: terrestrial, playing, inventing stories, simply being  human, complex… 

COLOURS 

I eventually drifted somewhere else, to a fourth part. Made in fact of 3 or 3 1/2 sub parts (it was never a rule to make only four stations; it just seemed simpler to count them this way . . . or should I have said “6 and a half stations”?) ….  This “4th” station is more chaotic. It revisits – reversely – the 3 first stations, going from fluidity and play to obsession and urgency, and, finally, back to an even more meditative and suspended ending…. 

This section is performed to music from three different composers: Antoine Berthiaume, who also did all the arrangements; Colin Stetson again; plus a song from Blixa Bargeld and Teho Teardo. This end song speaks about the colors of a voice … I could say those words, “colours of a voice”,  “colours of a dance” … “If I would sing in blue it would drain the oceans, demolish the pale blue sky “

SesayArts Magazine: Throughout your illustrious career, you’ve collaborated with iconic artists like David Bowie and  Frank Zappa, and now, Stations features the musical talents of groups like Suuns and Jerusalem in  My Heart, and artists such as Colin Stetson. How have these musical influences and  collaborations shaped your approach to contemporary dance and your choreography in  general? 

Louise Lecavalier: Influenced I have been! I came from contemporary dance, and at 22, I thought that I was dancing choreographies that didn’t reflect the world I was living in – and not even my own little self. So, leaving two dance companies, I started to work with Edouard Lock, for his works seemed to connect better to my world. At about the same period, discovering music by Prince, David  Byrne or Einstürzende Neubauten, for example, gave me inspiration. I wanted to dance larger. Not to larger audiences, but larger in a sense of the range of what my desires and hopes and my reality were. I didn’t want to pretend that I was older I was really. Nor had I attained wisdom yet. I was a kid, and rebellious, and that music reached that part of me. 

How I work with music is another thing. Listening to music and dancing to it are not the same!  Some music gives me the impulse to move in the studio, and I use it for that. Other times,  with Colin Stetson for example, I loved what I heard from him right away, and hoped to be able  to create something with it, but I had to make long circles around it: develop dance sequences with other music to be able finally to dialogue with his music. 

I do not approach dance, music and creation too intellectually. In the end, I always trust my  instinct over my unending thoughts, readings, reflections and hesitations. It is dance, after all!

SesayArts Magazine: Many in the dance industry face ageism and pressure to retire at a younger age, yet you continue to captivate audiences at 64. How have you managed to dance circles around ageism in an industry known for its emphasis on youth? And what message do you wish to convey to other dancers about longevity in the profession? 

Louise Lecavalier: I continue because I do not think about age. Because there is still a fire inside the house – maybe because I am still a kid, in many ways. Maybe because I refuse to get old in the sense that age is pushed on me (or us), insidiously and continuously. Dancing is resisting. 

Who can force a dancer to retire? You stop dancing because your body is too hurt, or if you lose  the spark for it. That can happen. It is a personal decision to continue or to stop – or this is how it  should be. 

Can we stop dancing, stop breathing, stop thinking …? Deciding not to perform on stage, yes, I  can understand, but you are always a dancer… 

I did not notice the pressure of the industry. Maybe because I am not in the dance industry, and never was.  It also makes it simpler to continue when you are your own master, or boss. I only have to fight my own demons! 

Also, as I started to study dance late (at age 15) and was late to start choreography (at age 45), I feel like a beginner – even after 40 years and more of experience on stage … The beginner is my favourite  posture in time: it allows me to stay longer. 

SesayArts Magazine: You’ve received numerous prestigious awards, including the Order of Canada and a Governor  General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. How have these accolades  influenced your artistic journey? 

Louise Lecavalier: In the day to day, I forget them. When you ask me about them, I can answer: I am glad that I received them young, as I didn’t expect them at all, and even sometimes didn’t know those awards existed.

What I appreciate about any prize or accolade is that some dance people in the community thought positively enough about my work and thought it was worthy. This is a thing you can never be sure of!

I do not know what it is not to receive them. How I would feel if I didn’t receive any awards or  accolades is hard to say! Maybe they seem more important when you do not get them? But hopefully not. 

In simple words, I am thankful. We have to make it into a party. Il faut en faire une fête!

SesayArts Magazine: The final word is yours. What question do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t? 

Louise Lecavalier: Name one good thing about getting older! Or talk about glasses … 

I cried the day my lover started wearing glasses to read, although he was younger than me. I thought it was a loss for him and that he was getting old already at 40.  

Now that I need to wear glasses too, I often choose not to wear them, because I love to see friends and people’s faces, or even the food on my plate, with slightly less sharp vision … This way, everyone looks beautiful. It makes me look at them in a state of awe. 

Stations is on stage November 23 – 25, 2023 7:30 pm ET at Fleck Dance Theatre, presented by Harbourfront Centre. Click here to reserve tickets.

© Arpita Ghosal, Sesayarts Magazine, 2023