“To die… to go into the darkness… if it is darkness… to go to the river… if it is a river… but alone and without the illusion of love… naked and disastrously free…”
– Howard Barker
Clara Furey brings us a piece echoing the hypnotic Steve Reich album Different Trains and its exploration of destiny’s duality and fragility. Created for the first Montreal edition of Oliver Bertrand’s Projet ALBUM, Rather a Ditch puts into play Furey’s existential dance experiments, driving an exploration of the porous boundaries between life and death.
Céline Bonnier slips from one state to the other. She explores internal landscapes and finds radiance in an all-encompassing darkness. In dialogue with the imposing yet fragile scenography imagined by Caroline Monnet, across the lines of space and sound, the work’s choreography creates a language that is both figurative and abstract, where the most basic movements take on new meaning.
RATHER A DITCH
Original idea Olivier Bertrand
Concept and Artistic Direction Clara Furey
Co-creation and Performance Céline Bonnier
Sonic Conception Jean-François Blouin
Sonic Research Ida Toninato
Set Design Caroline Monnet
Costume Design Michèle Hamel
Lighting Design Karine Gauthier
Lighting Design Assistant Tim Rodrigues
Technical Direction during the creation Maude Bernier
Technical Direction on tour Karine Gauthier
Outside Eyes Andrew Tay, Christopher Willes
International distribution A Propic | Line Rousseau & Marion Gauvent
Production Clara Furey
Executive Production Par B.L.eux
Partners and Creation Support Centro per la Scena Contemporanea(CSC) de Bassano del Grappa, Danse à la Carte, La Chapelle – Scènes Contemporaines, Par B.L.eux
Co-production Festival TransAmériques, La Chapelle – Scènes Contemporaines
The creation of this work was made possible thanks to the financial support of
Canada Council for the Arts and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec