The Department of Contemporary Dance Presents: A Conversation on the Aesthetics of Our Ethics

Artist-in-residence Marie Claire Forté invites artists she has worked for and with over the years to a conversation on how our values are manifest and visible in the performances and art we create, in our creative processes, and our sense of success and failure around them. Alongside journalist, poet and dance artist Catherine Lalonde; choreographer Aurélie Pédron; and author, performer and co-artistic director of PME-ART Jacob Wren, Marie Claire will attempt to speak publicly and collectively about this intimate and delicate topic.

Biographies

Marie Claire Forté, August 2024 The relational, experiential and experimental potential of dance drives me. I dance, choreograph, write, translate and teach. I am Imogen Keith’s mother, and her presence is a powerful and humbling force. My career has been nourished by long-term creative relationships with artists from different generations and esthetics, all sharing a love of process, rigour and exploration. Notable artistic and pedagogical influences include Peter Boneham, artistic director and master teacher of the now-defunct Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa; Toronto-based choreographer Ame Henderson; Montréal-based choreographer Louise Bédard; multidisciplinary performance group PME-ART; and visual artist Sophie Bélair Clément. I lead my own projects and work with artists I love, most recently Katie Ward, Louise Bédard, Catherine Lalonde, Priscilla Guy and Émilie Morin, Aurélie Pédron and Sovann Rochon-Prom Tep. From 2017 to 2019, I was performer-in-residence at Agora de la danse. In 2016, I produced the bilingual exhibition project and publication – I’d rather something ambiguous. Mais précis à la fois. with my friend Sophie Bélair Clément at Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery. I regularly take on various artistic roles: artistic support/outsider eye, post-performance talk host, writer, editor, translator and interpreter. I am currently working on a book with Peter Boneham about his teaching.

Hailing from contemporary dance, Catherine Lalonde is a cultural reporter for Le Devoir (Judith-Jasmin prize, 2022) and a poet. With the Quartanier, she has published La dévo­ra­tion des fées (Alain-Grand­bois prize), Cas­san­dre and Corps étranger (Émile-Nel­li­gan prize). Born in 1974, she lives in Montréal. She has two children of ages four and eleven. Trous is the title of her next poetry book.

Sensitive to the rare and precious states of metamorphosis offered by both art and experience, artist and choreographer Aurélie Pedron creates perpetually renewed encounters that play with duration and create a deep intimacy between location, performer and audience. Unsettling our expectations, the maker reaches out to the other to leave a deep and durable trace. Founded in 2013, her company Lilith & Cie is devoted to the research, creation and dissemination of works intersecting performance, choreography and installation. The company’s productions waive performing arts codes and invite us to consider reality otherwise. In parallel, Lilith & Cie leads creative research projects with visually impaired and marginalised individuals (people suffering from drug and alcohol consumption or mental health issues), to promote inclusion, sharing and mutual learning.

Jacob Wren makes literature, collaborative performances and exhibitions. His books include: Polyamorous Love Song, Rich and Poor, Authenticity is a Feeling and Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim. These books have been translated into French by Le Quartanier and Éditions Triptyque. As artistic codirector of Montreal-based interdisciplinary group PME-ART he has co-created performances such as: En français comme en anglais, it’s easy to criticize, Individualism Was A Mistake, Families Are Formed Through Copulation, The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information, Every Song I’ve Ever Written and Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la répétition. International collaborations include a stage adaptation of the Wolfgang Koeppen novel Der Tod in Rom (Sophiensaele, Berlin), An Anthology of Optimism (co-created with Pieter De Buysser/Campo, Ghent) and No Double Life For The Wicked (co-created with Tori Kudo/The Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan). His internet presence is often defined by a fondness for quotations.