Montreal’s Compagnie Catherine Gaudet Making Debut at DanceHouse (Nov. 22 & 23)

“Les jolies choses is about extremes. It’s an attempt to push to the limit some research I started in 2018 on the insistence of cycles. In Les jolies choses, I wanted these cycles to be overly complex. This gives the piece a tone that is both spare and excessive, which I think heightens the performers’ humanity and the solidarity that unites them.” – Montreal-based choreographer Catherine Gaudet

Five bodies move to the rhythm of a metronome in choreographer Catherine Gaudet’s hypnotic piece Les jolies choses (The Pretty Things). DanceHouse is presenting the full-length work by the contemporary dance troupe Compagnie Catherine Gaudet at the Vancouver Playhouse on Nov. 22 and 23 at 8 p.m.

“We’re thrilled to have Gaudet and Les jolies choses making their DanceHouse debut,” says Jim Smith, DanceHouse’s Artistic and Executive Director. “Gaudet’s work digs into the unconscious, using the body to explore our most contradictory instincts. Her fascination with extremes is clear here: the choreography is visceral, pushing dancers to a physical breaking point.”

In Les jolies choses, five dancers break through mechanized movement accompanied by a score written by Antoine Berthiaume. As the ritualized machine grinds on, the harmony of collective movement begins to splinter, peeling back the illusion to expose a raw, jagged poetry.

DanceHouse will host a pre-show talk each night at 7:15 p.m., and the Nov. 22 performance wraps with a post-show reception in the Salon. For tickets and more information visit dancehouse.ca.