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Master Montreal choreographer Paul-Andre Fortier takes risks for his last dance alone in Solo 70

“Risk teaches you a lot of things. If you repeat the same thing over and over you don't progress. My target is to use my art to learn about life, about our relationships with others, about all sorts of things. It's exciting to challenge yourself. I want to be less dumb every day.” — dancer Paul-André Fortier

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Exploring contemporary dance is one thing, but it takes a special kind of courage to do it alone.

Working solo has been a recurring focus among Montreal dance great Paul-André Fortier‘s many endeavours. Now, at age 70, he’s ready to retire but he’s going out solo. This weekend Fortier’s final two performances of Solo 70 happen here as a presentation of Brian Webb Dance Company.

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The dance master never guessed his solo projects would go so far.

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“When I started doing my solo career, I was over 40 years old, an age when dancers usually retire, but I thought that was too sad. I had the desire, the strength and the physical capacity to do it. I kept going and one piece led to the next until I was in my mid-fifties, and then sixties. I had to keep going because I strongly believe there’s a poetry in the aging body that’s not part of the dance world.”

Along the way, he reached a fresh perspective on what he does.

“In exploring the male aging body, I decided I was no longer a dancer, I was just a man dancing. If people ask me what I do, that’s what I tell them. I’m just a man dancing.”

This guy could make your ankles ache in sympathy to relate just a few of his accomplishments.

Most notably, the work 30X30 saw Fortier dancing solo in the same spot for 30 minutes, 30 days in a row, outdoors at public spots like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, rain or shine, in 15 cities around the world for a total of 450 performances from 2006 to 2012. Talk about dedication.

You might expect that the final act of a 45-year career would be a retrospective. Not so.

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Montreal dance master Paul-Andre Fortier, right, makes his final career performances of Solo 70 Dec. 14-15, 2018, for Brian Webb Dance Company at MacEwan’s Allard Hall.
Montreal dance master Paul-Andre Fortier, right, makes his final career performances of Solo 70 Dec. 14-15, 2018, for Brian Webb Dance Company at MacEwan’s Allard Hall. Sandrick Mathurin

“I’m not nostalgic at all. I was more interested in taking risks again and dealing with things I’ve never dealt with before, taking chances and exploring new territory. It’s been extremely satisfying.”

For Solo 70, Fortier won’t actually be entirely alone on stage. He’s joined in performance by punk rock guitarist Jackie Gallant and actor-playwright Etienne Lepage, who recites his own text reflecting on the show. It’s all codified and choreographed, but the dancer allows there might be an edge of spontaneity to the performance. Either way, be prepared for something unique, intimate, surprising, profound and accessible all at once as video clips hint.

Apart from his appointment to France’s Order of Arts and Letters, Canada’s Governor General’s Award for lifetime achievement and membership in the Order of Canada, much-honoured Fortier enjoys an international reputation for pushing boundaries. Risk is part of his way of life.

“Risk teaches you a lot of things. If you repeat the same thing over and over, you don’t progress. My target is to use my art to learn about life, about our relationships with others, about all sorts of things. It’s exciting to challenge yourself. I want to be less dumb every day.”

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Fortier came to dance relatively late. Born and raised in small-town Quebec, he was 24, a college professor in Granby specializing in literature and theatre when a fellow teacher suggested he join her in a summer workshop in movement in Montreal. It changed his life.

“I fell in love with the art form, and 40-some years later, I’m still there.”

He kept his job as a literature prof for five years while he was moonlighting as a dance student, training with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, but in the genre of contemporary dance — partly because of a lack of options back then — he considers himself self-taught.

His new career started when he joined the company Groupe Nouvelle with choreographers like Edouard Lock (founder La La La Human Steps). By 1979, Fortier had his own company, and before long, he was winning notice for his own projects which ran the gamut between story and abstraction.

Since then, he has alternated between teaching, dancing and choreography for his own company, touring Canada and the world with solo and group pieces. Now he’s dissolving his company, but Fortier intends to continue small projects with other groups and write a book. He’s pleased to finish performing with BWDC since Webb has often sponsored his shows since the 1990s.

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Fortier’s Solo 70 hits MacEwan University’s Allard Hall Theatre Lab (11110-104 ave.) 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $40 Adults, $30 Seniors, $25 Students, from Tix On The Square (780-420-1757 or tixonthesquare.ca).

Montreal dancer James Viveiros returns to hometown Edmonton Dec. 14-15, 2018, to perform for Mile Zero Dance.
Montreal dancer James Viveiros returns to hometown Edmonton Dec. 14-15, 2018, to perform for Mile Zero Dance. Supplied

Viveiros homecoming

As chance has it, another Montreal-based dancer — James Viveiros — presents his solo work of contemporary dance, Melt, for Mile Zero Dance, Friday and Saturday.

It’s a homecoming, too. Born and raised in St. Albert, Viveiros is a grad of MacEwan’s theatre and dance programs. Raised in a sports-oriented family, he came to dance as an “outlet for energy” (Edmonton Oilers assistant coach and former hockey player Emanuel ‘Manny’ Viveiros is his brother). This show marks his first performance here in three years.

Melt, A Pretext For A Prayer, was created and first performed in Montreal in 2017. He sees it as an expression of the collective experience that brought him to independent creations.

“It’s about inviting the audience to participate in the dance, about the borders we create with each other, about connecting and consent,” he says. “It’s not a traditional piece, but definitely with an invitation.”

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Melt is a reference to the melting of physical boundaries, and Viveiros promises the experience comes with a theatrical element that packs surprises for the audience.

“It has sort of a narrative but you don’t have to understand that to appreciate the work. I’m hoping that people will simply connect to the poetry, imagery and physicality in front of them.”

Based in Montreal since 1997, Viveiros is a 16-year veteran of the acclaimed Compagne Marie Chouinard among other national and international performances, and a Gemini Award winner for his part in television specials. Now in his early forties, he works as a dancer-choreographer teaching the Gaga Method part-time in Tel Aviv, Israel, along with activities for his Vivus company in Montreal.

He has a love-hate relationship with working solo.

“When you do a solo creation, you only have yourself to face. You have these long moments in the studio, kind of a struggle with yourself to produce something until you break through.”

James Viveiros brings Melt to Mile Zero Dance 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Spazio Performativo (10816 — 95 street). Tickets are $15 for members, $20 non-members, in advance from eventbrite.ca or at the door.

Ballet Edmonton’s merry moves

It’s a dance weekend all over.

When Ballet Edmonton hosts its first seasonal celebration and fundraiser Friday and Saturday at the Varscona Theatre, be ready for seven “seasonally-inspired vignettes” from their company dancers, songs from Andrea House, Jocelyn Ahlf and Sheri Somerville, and a nutty festive playlet from Stewart Lemoine called A Hudson’s Bay Story.

Snacks and cocktails are part of the event starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Varscona (10329 — 83 ave.) Tickets for this event are $40 online at balletedmonton.ca.

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