2025-2026 - Page 2 - La Rotonde

Everytime I come up for air (Solo pour Alice)

A powerful, yet delicate solo exploring the inner landscapes living in the mind of a performer in search of breath, space, and transformation.

Drawing inspiration from somatic practices and meditation, Daina Ashbee creates a deeply physical and intimate journey for Alice Vermandele, whom she met in Quebec City in 2019. The body becomes a vessel for deep memory: Alice seems to rise to the water’s surface, reach the shore, then inhabit an immense space — beyond the visible. In this ritual of presence, the choreographer seeks to awaken a liberated feminine energy through a unique choreographic language.

Known for her radical works at the crossroads of dance and performance art, Ashbee transforms the stage into a space of revelation and resilience.

Everytime I come up for air (Solo for Alice) is the second work part of the Maison pour la danse collection, a series dedicated to the longevity and accessibility of choreographic art.

The double bill is presented with the support of Première Ovation.

SENS

A sensory journey in close proximity with the performers of Le fils d’Adrien danse.

True to choreographer Harold Rhéaume’s human-centered approach, this new creation invites audiences into a sensory experience designed to awaken the senses.

Shaped by multiple residencies across Québec and France, the work questions the place of contemporary dance in society and the role of audiences in live arts. Presented in a fully immersive 360-degree setting, it offers a shared journey through choreographic movement — side by side, eye to eye.

In this matrix of sensitive creation, the boundaries between performers and spectators dissolve. Together, we experience a catharsis woven from voices, breath, subtle vibrations, and impulses. A vital moment of humanity where art becomes once again connection, presence, life.

Myokine

Myokine is a unifying work for seven performers exploring the body as a source of resilience, beauty, and hope. Myokines — molecules secreted by muscles in motion — are often called “molecules of hope” for the well-being and optimism they procure.

For Anne Plamondon, this process symbolizes the body’s redeeming role when faced with the growing complexity and turbulence of our times. It embodies the essential functions of releasing tension, emotions, and anxiety, while giving meaning to the imperfections that make life both strong and vulnerable.

Set to a hypnotic score and powered by energetic, spirited Canadian performers, this new creation speaks to the urgency to take action into this era we’re living in and the vital force of unity shown by a community in search of significance and purpose.

ONIONMAN

ONIONMAN is a visceral, sensitive performance where clothing becomes both a playmate and an emotional partner. As layers are put on, crumpled, or cast off, the body reveals itself, transforms, and questions its own identity.

This debut work by Victoria Côté Péléja draws from street dance freestyle and textile manipulation. Movement emerges from the friction between fabric, breath, sweat, and the impulses of the present. Every garment put on or removed becomes a symbolic layer — social, emotional, or cultural.

What drives us to change? When does identity (re)form? ONIONMAN explores identity as a continuous transformation, at the intersection of inner and outer worlds, of self and other. The piece turns clothing into a raw, sensory language, unveiling a porous, vibrant being in constant evolution.

The double bill is presented with the support of Première Ovation.

Raven Mother

A vibrant tribute to Indigenous Elder Margaret Harris, who dedicated her life to keeping her culture alive. A multimedia story bursting with images, dances, songs, carved masks, and stunning regalia.

A leading figure in the cultural revival of Indigenous peoples from British Columbia’s Northwest Coast, Margaret Harris (1931–2020) played a key role in preserving the songs, dances, stories, and regalia-making traditions of the region. With her husband, Chief Kenneth Harris (1928–2010), she founded the Dancers of Damelahamid in 1967, driven by the urgency to safeguard these ancestral practices. Her daughter, Margaret Grenier — now joined by her daughters and granddaughters — carries the torch forward.

Raven Mother — a reference to the raven, emblem of the clan — honors the unwavering determination of this matriarch and the vital role of mothers in passing on an invaluable legacy. Bridging Indigenous traditions and contemporary forms, this work offers an immediate, essential immersion into a rich and remarkable culture.

Show Gone

With Show Gone, Toronto-based Ame Henderson and Croatian artist Matija Ferlin bring to a close a trilogy of duos that began 15 years ago — a creative friendship and a choreographic relay carried through time.

Now, after years apart — their lives transformed, their bodies changed — the two artists ask themselves: what must we reveal to each other in order to move forward together once more? How do we reconnect after life has momentarily pulled us apart?

The performance unfolds like an anti social media scroll session, laying bare both the desire to control the narrative and the impossibility of doing so. Instead of static images shown just fast enough to mimic life, it offers fragments of lived stories, at human speed. And from this endless sequence of endings, a quiet sense of beginning slowly emerges.

Homo Confortus

Danse K par K presents its ninth creation — a danced fresco envisioning a utopian world where solidarity and mutual aid prevail over the pursuit of convenience, all within a unique post-apocalyptic setting.

Homo confortus is a surreal fiction inviting the audience to step forward in history — as if in the year 3026 — observing our civilization in all its beauty, ugliness, patterns, and ruptures. At the heart of this creation lies the desire to place these ever-comfort-seeking beings into a munitions factory. A metaphor for our world?

The performance unfolds through sweeping living tableaux that explore the cycles of human experience while tackling contemporary — and often ambiguous — issues.

This group of homo confortus — outfitted with shock-absorbing foam and demonstrating a fledgling revolutionary spirit, armed with poetry and humor — questions modern individualism and imagines a utopian society. A multifaceted choreographic work committed to experimenting with new ways of creating and connecting.

Les Coz de maïs

Diving into a world where cultures meet and intertwine, Les Coz de maïs offer a unique multidisciplinary where music, dance, and poetry come together to create an unforgettable artistic journey.

Through original songs in French, English, and Wendat — blending traditional Wendat sounds with contemporary accents — the piece captures the duo’s cultural reconnection with their roots. Throughout the performance, poetry and movement build stories shaped by a worldview deeply rooted in Wendat and Québécois identities.

Les Coz de maïs celebrate the richness and diversity of cultures, highlighting the beauty of human connection through art.