All aboard the emotional roller-coaster

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This article was published 21/01/2016 (3826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A slice of Canadian dance royalty comes to town this week when Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers showcases two local premières by internationally acclaimed choreographer/performer Paul-André Fortier.

The double bill, named after the Montreal-based artist’s 2014 duet Misfit Blues, also features Saskatchewan dance artist Robin Poitras, founding artistic director of Regina’s New Dance Horizons company.

The three-show production opens tonight, Jan. 21, and runs through Jan. 23 at the Rachel Browne Theatre. All shows begin at 8 p.m.

“It’s about a man and a woman. It’s about all the aspects of a relationship, from tenderness, love, hate and cruelty, as we go on a roller-coaster of emotions,” the gracious francophone artist, 68, says from Edmonton, where the duo recently performed the 55-minute touring production, which originally premièred at Montreal’s Festival TransAmériques.

“It’s also a mixture of genres, meaning that it belongs to performance art, theatre and dance, and I did not resist that. I know each time we perform it is a trip — it’s a real experience beyond all the physicality, and I feel there is something there that stirs our soul.”

But lest audiences fear the piece will be a romp down a dark rabbit hole of dysfunctional relationships la Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Fortier quickly dispels that notion, pointing out there are many laugh-out-loud moments as well, as the couple clown around, tumble, sweep each other off their feet, speak wild gibberish and commiserate about their own, all-too-human foibles.

“Will the audience laugh or cry? Of course, both! Life is both,” he says. “You laugh at things, and you cry sometimes, and often you’re somewhere in between, but I think the last image of the show is very positive.”

During his 40-year career, Fortier has blazed a trail as a Canadian dance pioneer with his ever-growing canon that includes nearly 50 solos, ensemble and site-specific works. His many accolades include the 2012 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, being named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2014, receiving a 1993 Dora Award and being made a knight in France’s Order of Arts and Letters in 2010.

He last appeared in Winnipeg in 2008, performing his existential duet Cabane with multidisciplinary artist Rober Racine that laid the groundwork for his latest duet, which he is taking to Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Regina and Saskatoon.

Performing Misfit Blues with her mentor is also a dream come true for Poitras, who calls it, “a wild date with dance.” The 58-year old artist first met Fortier while studying dance in her early 20s at Toronto’s York University, then-disillusioned and discouraged with her program that nearly made her throw in her leotards.

“I was getting really frustrated. I felt I wasn’t getting enough of the “art” of dance,” Poitras reveals over the phone. “One day Paul-André came to guest-teach, and all we did was walk. I thought, ‘Wow, this is so exciting.’ It became a real turning point for me, and I decided to stay in the program based on that experience. I remember saying, ‘Can you imagine dancing with someone like that someday?’ “

That initial experience has since borne rich fruit, leading to an intimate solo, She, which Fortier choreographed for Poitras in 2009.

The piece also features an electronic score by Alexander MacSween, lighting design by John Munro, costumes by Denis Lavoie, with a “mystical and magical” evocative set created by the dancer’s former husband, Métis multi-media artist Edward Poitras.

The production also features the Winnipeg première of Fortier’s Thin Ice (Glace Vive), originally created in January 2015 for Poitras’s annual Men in Dance festival, with two graduating students from the Professional Program of the School of Contemporary Dancers. WCD company apprentice Aaron Paul and SCD third-year student Trevor Pick will perform the emotionally intense duet, which includes a driving score by Jimi Hendrix.

holly.harris@shaw.ca