Photo Credits: Sasha Onyschenko
Photo Credits: Sasha OnyschenkoPour lire cet article en français, cliquez ici.
Dancing is my first passion. I practiced it for seven years, from seven to fourteen years old and was forced to stop for personal reasons. When I moved to France as a teenager, I felt the burning desire to take hip hop dance classes, but was so uncomfortable in my own skin at the time, that the mere thought of moving my body in front of other people terrified me; so I just put my passion to the side. One day, I stumbled upon a TV Show called So You Think You Can Dance, which introduced me to narrative dancing, thus unveiling dance in a light that I completely ignored until then and revived the fire in me. I realized that we could express ourselves and convey all our emotions through the art of moving our body in rhythm. This show moved me, sometimes, to tears, gave me chills, and made me fall utterly in love with dancing all over again. Every choreography told a story and delivered such intense emotions! It was theatrical and beautiful. Over the ensuing years, I stopped watching these shows and, given the fact that I wasn’t exposed to this art in my everyday life, my love for dancing slowly vanished under layers and layers of obligations along with other hobbies that didn’t require on my part to get out of my comfort zone.
Nevertheless, a couple months ago, I made the firm decision to fulfill every single one of my dreams and pursue all my passions, regardless of the fear or apprehension it aroused in me. Life is way too short to make the deliberate choice to live in fear, rather than spreading your wings and soar to reach your highest potential.
In order to get inspired and place myself back in the spirit of the art of dancing that is particularly dear to my heart, I wanted to see a high-level dance show. That’s why I attended Yesterday, the world premiere of the ballet interpretation of D.H. Lawrence’s novel: “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, by the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. Choreographed by the talented Cathy Marston, famous for her ballet adaptations of literature works, and under the creative direction of Ivan Cavallari, last night’s show was staggering. The key moments of the story unfolded theatrically, while the dancers, who were completely inhabited by the characters they portrayed, would twitch or lighten up; while their bodies would gracefully soar up, bend in frustration, throw themselves on the ground in sadness, sensually intertwine, or passionately reject one another, thus conveying all the force of the story’s emotions, in an absolutely flawless technique and following the rhythm of the music, which was divinely composed by Philip Feeney and marvelously directed by Dina Gilbert.
We were able to see the war, that deprived Sir Clifford from the usage of his legs; the boredom and sadness of Lady Chatterley, interpreted by the ever so graceful Eline Malègue; her encounter with Olliver-Mellors, the gamekeeper, exceptionally interpreted by Raphaël Bouchard (one of my favorite moments from the show) along with the sensual moments between them; the employment of the nurse, interpreted by Sahra Maira; Lady Chatterley’s pregnancy, her divorce and her leaving with the gamekeeper, which were also amongst my favorite bits of the night, because of the softness and languor of the movements, the stripped down decor and costumes and the beautiful piano notes that rosed in the the packed venue.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a magnificent show that I highly recommend. It will run at Salle Wilfirid-Pelletier from October 4th to the 13th. For more information, and to purchase your tickets, please click here.
