Ep. 29 - Dancing in the Rain (2015)

PuSh Play

Gabrielle Martin chats with Sylvain Émard of Sylvain Émard Danse.

Show Notes

Gabrielle and Sylvain discuss:

• How did your relationship with PuSh begin?

• What was the impact and legacy of the show, Le Grand Continental?

• How do you organize and prepare for a truly large project like Le Grand Continental?

• How does line dancing fit into the origins and creation of the show?

• How does a challenging project translate into a rewarding production for creators, crew and audiences?

• What is the result of the fusion of popular and contemporary art?

• How do you succeed in having the right representation of the community in the cast?

• How is the context of PuSh and Vancouver significant to the work when brought to that community?

• Why was the interaction of people in each cast of Le Grand Continental like a dream in its encapsulation of the world?

• How has your artistic practice evolved over the past ten years?

• Reconnecting with the sheer pleasure of dancing

• What happens when the spectator is in the choreography, not outside?

About Sylvain Émard

A prolific and internationally respected artist, Sylvain Émard created his own dance company Sylvain Émard Danse in 1990, quickly establishing a reputation for a very original style. Highly theatrical at first, his work soon evolved into a more formal approach to dance. Ever since Ozone, Ozone (1987), his first solo, up to Rhapsodie (2022), he has been exploring the territory of human nature through the force and strength of the body. His repertoire now includes over thirty original pieces that have had a resounding impact all over the world.

Renowned for his refined style and precise movement, his presentation in 2009 of Le Grand Continental® at the Festival TransAmériques must have come to some as a surprise. Inspired by line dancing, this unique piece has featured 3,000 non-dancers in several performances across Canada, the United States, Mexico, South Korea, New Zealand, Chile, Germany and Austria, attracting some 125,000 spectators. In September 2017, Le Super Méga Continental boasted 375 dancers in Montréal to celebrate the city’s 375th anniversary in a monumental fashion.

Sylvain Émard’s unique style has led to invitations to work as guest choreographer in theatre, opera and cinema. These collaborations include his joining forces with Robert Lepage in 2005 to work on the opera 1984 by Lorin Maazel, presented namely at Covent Garden in London and at La Scala in Milan. At the behest of theater director René-Richard Cyr, Sylvain Émard is creating the choreographies for the musical Demain matin, Montréal m’attend at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde.

Sylvain Émard has received numerous prestigious awards, such as the Jean A. Chalmers Choreographic Award (1996). He is also co-founder of the Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique.

Land Acknowledgement

This conversation was recorded in what is now known as Montreal, on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst many First Nations including the Kanien’kehá:ka of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron/Wendat, Abenaki, and Anishinaabeg.

It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself.

Show Transcript

Gabrielle Martin 00:02 Hello and welcome to Push Play, a Push Festival podcast featuring conversations with artists who are pushing boundaries and playing with form. I'm Gabrielle Martin, Push's Director of Programming, and in this special series of Push Play, we're revisiting the legacy of Push and talking to creators who have helped shape 20 years of innovative, dynamic, and audacious festival programming.

Gabrielle Martin 00:22 Today's episode features Sylvain Emmer and the 2015 Push Festival. Internationally celebrated Montreal -based choreographer Sylvain Emmer created his own dance company, Sylvain Emmer Dance, in 1990, quickly establishing a reputation for a very original style.

Gabrielle Martin 00:39 His repertoire of more than 30 unique pieces has been praised for the diversity of its choreographic vocabulary, which swings between extremes of generous fluidity and taut control. Renowned for his refined style and precise movement, his presentation in 2009 of Grand Continental at the Festival Transamerique must have come to some as a surprise.

Gabrielle Martin 01:02 Since then, this skillful blend of line dancing and contemporary dance has won over amateur dancers and audiences around the world. Here's my conversation with Sylvain.

Gabrielle Martin 01:15 I just want to start by acknowledging that we are gathered here in Jojage, or Montreal, which has long been a historic meeting place of different First Nations peoples, including the Konyan Kahake, the Wendat, the Abenaki, and the Anishinaabe.

Gabrielle Martin 01:31 And we're also in front of the Festival of Trans -American Headquarters, which is really nice. We're a festival hub, because we're gathered during the festival here in Montreal, Jojage. And I would love to ask you about your relationship with Push.

Gabrielle Martin 01:44 And how that started, how did you end up in conversation, and what was the beginning?

Sylvain Émard 01:50 Well, the beginning was, well, we knew Norma, who was directing the festival at the time, and also Joyce, and we just happened to, I mean, we just happened to run into Joyce once, here at the FTA, actually, and we started to talk about the Grand Continental because she's been hearing about it, because we've been doing it, we had like four different editions at the FTA of the Gallant Council.

Sylvain Émard 02:22 Yes.

Gabrielle Martin 02:23 it premiered, I didn't say this, but just to give more context even, it premiered in 2009 here. And it was maybe a surprise to some because it differed a little bit from your previous work for its kind of skillful blend of line dancing and contemporary dance.

Gabrielle Martin 02:38 And then since then, you know, amateur dancers and audiences have just loved it across the world. But okay, so did Joyce or Norman see it?

Sylvain Émard 02:46 no they didn't see it at that time at that time they didn't and then we well we had videos so we sent them videos and they got really interested and i was really uh excited about the idea of doing it in vancouver which i mean it's a city i really like but i don't have many opportunities to go to go there so that i was really happy of the invitation but it took a while to organize everything because those are i mean the gun concern of that is a big project to organize i mean you have to be really well prepared ahead

Gabrielle Martin 03:24 So can you get into that now, just for our public, to really understand what is Ligon Contenta and how was it realized for the Push Festival?

Sylvain Émard 03:32 So Le Grand Constantin is, I'd say, a fusion of line dancing and contemporary dance. So it's kind of, the source of it is probably my obsession about line dancing, because as a kid, that's the very first form of dance that I did.

Sylvain Émard 03:52 Okay. In a basement of the church of my parish at this part of Montreal.

Gabrielle Martin 03:58 Was that popular? It was popular. As a part of a faith practice at the time?

Sylvain Émard 04:08 had nothing to do with religion. Okay. No. It was just like, it was very popular. Line dancing was everywhere in the 60s, 70s. And so I thought, you know, I don't know why, but I always was interested in watching people doing line dancing, even when it's boring.

Sylvain Émard 04:32 I don't know, park, public places that really touches me. Yeah. And I don't know, I always like stop and stare and watch for, you know, long.

Gabrielle Martin 04:47 period of time. Just was this the first piece that you'd done out of a conventional theater space? In a public space?

Sylvain Émard 04:56 I think so. I think it's, yeah, I come from a theater background also, so we did theater, you know, out in public spaces, but then snow. And so, and I decided that, you know, I would share that dream with the director of the FDA, Marie -Anne Falcon, just like that.

Sylvain Émard 05:19 And she said, oh, I love the idea, let's do that. I said, wow, are you serious? This is like a big thing, you know. First edition, with 65 people, and then it kept growing.

Gabrielle Martin 05:29 So, and this is not just professional dancers.

Sylvain Émard 05:34 Oh no, it's mainly on professional platforms. So we recruit people in the community. So we do like auditions, which actually are like information sessions. So we explain to the people, you know, what the project is about.

Sylvain Émard 05:51 So we kind of select people, but actually we kind of accept almost everyone because we know that at the beginning of the process, many people are going to withdraw because they're.

Gabrielle Martin 06:05 so hard on them to get everything exact.

Sylvain Émard 06:09 It is a very demanding project because it's kind of a three -month

Gabrielle Martin 06:13 I was joking, but maybe it's closer to the truth.

Sylvain Émard 06:17 it is even for that because there's a team of professional dancers that help to teach and to support the non -professional and even the professional dancers things it's difficult so um yeah the so this you know the the it's it's a challenge for everyone

Gabrielle Martin 06:37 We want and this is the challenge is because of the amount of material to memorize or because it all has to be a you Know information with everybody and

Sylvain Émard 06:46 It's a 30 -minute choreography to remember.

Gabrielle Martin 06:50 It's a lot for amateur dances.

Sylvain Émard 06:54 People do work a lot during those rehearsals, but we also provide them with learning videos so that they can work at home, and they do work at home day. And so it's a very intense, but fun project. So the idea is to give the people, as much as possible, a glimpse of what is a professional dance experience.

Sylvain Émard 07:21 And so the standards are high for them, and it's a challenge. So, and I think this is why the project works so well. It's because it's challenging.

Gabrielle Martin 07:36 Yeah, I was going to say, I think it's nice when you assume people can do more than they even think they can do. And I think people, it's very rewarding for people when they have that challenge and then they're in a supportive environment and they rise to that challenge.

Sylvain Émard 07:51 Yeah, they're very, I mean, proud of themselves to achieve those challenges. And, but there's always, you know, it's a 30 -minute choreography. We use like popular music of different style, but every music is being remixed or reworked by a contemporary composer, because even in the music I want that fusion with popular art and contemporary art, so that the people can see that popular, being popular and contemporary,

Sylvain Émard 08:27 I mean, there's a fine line sometimes, and it depends on how you approach it. And so, so, yeah, so, but the thing is that, yeah, you were... No, no, no, no, no. Because I can't, I can't speak for hours about this project, so you just stop me.

Sylvain Émard 08:46 And so we're using a different style of music. So sometimes in different cities, because this project has traveled a lot on four continents, so sometimes we do like specific sections for a host city.

Gabrielle Martin 09:10 So can you tell me about realizing it for Vancouver? Because it came a year after premiering here at FDI, it came to push. And was there anything unique about realizing it there? Did it also have 65 people in it?

Gabrielle Martin 09:24 Did you go to Montreal for months of rehearsals? Or how did that process go?

Sylvain Émard 09:30 So, for Vancouver, what we did, it had 65 people in the cast, and what was interesting about the cast in Vancouver is that it was very diverse. We had a very, and that's what I like about that, is when we succeed in having the right representation of the community in the cast, and I found that was the case.

Sylvain Émard 09:59 For the very first time, I was content with the result of that, so that was great. So 65 people, but the project works, so I'm the only one travelling. So I go to the city, in this case Vancouver, I go there, and then I choose a team of local professional dancers, and I teach them all the material, and I do the audition, then I leave, and the professional dancers keep rehearsing with the non -professional,

Sylvain Émard 10:36 then I come back in the middle, because at first we start with two groups, so that the people are not getting too overwhelmed by the size of the thing, so at one point we merge the two groups, I come back and then do some rehearsal, then I leave, and then I come back at the end.

Sylvain Émard 10:57 So it's kind of a, I try to give as much as possible the whole thing to the community, professional and non -professional, so that they take it, and they make it happen.

Gabrielle Martin 11:10 And what space did it end up being performed at in Vancouver?

Sylvain Émard 11:13 It was performed in Queen Elizabeth, in front of the Queen Elizabeth theater. The Playhouse, Queen Elizabeth, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gabrielle Martin 11:23 right by the push offices. Yes! Those are your dates. That is impressive. I've yet to really, you know, I shy away from the outdoor performances but they're so impactful because you also get the public that just, you know, stumbles upon the performance which is really nice.

Gabrielle Martin 11:39 Did it rain during the performance?

Sylvain Émard 11:42 it rains so much

Gabrielle Martin 11:44 Unsurprisingly, but, unfortunately.

Sylvain Émard 11:48 cold actually but it really rained and actually for me those are the best performances when it rains and and the the dancers you know when they saw the rain they were you know waiting inside I said are we going to dance are we gonna I said for sure you're going to you're a professional

Gabrielle Martin 12:08 I couldn't be better than that.

Sylvain Émard 12:10 So, and I told them, after this, you always want to be dancing in the rain. And they said, come on, come on. And after they said, are you right? You're right. It was so much fun. You know, it's like dancing in the rain.

Sylvain Émard 12:25 And the audience gets really excited about that. You know, about seeing those brave people dancing in the rain, no matter what. So, we did dance in the rain, and then the last day, it was so beautiful.

Sylvain Émard 12:38 That sunshine, really warm. So, we had, we were just missing the snow. It was a nice arc. Yeah, yeah. We had everything.

Gabrielle Martin 12:48 And so I'm curious about the how you perceive the cultural context of Vancouver and well of the push festival Which is in Vancouver on the? unceded squamish Musqueam and say with tooth patient land and How that context is significant for?

Gabrielle Martin 13:07 Your own your own work or for the presentation of this work So being a Montreal based artist and bringing the work to push. What does it mean? What does that mean and how is it to realize this work in that community?

Sylvain Émard 13:20 Well, this is a good question because the interest for me is since the project is being re -created with the local people, for me the interest is to see how the work is going to be transformed by the fact that it's going to be like a different community, a different culture.

Sylvain Émard 13:55 But I mean, it's more in the process than in the result of the work. The result is the same as you have like Vancouver people, Montreal people, New York people. The result at the end is like a beautiful human being dancing and sharing and it's good.

Sylvain Émard 14:18 It's more in the process that I learned from the people. I learned, like for instance, as I said, this cast was very diverse and so for me it was interesting to see and encourage to the dance the interaction between the people and it was for me a real kind of a dream.

Sylvain Émard 14:56 It looked like you had, among the 65 people, you had a representation of the whole planet, almost, you know. So it was very special for that. And also there's, of course, there is, which I didn't realize at the beginning of the origin of the project, that that project will impact people so much.

Sylvain Émard 15:24 And as Vancouver was no exception. We had like people coming to me and saying to me, you know, this experience made me realize that I should quit my job. So I quit my job.

Gabrielle Martin 15:47 life -changing yeah

Sylvain Émard 15:49 And because, again, we don't realize how much, you know, because we, as artists, we're in that world since, you know, so many years, so that we take it for granted that this is normal, what we're doing is, you know, that's our life and we don't see how privileged we are.

Sylvain Émard 16:16 Even though sometimes it's kind of a tough life, but we're still, I mean, privileged to be doing what we're doing. And those people, they discover that work and it's, for some of them, it's life changing because they see that, you know, there's other things than the day to day routine that they're being kept in for so many years.

Sylvain Émard 16:45 With no nothing ahead, or I don't know. And, but, you know, I could write a book about all the Tim Wang Ash.

Gabrielle Martin 16:59 testimonials. Yeah and I think there's also something really powerful about the relationships or the social experience of a creative process of going through that journey together and especially as you talked about if it's something that invites them to step into their bodies or onto the stage in a way that they haven't been able to do before that that empowering experience I think can really transfer to other areas of people's lives and it sounds like it did.

Gabrielle Martin 17:26 Has your work been presented in Vancouver outside of the push festival?

Sylvain Émard 17:33 Before or after yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've been Maybe three or four times before that I presented to my work in Vancouver. Yeah

Gabrielle Martin 17:44 Can you talk about your artistic practice and how it's evolved since then in the last 10 years?

Sylvain Émard 17:53 Well, since we're going to the continent...

Gabrielle Martin 17:57 Since this moment in time, yeah.

Sylvain Émard 18:00 Well, what I can say that it's always difficult to tell exactly how something has impacted you or influenced you. But for sure, I knew that Le Grand Consonantel was something special because it has, as you mentioned at the beginning, you know, like people didn't expect me there because, you know, I'm more known as being like a very, I don't know, contempt.

Gabrielle Martin 18:32 ...precise movement, vocabulary...

Sylvain Émard 18:37 to have an approach more, I sometimes experimental at some point, and the fact that I was going with non -professional, using popular music, line dancing, but that's me. So I just shared that with the people, and I think what it had done to my work is that it reconnected me with this very mere pleasure of dancing.

Sylvain Émard 19:16 And this is something we lose track of as professional dancers because we're searching or being very serious about things, which is okay. And so you're thinking technique, blah, blah, and you know, when I proposed to the professional dancers to assist me for the project, I thought, you know, they're going to go like line dancing, they'll probably do it because they need money.

Sylvain Émard 19:49 But then they kept saying, if you do it again, I want to do this again. I want to do this. This is so much fun. And they all said that to me too, is that while just being there and seeing the people reacting to this, to the fact that they are simply dancing and they're so happy and joyful and so communicative, that's so nourishing.

Sylvain Émard 20:13 So I thought, you know, that's true. This is like, you know, the strength of that piece. And I think that the last piece I did with professionals, with the cast of 20 dancers, which is called Habsudzi, is the result of all that.

Sylvain Émard 20:35 It's like, it's a piece about ritual, the ritual that surrounds dancing. Why do we gather to dance? Why do we gather to see people dance? Simply that. And so that the piece was, I think, very much influenced by the whole experience.

Gabrielle Martin 20:54 piece that has also evolved into a digital form or an immersive digital and like because I think I saw you talking about the project at Parkwood Reynolds last fall.

Sylvain Émard 21:05 Rhapsody was first started, the process started before the pandemic, and then pandemic arrived, so everything was stopped. And so I didn't want to have the dancers, the 20 dancers, without work. So I found some money to keep dancing and do a piece, an outside piece, with two meters between the dancers.

Sylvain Émard 21:35 And for me, the challenge was to, despite the fact that we're not allowed to meet together, we're going to do a piece about gathering with two meters between people. So let's see what will come out of that.

Sylvain Émard 21:50 And so I did a piece, the piece you're talking about is a circular choreography, because the gathering form, natural, organic, is when you gather, you make a circle, so you see everyone. So the whole choreography is in circle.

Sylvain Émard 22:13 So, and then we presented in different cities. And then I decided that it would be a good piece to transform it into an immersive experience. So it's called Natka Choir, and it's a big, big structure, circular structure, quite big, that you get in as a spectator, you get in, and you're being surrounded by 12 dancers doing this circular choreography for 15 minutes in loop.

Sylvain Émard 22:56 And I like it very much.

Gabrielle Martin 22:59 And I hear the theme of Grassemblumont gathering in both Le Grand Continental and Rhapsody.

Sylvain Émard 23:08 again and and what it provides to the spectator is a very particular point of view because spectator is in the choreography not outside so it's kind of anyway so Rhapsody has given birth to a different I'd say version of different pieces

Tricia Knowles 23:37 That was a special episode of Push Play in honor of our 20th Push International Performing Arts Festival, which will run January 23rd to February 9th, 2025 in Vancouver, British Columbia. To stay up to date on Push 20 and the 2025 Festival, visit pushfestival .ca and follow us on social media at Push Festival.

Tricia Knowles 23:58 And if you've enjoyed this episode, please spread the word and take a moment to leave a review. Push Play is produced by myself, Trisha Knowles, and Ben Charlin. A new episode of our 20th Festival series with Gabriel Martin will be released every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts.