Of Mice and Other Devices

‘The stone, the postman and the mirror’

In-devel­op­ment pro­duc­tion (2026)
Rerun of chore­og­ra­phy Of Mice and Oth­er Sim­i­lar Devices : Voy­age en Occi­dent (‘Jour­ney to the West’), 1990 – 91.

Dancer soloist Geneviève Pepin in Of Mice and Oth­er Sim­i­lar Devices — Jour­ney to the West (1990 – 91)

Put on the Mon­tre­al dance stage at Espace Tan­gente in 1990 and revived the fol­low­ing year at the Ago­ra de la danse, Of Mice and Oth­er Sim­i­lar Devices (1990), was born out of exten­sive research into move­ment and ges­tures extend­ing over a peri­od of three years from 1987 to 1990. Involv­ing Geneviève Pepin and Richard Trem­blay, the research laid the foun­da­tions of the chore­o­graph­ic lan­guage put for­ward by Danse Kalashas, the com­pa­ny found­ed by the chore­o­g­ra­ph­er in 1990 on the basis of the oper­at­ing and pro­duc­tion struc­ture put in place as ear­ly as in 1981 with the estab­lish­ment of the prac­tice of Kathakali dance in Mon­tre­al.

(The chore­o­g­ra­ph­er) focus­es on con­tem­pla­tive canons of select move­ments which he uses and reuses to mes­mer­iz­ing effect. The scores act more as aur­al back­drop than musi­cal insti­ga­tors (along the lines of Cun­ning­ham and Cage) and the mes­sage radi­ates peace and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty. (The Gazette, Mon­tre­al.)

Le jeu des mains épouse la musique comme si la danseuse créait les notes du bout de ses (sic) doigts. Le corps s’étire douce­ment avec une grâce qui a tôt fait de nous rap­pel­er les mou­ve­ments médi­tat­ifs du tai chi. (La Presse, Mon­tréal.)

A REMINDER