Toronto Premiere
Presented in collaboration with The National Ballet of Canada’s CreativAction Programme, with support from DanceWorks.
Citadel Spring Mix Presents
The door opened west
Choreographed by Sarah Chase and Performed by Marc Boivin
With modesty and sensitivity, Marc Boivin performs an autobiographical solo that sheds light on the mysterious architecture of memory. With his arms and words, he summons vibrant light beams from the darkness, erecting the delicate architecture of his life story. The veteran dancer trades his virtuosity for a humble language of the heart, in a dialogue with darkness and light. Slowly developed over five years in collaboration with Boivin, the choreography by Sarah Chase alternates between apparition and disappearance and gracefully celebrates the language of the body, a treasure trove of memories.
Approximate run time is 45 minutes.
Meet the Artists
Sarah Chase
Choreographer
Sarah Chase, a choreographer and dancer based in British Columbia, first became known as a solo artist, with pieces set to the stage across Canada and in Europe. She has worked with several great choreographers, including Alexander Baervoets (Belgium), Raimund Hoghe (Germany), as well as Benoît Lachambre (Canada), created pieces for the Toronto Dance Theatre, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Andrea Nann and Dreamwalker Dance, Robin Poitras and Ron Stewart, Antonija Livingstone, Montréal Danse, and Theatre Replacement.
Read more +In 2004, she won the Jacqueline-Lemieux Prize, and in 2006, she received the “Festival Prize” at the Munich Dance Biennale for her piece The Passenger. After creating autobiographical solos A Crazy Kind of Hope for Andrea Nann and and Unmoored for Peggy Baker, Sarah Chase completes this distinctive triptych combining movement and life narratives with The door opened west, which centres on Marc Boivin.
Photo by Michael Slobodian
Marc Boivin
Performer
Dancer, improviser, teacher and choreographer, Marc Boivin began his career with the Groupe de la Place Royale in Ottawa under the direction of Peter Boneham and in 1985 joined Ginette Laurin and her young company O Vertigo Danse. Since 1991, it is as a freelancer that we find him in the work of several choreographers from here and elsewhere, namely Louise Bédard, Mélanie Demers, Sylvain Émard, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Tedd Robinson and Catherine Tardif.
Read more +Affiliated with L’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal since 1987, he regularly teaches and choreographs in various schools and organizations across Canada. Marc Boivin has been president of Espace Perreault – Transmissions chorégraphiques since 2006. He also chaired the board of directors of the Regroupement québécois de la danse from 2010 to 2014 and sat on the Conseil des arts de Montréal from 2005 to 2010. Marc Boivin won in 1999 the Jacqueline-Lemieux prize, awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts and in 2014 and the Dora Mavor Moore prize for his performance in the piece WOULD, danced alongside Kate Holden, a choreography by Mélanie Demers.
Show Credits
Choreographer: Sarah Chase
Performer: Marc Boivin
Lighting Design: James Proudfoot
Composer: Antoine Bédard
Creative residencies: Agora de la danse, Place des Arts
Thanks to Francine Bernier, Raimund Hogue, Mia Wood, Lloyd House, The Chapman family, Ellen and Robert Silverman, Lucas Liepins, Mackie Chase, Jacinte Armstrong, Edna Boivin, Robert Paquin
Premiered at Festival TransAmériques, FTA, Montreal, on June 2, 2021
Press
“The door opened west tackles the life trajectory of Montreal’s Marc Boivin, well-known across Canada as a veteran dancer with uncommon sensitivity.”
– Kaija Pepper, Dance International Magazine