8PM @ The Citadel TICKETS: $30 Get Tickets
Toronto Premiere
Co-presented with plastic orchid factory
Citadel LIVE presents
entre chien et loup
Choreographed and Performed by James Gnam
entre chien et loup is an expression from old French commonly used to describe a time of day when the light is so dim you can’t distinguish a dog from a wolf. Twilight, dawn, dusk. The gloaming.
In this solo work, Gnam embodies multiple layers of the “dog and wolf” expression to expose his process of making a solo during a pandemic.
Approximate run time is 45 minutes.
Meet the Artists
James Gnam
Choreographer / Performer
James Gnam (he/him) is a dance artist based in Vancouver and Montreal. He is the artistic director of plastic orchid factory, a founding member of Left of Main, as well as an associate artist with MAYDAY and Grand Poney.
He trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and from 1998 to the present, has performed in the works of Crystal Pite, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Jiri Kylian, Barak Marshall and collaborated in the creation of new work with Lee Su-Feh, Jacques Poulin-Denis, Melanie Demers, Vanessa Goodman, Evann Siebens, Peter Bingham and Tedd Robinson. With plastic orchid, James collaboratively devises interdisciplinary work that focuses the body as a site of social commentary.
Read more +James’ research and performance have been supported by Opera Estate in Bassano Italy; Circuit-Est in Montreal; Centre Q and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa; Electric Company Theatre, The New Forms Festival, The Vancouver Art gallery, The Burrard Arts Foundation/Facade Festival, The Belkin Gallery and SFU/W in Vancouver.
plastic orchid factory
plastic orchid factory is an artist-run company that uses the body as a site for research and expression to create and present contemporary performance on the unceded, ancestral and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəyə̓m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people.
Founded in 2008 by dance artists James Gnam and Natalie LeFebvre Gnam, plastic orchid factory makes, supports and advocates for divergent art works that are pluralistic in practice and in form. Priority is on inclusive approaches that blend genres and facilitate collaboration, exchange and the development of new frameworks for making and experiencing art and performance.
Read more +Now entering its 15th season, plastic orchid factory has devised over 20 original works that have been presented in galleries, theatres, studios and community halls across Turtle Island and beyond. Recent highlights include presentations at The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Western Front, Performance Works/Boca del Lupo, Mile Zero Dance (Amiskwaciy Waskahikan/Edmonton), Swallow-a-Bicycle (Mohkínstsis/Calgary) and Crimson Coast (Snuneymuxw/Nanaimo); Commissions for Vancouver’s Capture Festival, Facade Festival and The Belkin Gallery; Residencies at Lake Studios (Berlin), LENA (Hul’qumi’num: Swiikw/Galiano Island), The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (Burnaby, land of the Halkomelem and Squamish speaking peoples) and Centre Q (Adawe/Ottawa).
In 2017, plastic orchid factory founded Left of Main, a shared artist-run creation/performance space dedicated to the live arts, located on MST Territory Vancouver, in Historic Chinatown. The space is home to Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance, CADA/West, plastic orchid factory, Electric Company Theatre and welcomes over 4,000 people annually.
Show Credits
Choreographer and Performer: James Gnam
Rehearsal Direction: Natalie LeFebvre Gnam
Lighting Design: James Proudfoot
Sound Design: Loscil (Scott Morgan)
Media Design and Integration: Eric Chad and Dan O’Shea
Outside Eye: Vanessa Goodman
Created on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəyə̓m, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ peoples.
entre chien et loup was made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, The BC Arts Council, The City of Vancouver, The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Left of Main, Lena Artist Residency, ReLocate Collective, Mile Zero Dance, Sawdust Collector, The MAI, The Fluid Festival and Lake Studios Berlin.
Artist Notes
In that time between the dog and the wolf, we might feel deceived by our eyes, caught somewhere between comfort and fear, between what is real and unreal. It is a time of transformation, “the hour in which every being becomes their own shadow, and thus something other than themselves. The hour of metamorphoses, when people half hope, half fear that a dog will become a wolf.” (Barbara Bray, from the translation of Jean Genet’s Prisoner of Love).
The work develops through cosplay and child-like inquisitiveness, reaching into the thresholds of the familiar and unfamiliar, of safety and threat, of human nature turning wild and uneasiness replacing certainty.
