SAT JANUARY 18 2014
Danse Lhasa Danse Co-produced by PPS Danse and Coup de coeur francophone
CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AT UBC 1
Presented with:
Photo: Ryan Morey
“My objective was to honour the soul and the contribution
of this great and exceptional artist that is Lhasa de Sela. I want to make her creation resonate further in time to pursue its trajectory to reach the souls of more people. I want to convey the idea that Lhasa is universal and temporal. There’s a Buddhist saying that says you’ve only really died when your name is said for the last time. With that, Lhasa’s soul is still very much alive.”
– Pierre-Paul Savoie, Artistic Director PPS Danse
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Cover Photo: Jean-François Leblanc, Agence Stock
Danse Lhasa Danse Presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Pre-Show Talk with Pierre-Paul Savoie 7:15pm - Royal Bank Cinema Moderated by Yolaine Mottet (CBC Radio-Canada) Performance 8:00pm - Chan Shun Concert Hall Pierre-Paul Savoie creator & staging director Louise Beaudoin & Pierre-Paul Savoie artistic directors Frédéric Darveau musical director Caroline Nadeau lighting designer Singers: Bïa, Alexandre Désilets, Alejandra Ribera, Karen Young Musicians: Frédéric Darveau (conductor & double bass), Sheila Hannigan (cello), Pascal Racine-Venne (drums), Jocelyn Tellier (guitar), Charles Trudel (piano) Choreographers: Myriam Allard, Hélène Blackburn, Pierre Lecours, David Rancourt, Pierre-Paul Savoie, Roger Sinha, Edgar Zendejas Dancers: Myriam Allard, Tom Casey, Sébastien Cossette-Masse, Roxane Duchesne-Roy, Sara Harton, Élise Legrand, David Rancourt Co-produced by PPS Danse, Coup de coeur francophone. Tour supported by Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Please remember to turn off your cell phones, and note that photography and/or recording of any kind is not permitted. Thank you!
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Danse Lhasa Danse The performance will be 95 minutes with no intermission.
INTRO Myriam Allard: choreography & dance CON TODA PALABRA Alexandre Désilets: voice | Héléne Blackburn: choreography Roxane Duchesne-Roy & Sébastien Cossette-Masse: dance LA MARÉE HAUTE Karen Young: voice | Edgard Zendejas: choreography Sara Harton & David Rancourt: dance El DESIERTO Alejandra Ribera: voice | Pierre Lecours: choreography Alexandre Désilets & Roxane Duchesne-Roy: dance LA CONFESSION Bïa: voice | Pierre-Paul Savoie: choreography Bïa & Sébastien Cossette-Masse: dance IS ANYTHING WRONG Alexandre Désilets & Alejandra Riber: voice MY NAME Karen Young: voice | Héléne Blackburn: choreography Roxane Duchesne-Roy & Sébastien Cossette-Masse: dance LOS PECES Bïa: voice | Roger Sinha: choreography | Tom Casey: dance DE CARA A LA PARED Alexandre Désilets: voice LA CELESTINA Bïa: voice | Roger Sinha: choreography | Tom Casey & Élise Legrand: dance FOOL’S GOLD Karen Young: voice A FISH ON LAND Alexandre Désilets: voice | Myriam Allard: choreography & dance
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RISING Bïa: voice | David Rancourt: choreography & dance
Photo: Jean-François Leblanc, Agence Stock
LOVE CAME HERE Alexandre Désilets: voice | Héléne Blackburn: choreography Roxane Duchesne-Roy: dance PA’ LLEGAR A TU LADO Alejandra Ribera: voice | Myriam Allard: choreography & dance EL PAYANDE Bïa: voice | David Rancourt: choreography Sara Harton & David Rancourt: dancers I’M GOING IN Karen Young: voice ANYWHERE ON THIS ROAD Alejandra Ribera: voice | Edgar Zendejas: choreography Sara Harton & David Rancourt: dance SOON THIS SPACE WILL BE TOO SMALL Karen Young: voice WHERE DO YOU GO Bïa, Alexandre Désilets, Alejandra Ribera & Karen Young: voice Pierre-Paul Savoie: choreography (in collaboration with invited choreographers) Myriam Allard, Tom Casey, Sébastien Cossette-Masse, Roxane Duchesne-Roy, Sara Harton, Élise Legrand & David Rancourt: dance
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Joyce Hinton on Danse Lhasa Danse Many months ago, former Senior Curator for the PuSh International Perfoming Arts Festival Sherrie Johnson first brought the beautiful performance Danse Lhasa Danse to my attention. I was instantly intrigued as I had long been a huge fan of the Montreal based, world music singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela who had made quite an impression internationally as well as in Canada, winning numerous awards and major recognition. I distinctly remember how sad I was the day Lhasa died. It was New Year’s Day of 2010, and she succumbed to breast cancer at only 37 years old. I felt the world had lost a great artist who still had so much to contribute. That day, I listened to her most recent self-titled album with rapt attention. I was incredibly moved by the gorgeous, almost spiritual music. The lyrics in some of her songs seem to imply self-knowledge of her impending death despite the fact when the songs had been written, she had not yet been diagnosed with cancer. In Danse Lhasa Danse, Artistic Director Pierre Paul Savoie brings together seven dancers, four singers and five instrumentalists including members from Lhasa’s original band, in a moving multi-disciplinary tribute to this great artist. I saw the piece performed outdoors at the Luminato Festival in Toronto last summer. The powerful interaction between the singers, band members and dancers in strikingly choreographed pieces completely drew me in. There were video clips of Lhasa in performance, tastefully and thoughtfully interspersed throughout the show, and were the only spoken words that evening. I noticed audience members a generation younger than me mesmerized by the universal appeal of her music and song-writing, and the passionate interpretations by the singers, musicians and dancers. Many of the pieces were light-hearted, others more soulful and yearning. At one point, close to the end of the performance, there is a video clip of Lhasa talking about her father’s view of death. This poetic and uplifting moment is made even more touching in light of the knowledge that Lhasa is no longer with us. Despite my tears, I felt a certain lightness and optimism for the people I love who have died, as well as for myself and my inevitable death one day. I loved this performance. Lhasa’s music is utterly engaging, and the interpretations of these fine Quebecois artists so compelling. We are thrilled to be presenting Danse Lhasa Danse with Norman Armour and the fantastic team at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Thank you so much for joining us for this poignant tribute to an exceptional artist. - Joyce Hinton 6
Co-Managing Director, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is Vancouver’s mid-winter festival presenting acclaimed local, national and international artists. The PuSh Festival presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts with theatre, dance, music, and various forms of multimedia and hybrid performance. It has been hailed as “one of the most anticipated events on the arts and culture calendar, a guaranteed opportunity to see works unlike anything you’ve seen before” (The Province). The 2014 PuSh Festival takes place January 14 to February 2, 2014 at various venues in and around Vancouver. This year marks the Festival’s 10th anniversary, and includes works by artists and companies from Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Lebanon, Portugal, and the United States. The 2014 Festival features more than 150 performances and events over 20 days, including 20 main stage shows, three weeks of performances at Club PuSh, networking events at the PuSh Assembly, film series, dinner/theatre experiences with Dine Out Vancouver, hotel/ticket packages through a new partnership with beVancouver.com, and many artist talks and other ancillary events. pushfestival.ca
PPS Danse
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Photo: Rolline Laporte
Pierre-Paul Savoie “With her warm, intimate and engaging voice, she connects with me in an authentic human way. Her way of questioning love, life, time, death and the meaning of life resonates in my gut, in my heart and in my life. I think her understanding of the circle of life and death was a unique artistic and philosophical contribution to those universal questions.” – Pierre-Paul Savoie in conversation with CBC Music about what Lhasa’s music says to him. Quebec choreographer, dancer and director Pierre-Paul Savoie founded his company, PPS Danse, in 1989. Renowned for multidisciplinary works that feature strong images and raise relevant issues, Pierre-Paul Savoie has worked for stage, film and television and has often collaborated with major theatre, music and circus institutions. In 1996, the Canada Council for the Arts gave Pierre-Paul Savoie the Jacqueline Lemieux Award for Bagne, a work that has found its place in the collective memory and history of Quebec dance. In 2004, he received the Attitude Award from ROSEQ (Réseau des diffuseurs de l’Est du Québec), in recognition of his contribution to dance presentation, and in 2008 he was honoured with the Rideau Hommage award for his contribution to the development of Quebec dance. In 2007, Pierre-Paul Savoie intuitively began applying the “openness to the outside” approach that now characterizes the work of his company, PPS Danse. More than ever, the works are produced in collaboration with artists from Quebec and elsewhere. Over the years he has become increasingly interested in helping new generations emerge by including works for young audiences in the repertoire of PPS Danse.
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Photo: Filippa Lidholm
Lhasa de Sela Some might have seen Lhasa’s first album, La Llorona, as a curiosity, an exotic accident. The singer and songwriter appeared out of nowhere in 1997 with an album that defied definition, capturing a Latin world of her own imagination, born of an itinerant childhood spent between Mexico and the US. The music was both familiar and truly unique, a mix of ranchera music, Eastern European gypsy music, country, and popular songwriting, with intensely personal lyrics in Spanish, and passionate vocal delivery. The album was written and produced in Montreal, and in many ways could not have been made anywhere else. These are songs inspired by a warm country but written in a cold one, with a Brontë-like romanticism, a wry and literate sense of humour, and moments of startling emotional rawness. The album made its way through Canada, France, then through half of the world, winning prizes (including a Juno and a Felix) and selling more than 700,000 copies. The Living Road, her second album, brought Lhasa to an even wider public and to greater acclaim. Her impassioned and hypnotic performances took her to hundreds of cities, from Mexico City to Istanbul. Her third album, simply titled Lhasa, feels like the work of a singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer coming into her own. Lhasa’s songs have been used in film and television, including The Sopranos, Madonna’s documentary I Am Because We Are, the science fiction film Cold Souls, and John Sayles’ Casa de los Babys. Collaborations with other artists included work with Tindersticks, Patrick Watson, Arthur H. and many others. In 2005, the BBC World Music Awards named Lhasa “Best Artist of the Americas”. Far from all the sound and fury of the modern music business, Lhasa quietly went about becoming one of the most fascinating songwriters of her generation. On January 1, 2010, Lhasa passed away in her Montreal home, succumbing to breast cancer at the young age of 37. It snowed for more than 40 hours in Montreal after her death.
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PPS Danse PPS Danse was founded in 1989 by choreographer, performer and stage director PierrePaul Savoie. To this day, the company has presented more than 400 performances of twenty creations in countries across North America and Europe. No matter which cycle of creation they belong to, all PPS Danse works are marked by interdisciplinarity in form and humanity in content. Openness, creativity, humanism, sharing and commitment are the forces that continue to drive the company’s activities. These values are manifest in the production of original choreographic works and in PPS Danse’s involvement in the democratization of contemporary dance. By investing in the fields of creation, cultural initiative and disciplinary development, PPS Danse confirms its position as a pillar of Quebec’s dance community. PPS Danse favours exchanges between local and international creators through invitations, collaborations, co-creations and co-productions. Nonetheless, the company continues to assert its own particular signature by producing interdisciplinary works that renew the choreographic vocabulary by integrating dramaturgy and theatrical elements. Whether they are intended for adults or for young audiences, its poetic and accessible creations illustrate the human condition and social issues. ppsdanse.com Photo by Jay Blakesberg
Coup de coeur francophone Founded in Montreal in 1987, Coup de coeur francophone is a festival dedicated to the discovery of new artists and promoting songs in a wide range of styles. Presented every November in Montreal as well as in more than 45 other Canadian cities, it brings together national and international performers in a program line-up that features up-and-coming, bold and creative artists. In 1995, Coup de coeur francophone created its “traveling festival” component by establishing the Réseau pancanadien, a Canada-wide network that today has 10 active partners in Canadian francophone communities. Spanning six time zones, the event presents roughly 200 shows across the country each year. The Réseau pancanadien showcases francophone creation and provides presentation opportunities for artists, many of whom are from francophone minority communities. It also gives communities access to diversified programming that gives prominence to emerging trends. Coup de coeur francophone is a festival like no other that has taken to the high seas to steer French song through Canadian and international francophone channels. coupdecoeur.ca 10
: Life, Music and Mortality Leading up to this anticipated performance of Danse Lhasa Danse, we asked several community professionals as well as choreographer Pierre-Paul Savoie about their thoughts on the relationship between life, music and mortality. The following is an excerpt on the meaningful relationship between music and the end of life by music therapist Wendy Solloway who works in the Palliative Care Unit at Vancouver General Hospital: “…there is music that validates, that reminds, that offers perspective, and that dishes out pearls of wisdom that help us cope and ultimately find peace. Faces of those who have passed out of this world on the wings of a song crowd my memory...the man who loved to sail and found peace in Christopher Cross’s words, ‘sailing takes me away to where I always heard it could be; just a dream and the wind to carry me and soon I will be free’... the ‘black sheep’ who could relate to the Travelling Wilbury’s words, ‘it’s all right if you live the life you please’...the young woman in her forties who found solace in the notion that her life wasn’t long but it had some wonderful moments as expressed in the song, ‘we sang in the sunshine, we laughed every day, we sang in the sunshine, then I went away.’”
Read the full text on the Chan Centre blog. Visit www.chancentre.com/blog and click on the post titled Life, Music and Mortality.
JAN 30-FEB 1/ 2014
Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver choreography Rudi van Dantzig music Sergei Prokofiev
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“Romeo and Juliet leaves you longing for a few more pages of music and another lovers' pas de deux.” - The Winnipeg Sun
Amanda Green, Liang Xing (Guest Artist) PHOTO: Rejean Brandt Photography
Romeo +Juliet
School of Music Fanfares The fanfare performed in the lobby prior to this concert (7:30pm + 7:45pm) entitled Levez-vous, Lhasa, was commissioned by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts from UBC School of Music composition student Grace Ma. It is one of a number of newly commissioned fanfares that will be performed throughout the Chan Centre Presents concert season, as part of an ongoing partnership with the UBC School of Music.
Levez-vous, Lhasa “I was so touched by this extraordinary musician. Celebrate with me her life and her music while remembering that she has departed. She never really left us; let us raise her spirit with music, and with ourselves. Let us begin by calling back the entirety of Lhasa with a fanfare. Let us begin with remembrance, from her beginning to our last memory of her. Let us begin with a full-hearted homage.� - Grace Ma, composer Nick Hall trumpet Logan Bennett trumpet Holly Bryan horn
Julia Broome-Robinson trombone Katie Tesarowski tuba
THEATRE AT UBC PRESENTS
The Seagull BY TRANSLATED BY DIRECTED BY
Anton Chekhov Peter Gill Kathleen Duborg
January 23 - February 8, 2014 TELUS Studio Theatre 7 Preview, Wednesday, January 22 Tickets: $22 | $15 | $10
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www.theatre.ubc.ca
Tim Matheson Photography
Box Office: 604-822-2678
Upcoming Events at the Chan Centre Full details at chancentre.com Jan 23-Feb 8: The Seagull Presented by Theatre at UBC Feb 6-9: The Florentine Straw Hat Presented by UBC Opera Feb 14: Paris Je T’aime – UBC Bands Presented by UBC School of Music, FREE Feb 15: Sufi Journeys: Through Turkey, Iran & Beyond Presented by Caravan World Rhythms in partnership with the Chan Centre Feb 16: Young Artists Concerto Gala Presented by Mozart School of Music Feb 21-22: Music of the Masters: Mozart and Beethoven Presented by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as part of the Classical Traditions series at the Chan Centre Feb 23: Murray Perahia, piano Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society as part of the Classical Afternoons series at the Chan Centre Feb 23: Ani DiFranco Presented by Ciwko & Cristall
Chan Centre Presentations, Upcoming in March: Mar 1: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Mar 15: SamulNori with Kim Duk-Soo Mar 29+30: Thirst: Music of Ana Sokolovic, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Osterle
SamulNori with Kim Duk-Soo 13
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Joyce Hinton Cameron McGill Jazel Argente Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Brad Danyluk Kara Gibbs Beng Khoo Flora Lew Glenda Makela Trevor Mangion Claire Mohun Christine Offer George Pereira Andrew Riter Nadia Roberts Lyndsey Townsend
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Dal Grauer Memorial Lectures 14
“[Life is] a road constantly changing and, being on it, you change too.” - Lhasa de Sela
Photos: Jean-François Leblanc, Agence Stock
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A Sound Experience. DANSE LHASA DANSE
WYNTON MARSALIS
SAT JAN 18 / 8 pm: DANSE LHASA DANSE presented with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
SAT MAR 01 / 8 pm: JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA with WYNTON MARSALIS SAT MAR 15 / 8 pm : SAMULNORI with KIM DUK-SOO SAT MAY 10 / 8 pm: BÉLA FLECK and ABIGAIL WASHBURN SAMULNORI
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