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Montreal dancer Louise Lecavalier, former member of Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire and perhaps more importantly, Édouard Lock's La La La Human Steps, doesn't visit Vancouver often. This is only the third time she has performed here in the last twelve years, though it seems that whenever she performs in Vancouver she creates quite a stir.

Now unbelievably in her sixties, Lecavalier is now performing with Fou Glorieux, a company she founded in 2006. The name, which vaguely translates to "Gloriously crazy" appears to be particularly apt after seeing her self-choreographed solo work - Stations. Dressed in all black in a black box set with footlights, Lecavalier is initially only visible by her blonde hair and pale complexion.

Her dance vocabulary utilizes repetition, adaptation, and isolation of movements that fits perfectly into the jagged industrial pre-recorded score arranged by Antoine Berthiaume.

Lecavalier's syntax is simultaneously frenetic and fluid. While the work is structured in four highly detailed components, they are seamlessly cycled and fused into non-linear choreography. The dancer relies very much on Alain Lortie's dramatic lighting that consists of powerful footlights on each side of the stage, four vertical lights that constantly change colour and intensity and overhead lighting that generates varying floor textures.

Lecavalier was in perpetual motion, covering every square centimeter of the stage throughout the entire sixty-minute piece. Sometimes appearing to float across the floor, other times stepping back and forth in double-time.

Louise Lecavalier is a bona fide original; she intrigues her audience with a dimension of electrifying dance inspired from her collaboration with Édouard Lock.

© 2022 John Jane