Nicolas Zemmour / Kyra Jean Green – September 14, 2022 LiveEvents September 7, 2022 864 Festival Quartiers Danses presents Nicolas Zemmour / Kyra Jean Green L’enfer d’un monde, by Nicolas Zemmour, is a choreographic creation stamped with humanity. Inspired by the steep rise of domestic violence in the aftermath of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the piece explores both the depths of human violence and the hope for a redeeming strength to pull through and achieve rebirth. “I think of dance as a vital way of expressing emotions, meaning and shapes. I go back to the origins of the word “e-motion”, meaning what is outside of dance’s movement, time, and space. Emotion is meant to take you further, beyond a story, beyond a feeling, beyond an understanding. I let my creation process carry me away and I transcend these concepts in my choreography. Dance becomes alive in a living body, freed from the weight of gravity.” – Nicolas Zemmour Kyra Jean Green’s piece explores what life can be when one forgets their emotions and physical sensations. The main character suffers from alexithymia, the inability to identify and describe one’s own emotions, and anaphia, the inability to feel touch. She finds herself in a world where everything is numb. All alone on stage, she remembers what it is like to feel touch and emotions, but her memory falters. The intimate performance showcases the private world of an individual who is desperate to feel again. “My company, Trip The Light Fantastic, and I try to discover the truth hiding behind our perceptions. I question and explore the reality of individual psyche and the social stigma that prevent us from truly liberating ourselves. My objective is to brutally ask the tough questions through the language of dance and mixed media, in order to inspire positive change in the audience.” – Kyra Jean Green The Smile Club, by Kyra Jean Green, explores how attractive, yet how ridiculous, this idea can be. Retrospectively, it seems odd to associate the temporary relief of a forced smile to the experience of real happiness. It now seems even more absurd to misunderstand the slow and autonomous process of replacing negative thought patterns linked to trauma from cancer treatments, a common occurrence in the history of psychiatry. However, even nowadays, depressed people are often advised to smile more. The Smile Club imagines a fictitious version of the “forced smile” experiment. Duration: 30 min (Nicolas Zemmour, Octet) / 15 min (Kyra Jean Green, Solo) / Intermission / 45 min (Kyra Jean Green, Sextet) Studio-Théâtre de l’Édifice Wilder Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 8:00pm To purchase your tickets visit: www.placedesarts.com The FQD celebrates its 20th anniversary with a local, national and international edition For its 20th edition, the Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD) presents 20 indoors performances from September 7 to 18, 2022! With 6 international companies and 11 local companies, the performances will be presented at Théâtre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts, at Salle Bourgie of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and at the Studio-Théâtre des Grands Ballets Canadiens / Wilder Building. For a 4th consecutive year, this 20th edition of FQD is dedicated to women by bringing together 10 women choreographers out of the 17 national and international choreographers invited. Moreover, the FQD is honored to have as co-spokespersons for its 20th edition the two renowned dance artists Margie Gillis and Anik Bissonnette. www.quartiersdanses.com