 Ginelle Chagnon
Photo : Robert Etcheverry
 Jamie Wright
Photo : Cylla Von Tiedemann
 Risa Steinberg
Photo : Tom Brazil
 Marc Boivin
Photo : Luc Sénécal |
Ginelle Chagnon
Ginelle Chagnon has been an active part of the professional dance scene in Quebec since 1971. After beginning her career in classical dance, she devoted herself to studying the Limon technique. With her solid background in technique, she was welcomed into Quebec's contemporary dance community as a performer and a rehearsal mistress, which brings her a unique approach to the body in representation. For the last fifteen years, she has worked as teacher, rehearsal mistress and assistant for a number of Montreal choreographers, including Paul-André Fortier, Jean-Pierre Perreault and Louise Bédard.
Ginelle's class follows a traditional structure for dance classes: it starts, most often, with floor work, to continue at the bar or in the centre. It concludes with long diagonal movements, which call upon the dancer's sense of rhythm and dynamic variations, as well as their relation to others and to space.
The class focuses on the senses; on skin, bones, and the relaxing of the joints. It refers to the sensory perception of the centre of the body and to the precision of orientation in space. It is particularly concerned with the way that movement is generated, in terms of volume and of process.
Jamie Wright
A New Brunswick native, Jamie Wright dove into contemporary dance at York University, where she completed her Bachelor's degree in 1997. Moving to Montreal in 1999, Jamie quickly established herself as an engaging performer and a committed artist. She has danced for independant choreographers such as Sarah Febbraro and Chanti Wadge and worked for Compagnie Flak/José Navas, since 2001 notably in the recent Anatomies (2006). During the 2006-2007 season, she joined the ranks of O Vertigo for Étude n°1 pour cordes et poulies. She is an active member of the GravelArtGroup. In addition to performing, Jamie is equally passionate about teaching, and regularly gives classes and workshops for professional dancers and schools like Ladmmi, École de danse de Québec and the Rotterdam Dance Academy.
Her classes are based on the geometry of the body. Simple exercises that focus on a precise placement are followed by jumps that travel across the space. Jamie then teaches a choreographic combination that pushes the dancers to work their precision, efficiency of movement and speed of execution.
Risa Steinberg
Risa Steinberg, an active member of the dance community for over thirty years, has taught three generations of dancers worldwide. Hailed as "one of our great modern dancers", she is known internationally as a solo artist, master teacher, rehearsal coach, and director of the works of José Limón. She has both performed and taught extensively throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. After her graduation from The High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School, Ms. Steinberg performed with the José Limón Dance Company, Bill Cratty Dance Theater, Annabelle Gamson, Anna Sokolow's Player's Project, Colin Connor, and American Repertory Dance Company of Los Angeles. As a solo artist, she has been a guest with the companies of Wally Cardona, Sean Curran, and Danzahoy of Caracas. Since 1986 Ms. Steinberg has presented a solo concert A Celebration of Dance, featuring repertory spanning 100 years of American Modern Dance. She has reconstructed the Limón works around the world working with such dancers as Rudolph Nureyev, Frank Augustyn and Karen Kain. She has also taught actors at the National Theater Institute, a part of the Eugene O'Neil Theater Center. Ms. Steinberg teaches at The Juilliard School and at the Limón Institute in New York City, and continues to teach and perform throughout the world.
The technique, style, and philosophy of modern dance classes taught by Risa Steinberg draws upon principles developed through the work of Jose Limón. They include fall and rebound, the challenges of yielding to and resisting gravity, the use of weight, suspension, succession, isolation and active breath to train the body to move in its fullest potential. An emphasis on alignment underpins all of these principles. As the dancer explores these concepts, her/his approach to movement and use of space is enhanced and intensified by ideas of phrasing through music and focus. Through investigating and integrating these concepts. the hope would be that the dancer gains a powerful technical capacity with the ability to speak poetically with their bodies.
Marc Boivin
«Boivin, in particular, enlivened the space (...) In his long poses that are part of the choreography, he's never static, but waiting, listening (...) for him, the abstract is a dynamic place that speaks about and doesn't ignore human essence.»
Kaija Pepper, Dance International.
Dancer, teacher, improviser, and choreographer, Marc Boivin began his dance career at Le Groupe de la Place Royale in Ottawa, under the directorship of Peter Boneham. In 1985 he joined Ginette Laurin and her newly formed company O Vertigo Danse, touring extensively in festivals across Canada, the United States and Europe. Since 1991 he has worked as an independent dancer, performing in the company creations and the commissioned works of many choreographers from Montreal and abroad, notably Louise Bédard, Sylvain Émard, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Catherine Tardif and Tedd Robinson and in the improvisation projects of AH HA Production (Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood). More recently, he has also been seen in the works of James Kudelka and André Gingras.
Fascinated by teaching as much as performance, he has been affiliated with LADMMI in Montreal for the past 20 years and regularly guest teaches and choreographs in professional programs across Canada, more specifically with Peter Bingham and Andrew Harwood at the EDAM summer intensive as a member of the improvisation group The ECHO CASE. He is the 1999 recipient of the Jacqueline Lemieux prize, awarded each year by the Canada Arts Council.
Marc Boivin offers a comprehensive contemporary dance class composed from the pedagogical material of the Limón technique and some principals of ballet. Using the traditional progression of a center class, the dancer is challenged to develop an equilibrium between strength and the free released weight of momentum; the clarity of impulse within, and the outward relationship to space through form and focus. In the process, technique is defined as the appropriation of tools in order to physically articulate the artistic contribution of the dancer through her/his choices.
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