Thursday, 27.4.2023, from 20:00 TanzTage 2023: Louise Lecavalier: Stations

Louise Lecavalier, born in Montreal in 1958, is considered an icon of contemporary dance. She became world famous in the 1980s as the front woman of La La Human Steps. She left the company in 1999 and has since devoted herself to her own choreographic research. Her impressive solo work can be seen internationally. In 1985, Lecavalier became the first Canadian to win the prestigious Bessie Award in New York, followed in 1999 by the Jean A. Chalmers National Award, Canada's highest dance honor. In 2014, Lecavalier received the Governor General Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement.

She does not dance. She is the dance. In the '80s and '90s, Louise Lecavalier rocked dance stages around the world like no other. As the punky star of the Canadian company LaLaLa Human Steps, the platinum blonde, androgynous performer threw herself death-defyingly and uncompromisingly into her iconic signature move - a horizontal, full-body pirouette. Lecavalier's unbridled kamikaze energy was so extraordinary that stars like David Bowie and Frank Zappa clamored to work with her. And extraordinary Louise Lecavalier still is today.

In her solo performance "Stations," she explores the principles underlying dance in four parts. It is about fluidity, control, meditation and obsession. At the same time, the artist traces very personal stations in her life. Wearing a shiny black jacket and elegant pants, bathed in Alain Lortie's magnificent lighting design, she literally dissolves into the pulsating music. With eyes closed, she drifts delightfully in the current of movement, then again she flies unbridled across the stage like a dervish.

For 60 breathless minutes, Lecavalier brings her inner self out into the open, unadorned and without compromise. Her dance is ecstatic, multi-layered and always at the limit. Not for a second does she leave her stamina and focus, she doesn't allow herself a breather. Louise Lecavalier dances with all her senses, transforming herself into pure life energy. With every polished hand gesture, every precisely placed step and every supple tilt of the upper body, she reinvents herself.

Decades of stage experience and intensive research into movement allow her to move with a naturalness and artistic clarity that is unparalleled. This is how she manages to get to the essence of her being and share it with the audience.