• Dance

Le cri des méduses

Showing on Jan 27-28 (In-Person); Jan 27-30 (Online)

Playing at Vancouver Playhouse

A group of dancers, partially clothed with skin covered in dark smears. They are intertwined, grabbing onto each other in a stack of bodies. The floor is gray and there is a gray irregular structure behind them.

Alan Lake Factorie (Canada)

The inspiration for this haunting, dreamlike dance performance is Géricault’s The Raft of Medusa, which depicts a jumble of intertwined bodies and has human desperation as its theme. Choreographer Alan Lake has taken the painting’s beauty and pathos and transposed it to the stage, adding his own brilliance. Nine dancers perform under an ever-shifting scenography–sometimes in pairs, sometimes individually, sometimes in a thick knot of muscle and limb that evokes Géricault’s vision.

Lake’s production is entirely gestural and musical, and yet there is so much to reward our attention: there are portable wooden structures for the dancers to hang from, or against; there are, at times, sheets of translucent material that cloak undressed bodies; there are precise lighting changes, from single spotlights to fulsome illumination. The music has a dark throb and an ambient constancy, as well as intermittent percussion and string notes. Powerful, seductive and ultimately unclassifiable, Le cri des méduses is a triumph of the imagination. 

Creation support – Residencies Place des Arts, La Rotonde, Danse à la Carte, Maison pour la danse de Québec, Danse Danse. Alan Lake Factori[e] is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts du Québec and the Entente de développement culturelle de la Ville de Québec.

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Artist Bio

Alan Lake

Alan Lake is a choreographer, dancer, director and visual artist with a keen interest in the symbolic. He studied at École de danse de Québec and, In 2003, founded the Alan Lake factori(e) in Quebec City. Past productions include Ravages; Chaudières, déplacements et paysages; and Là-bas, le lointain.

Venue

Vancouver Playhouse

600 Hamilton Street, Vancouver

Showtimes

  • January 27: 7:30 +Online
  • January 28: 7:30 +Online
  • January 29: Online
  • January 30: Online

Runtime: 75 min, no intermission

Post-show talkback: Jan 27

Content Advisory

Nudity, haze, strobe lights

Tickets

In-Person: $39
Buy In-Person

Streaming: $25
Buy Streaming

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Access

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Deaf/Hard of hearing friendly

Credits

Creation Alan Lake Choreographer Alan Lake together with the dancers Dancers Josiane Bernier, Kimberley de Jong, Jean-Benoit Labrecque, Danny Morissette, Odile-Amélie Peters, Fabien Piché, David Rancourt, Geneviève Robitaille, Esther Rousseau Morin Live music Antoine Berthiaume Lighting Karine Gauthier Rehearsal Coach Annie Gagnon 
Set Design Marilène Bastien, Alan Lake
 Costumes Marilène Bastien
 Production Director André Houle, Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV
 Technical Direction Claudio Castello Delegate Producer Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV (Montréal)
 Production Alan Lake Factori(e)
 Coproduction Danse Danse, Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV (Montréal) Agent Brent Belsher (Belsherarts Management)

Partners