Marie Chouinard

Marie Chouinard, OC (born 14 May 1955) is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and dance company director.

Company Background

In 1978 Chouinard presented her first work, Crystallization. After 12 years as a solo performer and choreographer, Chouinard founded her own company in 1990, the COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD.

Chouinard has lived in New York, Berlin, Bali and Nepal. Her travels, her curiosity, her eclectic studies and her understanding of various techniques allow her to explore the body in different ways. She has created more than 50 solo and group works. The works created since 1978 reflect the concerns of this surprising choreographer: her view of dance as a sacred art, her respect for the body as a vehicle of that art, her virtuoso approach to performance and the invention of a different universe for each new piece.

In Marie Chouinard’s alphabet, elements respond to one another as in a classical structure while integrating different cultural understandings of the body as infinitely intelligent. Her raw material is the dancers’ flesh, bones and muscles, the instinct and vital impulse of the human body whose intimate connections she exposes. As a carrier of meaning, each gesture becomes the “phoneme” of a thought imbedded in the body, while form reflects the dancer’s soul as it resides in organs, cells and energetic circuits. Celebrating the human body as a vehicle of life, Chouinard and her contributors work together to create choreographic pieces that reveal a world of primal light, coded sounds and protean forms, through vigorous and incandescent movements.

Performances and solo works

• 1978 : Cristallisation
• 1979 : Cristallisation (les 5 cycles)
• 1979 : Dimanche matin, mai 1955
• 1979 : Danse pour un homme habillé de noir et qui porte un revolver
• 1979 : 5 Chorégraphies pour le public pieds nus
• 1979 : Les oeufs, ou autrefois il y avait, il y a longtemps, au temps où...
• 1980 : Voyages dans les limbes
• 1980 : Auto-portrait no 1
• 1980 : Auto-portrait no 2
• 1980 : Petite danse sans nom
• 1980 : Les Grenouilles
• 1980 : Mimas, Lune de Saturne
• 1980 : La Leçon
• 1980 : Dislocations
• 1980 : Chanson de gestes
• 1980 : Quelques façons d'avancer tranquillement vers toi
• 1980 : Jaune
• 1980 : Récréation
• 1980 : Dimanche matin,mai 2005
• 1980 : Conversations
• 1981 : Plaisir de tous les sens dans tous les sens
• 1981 : Danseuse-performeuse cherche amoureux ou amoureuse pour la nuit de 1er juin
• 1982 : Meat meets meat, avec Claude-Marie Caron
• 1982 : Marie Chien Noir (Mimas, Lune de Saturne; Chien Noir et Plaisirs de tous les sens dans tous les sens)
• 1984 : Table of Contents I
• 1985 : Chebre,avec Claude-Marie Caron
• 1985 : Earthquake in the Heartchakra; Table of Contents II
• 1986 : Drive in the Dragon; Crue; S.T.A.B.(Space, Time and Beyond)
• 1987 : L'Après-midi d'un faune
• 1988 : Biophilia
• 1989 : Poèmes d'atmosphère
• 1990 : Lettre ouverte à Terpsichore
• 1992 : Endangered species; Cet instant-ci et l'éternité; Terpsichore a cappella
• 2010 : Lingam, Campagne

Choreography works

• 1991 : Les Trous du ciel
• 1993 : The Rite of the Spring
• 1994 : Prelude to the afternoon of a faun
• 1996 : L’Amande et le diamant
• 1998 : Les Solos 1978-1998
• 1998 : Étude piognate
• 1998 : Humanitas
• 1999 : Des feux dans la nuit
• 1999 : 24 Preludes by Chopin
• 2000 : Le Cri du monde
• 2001 : Étude no 1
• 2003 : Chorale
• 2005 : Mouvements
• 2005 : bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS
• 2008 : ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE
• 2009 : morning glories
• 2010 : THE GOLDEN MEAN (LIVE)

Works of Marie Chouinard in repertory of other companies

• 2003 : Prelude to the afternoon of a faun and The Rite of the Spring/Ballet Gulbenkian, Portugal
• 2008 : 24 preludes by Chopin/ Ballet national de Toronto, Canada
• 2009 : Prelude to the afternoon of a faun/São Paulo Companhia de Dança, Brésil

Film

• 2003 : Cantique no 1
• 2008 : bODY_rEMIx/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS (produced by Amérimage-Spectra and realized by Marie Chouinard)

Multiscreen film

• 2003 : Cantique no 2

Installations

• 2004 : Cantique no 3 (participative installation created with Louis Dufort)
• 2009 : Icônes (video installation created with Luc Courchesne)

Bibliography

Monographs 2008 : Chantier des extases (poetry), les Éditions du passage (Montréal)

2010 : cOMPAGNIE_mARIE_cHOUINARD_cOMPAGNY, Les Éditions du passage (Montréal)

2010 : morning glories :)-(:, Editions COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD

Awards and Distinctions

• 1981 - Studio du Québec à New York (Gouvernement du Québec), first recipient awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 1986 - Prize Jacqueline-Lemieux awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 1987 - Jean A. Chalmers awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 1993 - Prize Artist Lifetime Achievement awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 1994 - Prize Boat Award (Glasgow, Scotlan) for The Rite of the Spring
• 2000 - Bessie Award for sustained achievement (New York)awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 2003 - The French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers award SACD, Paris
• 2003 - The movie Cantique no 1 receives a prize at the Moving Pictures Festival of Danse on Film and Video, Toronto (performance prize for Carol Prieur and Benoît Lachambre)
• 2003 - National Arts Center Award, Ottawa, as part of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards
• 2006 - Archanget Award forLe vol de LindberghandLes 7 Péchés capitaux,choreographed by MarieChouinard, Edinburgh Festival
• 2006 - Grand Prix du Conseil des Arts de Montreal for the Company's impact on Montreal dance and is workbODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARITATIONS
• 2007 - Officier of the Ordre of Canada awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 2009 - Gemini Award (Best Performance in a Performing Arts Program or Series) awarded to COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD dancers for their performance in the movie bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARITATIONS
• 2009 - Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France awarded to Marie Chouinard
• 2010 - COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD was awarded by the Imperial Tobacco Foundation's Arts Achievement Award 2010
• 2010 - Prix du Québec (Denise Pelletier Prize)awarded to Marie Chouinard

Extern links

• official site
• [1] - official site of the solo gloires morning glories

References

(2)Herod, Kena "Marie Chouinard- myth and celebration" Oct. 2005 Dance Magazine http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_10_79/ai_n15966300/

(3)Strini, Tom "Compagnie Marie Chouinard puts body of work on display" Mar. 25 2009 Journal Sentinel http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/41716237.html

(4)"The Arts | Dance Review | Chouinard gives "Orpheus and Eurydice" a provocative twist | Seattle Times Newspaper." The Seattle Times | Seattle Times Newspaper. 15 Apr. 2009 <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2008279705_chouinard18.html?syndicati on=rss>.

(5)"Compagnie Marie Chouinard." San Francisco Performances. 15 Apr. 2009 <http://www.performances.org/performances/0809/CompagnieMarieChouinard.html>.

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Name	Chouinard, Marie
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Date of birth	14 May 1955
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