Virginie Brunelle + Cai Glover + Hélène Simoneau

After devoting her childhood to learning the violin, Virginie Brunelle, inspired by this musical knowledge, landed in the world of dance, graduating from UQAM in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in creation. Her works are orchestrated around themes centered on the human being, in which the writing of rhythm, the intensity of gestures, pauses, breaths and gazes are deployed like the notations of nuances, attacks and phrasing on a musical score. This precise approach, in which every element is meticulously considered, enables Virginie to infuse emotion into every movement. Her artistic approach exploits the poetics of vulnerability, where the ardor, endurance and fatigue of the bodies draw the spectator into an immersive, powerful and unsettling experience. Since founding her company in 2009, Virginie has created 9 stage works (Les cuisses à l’écart du cœur, Foutrement, Complexe des genres, PLOMB, À la douleur que j’ai, Beating, Les corps avalés, Fables, High moon) and 2 film works (Show me the exit, co-directed with Nicolas Berzi, and Réminiscences), which have been presented in over 50 cities in a dozen countries.

Cai Glover has been transfixed in an on-going and endless discovery of dance since he was 10 years old. Most recently, under the name of his company, A Fichu Turning, Cai has been developing expression in poetry and in a language of movement, putting the dancing body to task in a search of an embodied expression of poetics. Through the transposition of language into movement, we make meaning beyond the grips of the literal. He never tires of the search to find ways to bring affect to audiences through this art form, and to appeal to the varied and countless emotional experiences of human beings. As a hard-of-hearing artist, hearing differently has become a driving force of his artistry and originality as a mover, performer, and choreographer.

Hélène Simoneau is a choreographer exploring themes of intimacy, agency, identity, sexuality, and power. She received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and was a 2022 Choreography Fellow at New York City Center. Most recently, she was awarded a Pillow Lab residency at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA. She has also been an artist in residence at Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYU/Tisch, NCCAkron, and a fellow of The NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the Swiss International Coaching Project for Choreographers (SiWiC) in Zurich. Simoneau was awarded first place for Choreography at the 13th Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, for her solo the gentleness was in her hands. Her choreography has been commissioned by Oregon Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School, Charlotte Ballet, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, Vitacca Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, BalletX, the Ailey School, Dimensions Dance Theatre, and the American Dance Festival. Hélène is originally from Luceville, a small village near Rimouski, in Eastern Québec.