4-OR

Aside to an exciting and diverse career as a performer for dance companies such as Marie Chouinard, Dominique Porte, Peter James, Sylvain Émard Danse, Fortier Danse-Création, and Daniel Léveillé, Manuel Roque is also choreographer. After creating short forms, Brendon et Brenda (2002) and Ô mon bateau (2004), he signed the solo RAW-me (2010) and the duet Ne meurs pas tout de suite, on nous regarde with Lucie Vigneault (2012), crossbreeding dance and theater. In 2013, he founded the company Manuel Roque and presented in January 2014 the project In Situ at the Place des Arts square in Montréal. His new creation, the solo DATA, has been presented at Usine C during the fall of 2014, and questions the notion of identity and the mater mutation through a formal and hyper physical performance. It has benefited from a residency in Bassano del Grappa (OperaEstate) in Italy and at L’Usine C (Montréal) and received an upstanding public and critic response. DATA was then presented at Festival Trans-Amerique (Montreal 2015), Festival June Event (Paris), Festival B-Motion (Bassano Del Grappa August 2015) and Festival Ailleurs en Folies (Mons sept.2015) During 2014-2015 season, Manuel is participating to “Migrant Bodies”, an international research project involving Canada, Italie, France and Croatia and supported by the Europeen Council. He creates Black Matter that is presented as part of the Migrant Bodies shows in the 4 countries, and will be also in Dublin in December 2015. Manuel is also a choreographer in the field of contemporary circus (Babel, presented at the festival Montréal Complètement Cirque in 2012, 2013 and 2014) and teaches interpretation/creation workshops at the Ecole de Danse Contemporaine of Montréal. He also creates Aurora for 7 students from EDCMTL presented in May 2015. His next Creation , 4-OR will premiere in Montreal in December 2015, presented by Tangente. In 2015, he benefits from a 2 months creative residency at La Fabrik Potsdam, thanks to the financial support form CALQ. (august 2015-oct. 2015). The same year, he is also nominated “Bearer of Hope” in the annual selection of the prestigious “Tanz” magazine. His creative universe focuses on the contemporary languages breeding, on the meeting of a kinesthesic virtuosity and the research of an upstanding presence. Revolving around the notion of contemporary human condition, his work aims to open consciousness and to propose sensible, poetic and genuine artistic propositions.

4-OR is a turning point in my creative process.
This time, I am not dancing in the show.
Here I am, in need of confronting my choreographic impulsion and give them the space to a better conscientisation.
I have a lot to learn from this process.
And I like to go where I am least expected, to surprise myself, and observe what comes out of it.

With my last solo Data , I was exploring the notion of fluid identity as a metaphor of a creative process. I am not interested by recipes and fixed signatures, so I try to explore as large as I can as a creator.

This quest is bounded by a constant friction between form and content.
In Ne meurs pas…, form was serving content
In Data, Content is emerging from the physicality of the proposition.
For 4-OR, there is a sweet spot, a fair meeting point between bodies and the subject that is provoking a very dynamic reaction.
The kinesteatic virtuosity as much as the upstanding presence of the 4 dancers (Indiana Escach, Sophie Corriveau, Lucie Vigneault, Mark Eden-Towle) gives to the work an exhuberant potential. (I am a spoiled creator with them on the stage !)

This is also the first time I write in a quadri-frontal situation, wich gives the work a sense of performative aspect that was attracting for a long time.

I use to beat around the bush a lot before I can actually figure out what kind of bush a new piece is.
In this time of the process, half way, January 15th, after a bit more than a year of research, 4-OR start to open.
I can start to articulate its resonnances
And think about sharing it.