École de danse contemporaine de Montréal
Sofia Nappi + Catherine Gaudet
ÉDIFICE WILDER | Espace Orange
May 21-24, 2025 - 7pm
Sofia Nappi + Catherine Gaudet
Les danses de mai, opus 2025
After three years of intensive training, and on the threshold of their entry into the professional world, the graduating students of École de danse contemporaine de Montréal will be featured in Les danses de mai, opus 2025, under the direction of Lisa Davies.
Pupo (excerpts) by Sofia Nappi
Sofia Nappi’s piece is inspired by Pinocchio and the theme of metamorphosis of the carved wooden puppet is at the centre of the piece. How does this slow transformation from one state to another happen? How does the naive child grow up and no longer allow himself to be manipulated by others? In images reminiscent of commedia dell’arte, the Italian choreographer asks herself whether the fantastic fairy tale about lies that are punished, a tale which we like to read to our children, may not in fact be a story for adults. It rather frightened her when she was a child. With minimal gestures and flashing leitmotifs embedded in the often mirrored, unbridled desire to move of a young person, the choreographer refers to personal growth and gaining awareness: how the innocent, curious child awakens in the world, how it meets people and plays with them, testing its limits. Then, the character encounters his first temptations, such as greed, is gullibly deceived, comes to terms with himself, and finally embraces the power of forgiveness.
Les jolies choses – réorganisation by Catherine Gaudet
Five bodies move to the rhythm of a metronome. Their mechanical gestures are endlessly reprised, the machine runs wild and demands their absolute compliance. With her ripened artistic language, choreographer Catherine Gaudet seeks a space within bodies where desires can be reborn despite the burden of constriction. This seemingly harmless collective score, with its orderly routes, gives off a scent of cheap veneer that will soon end up cracking. Attuned to the conflicting throbbing of her era, Gaudet surrounds herself with her loyal collaborators to explore the false pretenses of the show business apparatus. After a while, repetition reveals itself to be the troublemaker among the dancers-turned-instrumentalists. It pushes open the whistling valve to release the excess vapour of salted bodies. Indeed, de-pressure is the flip side of grandiosity. Here, the risk of tastelessness is all too real, but necessary in order to maintain balance.
Artistic and program direction Lisa Davies
Production management Alice Renucci
Choreographies Catherine Gaudet, Sofia Nappi
Creation and performance advice Isabelle Poirier
Collaboration (Sofia Nappi) Arthur Bouilliol, Glenda Gheller
Dancers Clara Biernacki, Iban Bourgoin, Oly Dion, Ludovic Germain-Thivierge, Ezra Guerrier, Alice Larrière, Michelle Lucero Moris, Kate Manns, Jane Millette, Apolline Saulnier, Hortense Sierka, Clara Truong, Clara Urquhart
Catherine Gaudet began performing with various choreographers before embarking on her own choreographic research in 2004. In the following years, she made a name for herself with Grosse fatigue, which won a prize at the Arhus International Choreography Competition (Denmark), and L’arnaque. In 2009, she delved into the effects of loss in her first long piece, L’invasion du vide. In Je suis un autre (2012), she scratched beneath the surface of social façade to portray the ambiguity of characters grappling with their contradictions, an approach she pursued again in 2014 with Au sein des plus raides vertus. There, she explored the concept of morality. In 2016, she co-created with director Jérémie Niel La très excellente et lamentable tragédie de Roméo et Juliette, a piece that placed Shakespeare’s classic in an enclosed space rife with sensuality and melancholy. In 2018, she created Tout ce qui va revient, which combined three solos for female dancers from her repertoire, along with L’affadissement du merveilleux, a piece for five dancers that is based on the figure of the circle and the hypnotic insistence of the cycle. In 2021, she created and performed the solo Se dissoudre, which explores the illusory nature of our perception of time, and presented Les jolies choses at the FTA 2022, a creation for five performers. In 2023, she creates Les mondes parallèles, performed by Louise Bédard and Sarah Williams, as well as Mains moites, a solo for Francis Ducharme, which she co-creates with director Brigitte Haentjens. 2024 saw the completion of her first large-scale work, ODE, danced by 11 performers, produced by the Centre de création O Vertigo and presented at the FTA. Over the past few years, Catherine Gaudet’s works have enjoyed considerable international success. They have been seen in Lyon (Biennale de la danse), Paris (Chaillot), Barcelona (Mercat de les Flores), Porto (DDD Festival) and Madrid (Festival Otono), among others. Catherine received the GRAND PRIX DE LA DANSE de Montréal in 2022 and the Prix de la diffusion internationale in 2023. Catherine is now the general and artistic director of Compagnie Catherine Gaudet and is also a member of Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique, an associate artist at Daniel Léveillé Danse, and an associate artist at Agora de la danse.
Sofia Nappi is choreographer and artistic director of KOMOCO, a contemporary dance company based in Italy and active internationally that she co-founded alongside her first muses, Adriano Popolo Rubbio and Paolo Piancastelli. Right from the start, Sofia’s early creations with KOMOCO have won prestigious awards: the Partner Introdans Award (Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition 2021) and the 1st Prize, Critics’ Award, and Production Award at the 35th International Choreography Competition Hannover from the Tanja Liedtke Foundation and Marco Goecke (2021). Currently KOMOCO’s works, choreographed by Sofia, are presented in Italy and internationally, with tours across Europe as well as Mexico, Canada and Serbia, hosted by international institutions and festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia, The Albania Meeting Dance Festival, RomaEuropa Festival, MASDANZA, The Colors International Dance Festival, Teatros del Canal and Madrid en Danza, Danse Danse (Montréal), Belgrade Dance Festival, to name a few. As an independent choreographer, Sofia also creates new works for internationally renowned dance companies and theatres: in 2021, she re-staged Holelah with the National Theatre Mannheim, originally created for the 2019 Venice Biennale; in 2023, Tagadà at Staatsoper Hannover; Moving Cloud for Scottish Dance Theatre, premiered as part of Celtic Connections 2023; and the inclusive project Kemet, commissioned by the Dutch national company Introdans as part of the HubClub’23 project. In 2024, she choreographed the stage movements for the opera Platée at Göteborg Opera and presented the short creation Hara for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 as part of the Up & Coming Choreographers project. In 2025, Sofia will create new works for Leipzig Ballet, Gauthier Dance, and Ballet BC. In parallel, Sofia Nappi’s work extends into research and professional training at an international level (including Tisch – New York University, Micadanses at Carreau du Temple in Paris, Henny Jurriëns Studio in Amsterdam, b12 and Share Intensive in Berlin, Elephant and the Black Box in Madrid, Tanzpunkt Hannover, École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, Opus Ballet in Florence, etc.), in close collaboration with the dancers of KOMOCO. Since 2022, she has organized the Komoco Intensive workshop in Florence twice a year, attended by professional dancers from all over the world. Sofia graduated from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Her training has also been strongly influenced by close contact with Hofesh Shechter Dance Company and her study of Gaga, the movement language developed by renowned choreographer Ohad Naharin.
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