Sarah Dell'Ava

I think it’s a turnaround
That will allow us to find a peaceful path
So that hearts of stone will retrieve the softness of flesh
So that cries will become melodies
So that tremors of fear will become shivers of joy.

I aspire to an art that initiates the turnaround we are thirsting for
Towards an inner world, a space where we can become who we really are:

Vibrant, living beings
Capable of dialogue
Capable of harmony
Capable of peace
Capable of love

To dance together is to enter into
A dialogue
Becoming
Harmony
Peace
Love

Sarah Dell’Ava explores the connections between art, body, psyche, and spirituality. For ten years, she advanced through the chorographic polyptych ORIRI-ORIR-ORI–OR-O-O2 (2012-2022) in search of the origin: where does movement come from, where do we come from, what is our source? Working with varied community groups, Sarah leads creative explorations, including La trace de ceux qui ont marché (Danse-Cité), En secret and En rêve (Agora de la danse). She also co-facilitates cultural mediation at Circuit-Est and with Berceurs du temps. A co-founder of Espace Oriri, she offers intergenerational workshops where creativity serves self-awareness. Since 2016, she has dedicated herself to the practice of Authentic Movement, which she passionately facilitates in Québec and Switzerland. Sarah is forever seeking to express the wonder of our incarnation: the matter of the body, its layers of memories, its beauty. How does this density share itself, transmit itself, make itself poetry? Can we develop new community models based on shared interiority and expressions of empathy?

Hugo Dalphond questions synergy between body, space, and light by elaborating and building scenographic devices aimed at initiating meetings. It is principally by making spectators and performers coexist within the same space and by modulating their perception of that very space that he creates alternative sensorial experiences. This becomes an opportunity to engage with different qualities of co-presence and thus to become aware of our interactions with and relation to others. Since 2015, he has tackled these questions in a PhD, which has for its subject light installation and the spatial opportunity it offers to rethink our collective states. He also collaborates on various theatre and dance projects as a lighting designer and scenographer.

A graduate from École supérieure de théâtre de l’UQAM, Anne-Sara Gendron cumulates experiences in the performing arts. She worked among others with Jean-Frédéric Messier, Marc Béland, Gaétan Paré, Brigitte Poupart, and several emerging artists. Fascinated by the space of performance venues, she mainly specialises in lighting and set design. Versatile, she also works as stage manager and technical director for local and international productions. Fascinated by the arts, particularly by their perpetually renewed relationship with the public, Anne-Sara is as interested by theatre as she is by dance, music, or performance.

Ilya Krouglikov has been developing his undisciplined approach to the performing arts for over ten years, with a particular focus on composition and rhythm. A scientist by training, he believes in inventive structures open to the vagaries of the present. As a dramaturge, he accompanies various creative processes in dance, theatre, and performance, notably alongside Sarah Dell’Ava, Eduardo Ruiz Vergara, Marie Mougeolle, and Les Sœurs Schmutt. With his collective Berceurs du temps [Cradlers of Time], Ilya aims to bring slowness and contemplation to the forefront through participatory works in the public space (Bercer le temps [Cradling Time], O2, Mamie Remix).

It is at the cost of long moments of bewilderment that I must honour life – Sacred. – Maya

Eyes closed, empty-handed, heart open; I am danced. – Hélène

I have been walking, rocking, and evolving for a long time; for a few years, I’ve been calling that “dancing”. – Ariane

I dive into the ocean of movement. I find myself. I meet humanity. – Rosario

My movements have wrinkles. My breath gets out of breath. Your gaze revives me. – Céline

My body is ticklish; it reacts. – Maggie

“Nature is wild and serene, and so am I.” (Ancient Sanskrit) – Kerwin 

Let my heart bloom, light. – Lila

​​As far as I remember, stomping and jumping, jumping, jumping, giggling and running around madly, as far as I remember. – Luce

I do not seek, I go without destination, exploring the diverse possibilities that present themselves to me. – Matteo

Between fluidity and depth, I dance this fragile balance. – Geneviève

To render as humanely as possible each movement I make. – Marie

I dance because I am. Traversed by life, I am connected. – Agathe

I am moved by dances that connect; to oneself, to the other, to the intimacy of the living. – Clarisse

I entered, at random, from one of the doors in the long wall, and joined the supple people who were already dancing. – Richard

I was born close to the sea; my hands touch the flowers and my feet walk the earth, alive among the living. – Marine

I let myself be guided by curiosity. – Matéo

I wait for the precious, cruel, joyful unknown… Lulled by the dreams of the world, I dream of a coat of feathers so I can swim in the heart of the ocean. – Lorena

Beyond the different communities of thought, I find myself in the middle of a community of bodies and emotions. – Gabrielle

Breathe in, let go, let my body surprise me. – Charo Foo

Listening, moving, I am connected. – Diane

The flame was born. Like a messenger, it was my duty to pass on the good news. – Fama

My body becomes other when I dance. – Céline

Sharing movements, songs, and glances, I resonate with the world. – Clémence

I am free at last when I close my eyes and dive in with the vibrations of thousands of hundred-year-old hearts beating in unison. – Annabelle

My heart sings through my ten fingers. – Serge-André

Stripping away all frills, I explore myself. Will I reveal myself to be essential? – Gabriela

I nurture wakefulness and patience to welcome movement and offer it. I am here. – Marie-Claude

I have anchored feet, a cloudy head, and an ocean heart. – Meriem

My ghosts blow through me like a reassuring breeze. Sweet memories that whisper to me that I exist. – Myriam

I am a walker whose heart is shaped by the roots, bark, branches, and foliage of trees. – Pierre

I grab the presence and colours that resonate with me. – Madeleine

The sound dances with my ears and in my heart, the music follows the emotions, and my hands find them in my instrument. – Annette

Sharing a movement. Let the movement transform. To be sensitive, to sense, to feel, to breathe, to be alive. – Luce

My first languages, rhythm and flow, provide testimony to my feeling body. – Chloe

To dance, together; cultivate my Being, welcome the Other. – Diane

With a smile in my heart, I relish the ephemeral; I dance. – Cara

I now dance closest to my heart and I hatch – whole – an instant. – Émilie

I let myself move, until the road brings me to the centre of the choir, the centre of my heart, the heart of our dance. I am flying. – Léa

To dance for the pleasure of being present for what lives inside of me, for what we share. – Philippe