Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie to Premiere AGAINST NATURE, Today

TORONTO (APRIL 11, 2016) - Acclaimed Toronto-based Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC) proudly presents the world premiere of Against Nature (À Rebours), directed and choreographed by the renowned James Kudelka, who won the 2015 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography for#lovesexbrahms. Inspired by a book of the same name by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848 -1907), Against Natureexplores the beauty and perils of isolation and opens at The Citadel on Thursday, May 5, running through to May 15.

Against Nature (À Rebours ) is the second in a series of salon music/dance/theatre creations by Mr. Kudelka - the first being the celebrated From the House of Mirth which CLC premiered in 2012 and remounted in 2013 to sold out houses both times (original trailer for The House of Mirth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TXW20BvDEc&feature=youtu.be).

The original music for Against Nature is composed by K. M. Hunter Music Award winner James Rolfe; the libretto is by award-winning playwright Alex Poch-Goldin, who did the same for From The House of Mirth.

Against Nature features three on-stage musicians, one dancer and two singers who move: award-winning dancer Laurence Lemieux, singers Alexander Dobson (bass-baritone) and Geoffrey Sirett (baritone), and musicians Steven Philcox (piano), Parmela Attariwala (violin) and Carina Reeves (cello) - all of whom were seen, except Philcox, in both versions of From The House of Mirth and performed with beauty and grace.

Lighting design is by Simon Rossiter who won the 2015 Dora Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for#lovesexbrahms. Projection design is by Jeremy Mimnagh and costume design is by HOAX Couture.

Huysmans' novel, written in 1884, became his most famous, or notorious. Says Mr. Kudelka of his inspiration, "I had come back time and again to Against Nature, a very strange novel by Joris Karl Huysmans. It is sensuous, celebrating smell, touch, colour, skin, poetry, painting, sex, and home decorating; to the point of decadence. A man, tired of the debauched and decadent world in which he has lived becomes a recluse, and aims to create his own universe within his home. What starts as a celebration of 'nature,' however, becomes a personal disaster as he turns far away from the world."

One of North America's most innovative choreographers and CLC resident choreographer (since 2008), James Kudelka's mastery of both classical ballet and modern / contemporary dance has earned him commissions from companies as stylistically diverse as American Ballet Theatre, Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal. His work covers an impressive range, from virtuoso pas de deux through large-scale and always arresting adaptations of such classics as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Cinderella, to boldly innovative creative collaborations with dancers, designers and musicians. After nine distinguished years as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada (1996-2005), James Kudelka continues to undertake collaborative projects that engage and challenge him as a choreographer. Kudelka won the 2015 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Choreography for dance production #lovesexbrahms (presented by Art of Time Ensemble in association with Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie).

Laurence Lemieux, Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie Co-Artistic Director, received her training at l'École Supérieure de danse du Québec and later at the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre, joining TDT in 1986 and dancing in works by David Earle, Peter Randazzo, Patricia Beatty and Christopher House, as well as teaching in the School's professional program. She has also danced for such choreographers as James Kudelka, Tere O'Connor, Margie Gillis, William Douglas, Jean-Pierre Perreault and Benoît Lachambre. In 1998, she performed a solo created by Christopher House, Cryptoversa, winning a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance. She presented her first choreography in 1983, and since created more than 25 works. Laurence performed the role of "Lily Bart" in James Kudelka's From the House of Mirth (2012, 2013), for which she earned a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination.

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie was founded in 2000 by individually renowned dancers/choreographers Bill Coleman and Laurence Lemieux. The company has distinguished itself by its innovative, unbridled artistic vision. CLC creates, produces and presents varied works on a local, national and international scale ranging from intimate, smaller performances to spectacular stage shows featuring some of Canada's greatest dancers, as well as now-legendary site-specific events in both urban and rural settings.