Montreal's Compagnie Marie Chouinard Set to Play at The Joyce Theater November 6-10

The Joyce Theater Foundation will present the return of the Montreal-based Compagnie Marie Chouinard with a program of two U.S. premieres by Chouinard. This engagement will run from November 6 - 10 at The Joyce Theater. Tickets range in price from $10-$49 ($26 - $37 for Joyce Members) and are available through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org or by calling212-242-0800. Please note: ticket price is subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

Marie Chouinard brings her Montreal-based troupe Compagnie Marie Chouinard back to The Joyce with two works that display her compelling imagination. The visually arresting Henri Michaux: Mouvements features dancers dressed in black costumes on a white floor to create a choreographic version of India ink drawings and poetry by Belgian poet and artist Henri Michaux. Chouinard interpreted Michaux's drawings - simultaneously projected in the background during the piece - into movements that she compares to "multiple inkjets, a celebration of blots." The company also performs Gymnopédies, a ballet exploring the theme of duets, with eleven dancers invited to play Erik Satie's intriguing Gymnopédies at the on-stage piano. The dancers took classes to familiarize themselves with and interpret the work of Satie, an eccentric personality whose style was a precursor to later artistic movements such as Minimalism and Theater of the Absurd.

Compagnie Marie Chouinard, returning to The Joyce Theater from November 6 - 10, will perform on the following schedule: Wednesday at 7:30pm; Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 2pm. Dance Chat, a free post-performance talkback with Marie Chouinard, will take place on Thursday, November 7. This enlightening discussion is open to all patrons attending that evening's performance. Tickets range in price from $10-$49 ($26 - $37 for Joyce Members) and are available through JoyceCharge at www.Joyce.org or by calling 212-242-0800. Please note: Tickets prices are subject change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, in Chelsea.

The international reputation of the Compagnie Marie Chouinard, formed in 1990, is the result of twenty-eight years of work by Montreal artist Marie Chouinard. Now a fixture on the world's major stages and festivals, the company has its roots in Chouinard's first creation in 1978, the solo Crystallization. This piece, which immediately earned her a reputation for originality, was followed by over fifty choreographic productions, action-performances, vocal works, installations and films. From 1978 to 1990, Marie Chouinard performed alone throughout the world, developing a personal language with a universal resonance. In the dozen works she has created since the founding of the company, Chouinard has explored the poetics of the body in immediate, intelligible and ever-surprising ways. Each new piece is an odyssey through the history of humanity, while avoiding the chronology or linearity of a narrative. In work stripped to its bare essence, a theatrical, quasi-operatic effect is achieved, the elements of "living art" brought to the fore through various techniques of composition and staging. The dancer is presented as a singular entity, whose rhythmic configurations are broken down into micro-divisions, analogous to the fluctuations of verbal communication. Although her works may be perceived as provocations, they are better viewed as pathways towards freedom and compassion, where humour is possible and Eros omnipresent. The architecture of the cosmos, the inner intelligence of the body and the inexhaustible complexity of its articulations and mutations harmonize in formally accomplished constructions in which style and substance are in perfect resonance.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences for three decades. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce Theater is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant home for more than 320 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists, as well as special residency opportunities for selected choreographers to support the creation of new work. In 2009, The Joyce opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios to provide affordable studios for rehearsals, auditions, classes, and workshops for independent choreographers, non-profit dance companies, and the dance/theater communities. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through pre-engagement Dance Talks and post-performance Dance Chats. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000.

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