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André Gingras Idoru - 02
André Gingras was born in Canada and studied in Toronto, Montreal and New York City. His studies in Canada encompassed theatre, English literature and contemporary dance. He received a Canada Council Arts Award to pursue his dance education in New York City. In NYC he worked with Christopher Gillis, Doug Varone, Mariko Tanabe and the Doris Humphrey Repertory Co. In 1996 Gingras became a regular member of Robert Wilson’s creative team, developing and performing; TSE, The Days Before, Prometheus, 70 Angels on the Facade and Relative Light among others, all over the world. André Gingras began choreographing in Holland in 1999. After an extensive career in dance and theatre, his desire to explore a highly physical and visual personal language began to manifest itself. His movement research finds its inspiration in martial arts, breakdance, the physical symptoms related to specific medical conditions and in post-modern dance and theatre. His desire is to interface dance with the visual and digital arts and to engage audiences in a dialogue based in contemporary issues. His first stage work, the Korzo production CYP17 was premiered in the CaDance Festival 2000 and made a large impact internationally. An extensive tour throughout the Netherlands was followed by many invitations from festivals and theatres in Europe, India and North America, including renowned festivals as the Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint Denis (Bagnolet), Romaeuropa Festival, Munich Dance 2002 and the Biennale of Venice 2003. Gingras was rewarded for CYP17 with the Encouragement Prize 2001 by the Amsterdam Art Fund. Choreographer André Gingras and dancer Kenneth Flak were invited to perform CYP17 in the famous Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York in January 2007; after the performance, they received a standing ovation by the famous Mikhail Baryshnikov himself. They returned to New York in May 2007 for a few appearances with the Dancespace Project. The New York press was full of praise for this Dutch production: It's not often that a dance lives up to its ambitious program notes ('the freak show of the future'), but Mr. Gingras has created a bizarre, funny, often disturbing piece that does just that, and he does it mostly through movement. Here is a world that couldn't be evoked by anything other than the physical detail of Mr. Flak's extraordinary dance.' (New York Times 5 May 2007) This summer Gingras and Flak had a run of ten performances of CYP17 in the Sydney Opera House, Australia. 7 September 2007 performer Kenneth Flak received the prestigious ‘Bessie’ award for his performance in CYP17. This makes him the first dancer in the Netherlands to be considered for this award. 'For a primal, yet hyper-clinical performance with art unflinching intensity of focus; a complete embodiment of man as a twitching, convulsing lab rat in a future world shaped by genetic engineering and alien abductions in CYP17 by Andre Gingras, presented at Danspace Project.' (uit het juryrapport Bessie Awards 2007). In 2002, Gingras collaborated as a choreographer for Peter Stein's production Penthesilea, which was premiered at Epidauros Amphitheater and toured throughout Europe. The same year, his second Korzo production The Sweet Flesh Room was premiered in the CaDance Festival and went on a successful U.S. tour in 2005. In January 2004, The Lindenmeyer System premiered at Korzo theatre/The Hague, and later toured throughout Europe. His first choreography for Netherlands Dance Theatre I, Mean Free Path, premiered in April 2004, which was followed by a second piece in February 2005, excessive second body smile. U Bevindt Zich Hier, a large scale work for 230 non-professionals, was made for the closing of the Springdance Festival 2005. In 2006, Gingras created Nell Foco Che Gli Affina for Staatstheater Nürnberg, and Hypertopia and trans.form for Korzo. The 2007 season brought premieres for Iceland Dance Company (soft death of the soltary mass) and the Rambert Dance Company (Anatomica#3), while touring the pieces Hypertopia, The Lindenmeyer System and CYP17 in Poland, England, Spain, the US and Australia (Sydney Opera House). In November 2007 Gingras will present a new Korzo production, The Autopsy Project, to be premièred on the 1st November at the Holland Dance Festival in The Hague The Netherlands. |