PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A FAUN
about
In 1994, the Compagnie Marie Chouinard was invited to perform The Rite of Spring at the Taipei International Dance Festival in Taiwan, with Igor Stravinsky’s music being performed by the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Because the work’s length made it possible, festival organizers suggested that Afternoon of a Faun be added to the program. Upon learning that the company did not perform the work using Claude Debussy’s score, the festival encouraged Marie Chouinard to create a new solo version. This is how Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (the Debussy version) came into being.
information
Solo
Length | 10 minutes
World premiere at the Taipei International Festival, Taiwan, October 21, 1994
A COMPAGNIE MARIE CHOUINARD production, co-produced with the National Arts Centre (Canada) and the Laidlaw Foundation (Canada)
credits
Artistic direction and choreography | Marie Chouinard
Music | Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Claude Debussy, 1894
Lighting | Alain Lortie
Costumes | Marie Chouinard, Luc Courchesne and Louis Montpetit
Make-up | Jacques-Lee Pelletier
Dancer for the world premiere | Dominique Porte
press excerpts
« ... instead of a dancer playing a Faun, there was a real live Faun. I still don’t understand how Marie Chouinard managed to convince this real live faun to appear before us. No human, be it dancer or otherwise, could move like this Faun did. People just don’t. (...) This Faun is a work of genius. Mesmerizing, raw and beyond any earthly thing I have witnessed. » - Teri McCollum, Freelance Dance Writer, San Francisco, 2009
« Savage and infinitely refined...terrifying exhilarating, mysterious, immediate... » - Burt Supree, Village Voice, New York, 1990
performances
Australia | Brisbane
Austria | Bregenz, Linz, Vienna
Belgium | Anvers, Arlon, Bruges, Bruxelles, Charleroi, Gand
Bulgaria | Sofia, Varna
Canada | Calgary, Chilliwack, Duncan, Edmonton, Joliette, Lennoxville, Montreal, Orford, Ottawa, Quebec City, Rimouski, Saint-Irénée, St-John’s, Toronto, Valleyfield, Vancouver, Victoria, Yellowknife
Chile | Santiago
Colombia | Bogotá
France | Amiens, Bezons, Chalon-sur-Saône, Enghien-les-Bains, La Rochelle, Lyon, Martigues, Montpellier, Nanterre, Nantes, Niort, Paris, Tarbes, Villejuif
Germany | Bad Homburg, Bonn, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Fürth, Hanover, Schweinfurt
Hungary | Budapest
Italy | Bassano del Grappa, Civitanova, Ferrara, Rome
Japan | Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo
Mexico | Mexico, San Luis Potosí
Monaco | Monaco
Netherlands | Groningen, The Hague, Tilburg
Peru | Lima
Russia | Moscow
South Korea | Ansan
Spain | Las Palmas, Logroño, Madrid, Pamplona, Vitoria-Gasteiz
Switzerland | Geneva
United States | Ann Arbor, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Sarasota, Seattle