Les Jolies Choses

Catherine Gaudet

Simple things often turn out to be much crueller than they first seem. This tour de force performance, where energy never lets up, is living proof.

On an immaculate stage, five performers move to the rhythm of a metronome, mechanically repeating four movements that are as simple as they are demanding. Little by little, the pace picks up, demanding increasingly impeccable precision from them. Sweat beads, the varnish cracks, until the cathartic explosion: the initially calibrated movements crumble, revealing bodies imbued with doubts, anger, and a burning desire for disobedience.

A leading figure in the new wave of Canadian dance, Catherine Gaudet’s work explores the jolts of the unconscious and the micro-movements that betray the emotions and sensations we all seek to hide behind the mask of social convention. Hailed in turn as “a masterpiece,” “a hypnotic show,” and “a downright jubilant pièce de résistance,” Les Jolies Choses traps the dancers in its well-oiled mechanics while inviting them to break free from the imposed constraints: a true feat!