On the occasion of the first visit to Poland of Daniel Léveillé, one of the best contemporary choreographers who comes to Poznan with his two masterpieces (to be presented in Teatr Wielki on 21.03.) – The Rite of Spring, created back in 1982, and one of the most important works in his oeuvre Amour, acide et noix (2001) – we would like to invite dancers to take part in a workshop and practice the Canadian artist’s original technique under the guidance of his longtime collaborators. How to dance Daniel Léveillé works will be a three-day workshop (3 hours each day) with the program built around the key concepts of Léveillé’s works, which he has been consequently developing in his performances since 1982 until today. On the last day of the workshop special focus will be on lifts and selected figures of partner dancing – the characteristic elements of Léveillé’s practice.

Daniel Léveillé, dancer and choreographer, teacher and visual artist, born 1952 in Canada (Québec). After obtaining a diploma in atchitecture in 1977, he started his dance career collaborating with Lawrence Gradus in Entre-Six Dance Company and with Martine Epoque in Groupe Nouvelle Aire. As early as in 1978 he created his first own performance Le bas rouge de Beatrice. His early career (1978-1981) as well as subsequent artistic explorations were to a large extent shaped by the experience of working with Francoise Sullivan – an independent dance artist who has always been far from traditional forms and current trends in choreography. In 1981 Daniel Léveillé set up his first dance group which he directed together with Gilette Laurin. Ten years after that, he estabilshed his second group, active until today – Daniel Léveillé Danse. Since 1988 the artist also works as choreography teacher at the Department of Dance at L’Université du Québec, Montreal.

Daniela Léveillé’s early works were short, incredibly intensive and ostensibly brutal pieces, perfectly mirroring the theatrical trends of the ’80s. Their main subjects were violence, sexuality (with special emphasis on its marginalized sides) and strong emotional bonds that tie people together. An exception among those narrative theater productions is Le Sacre du Printemps, a work which will be presented during this year’s Spring Festival, a dance spectacle designed in full correspondence to the famous ballet work by Strawinski. Since that time Léveillé has been preoccupied with the questions of “how emotion can be translated into movement” or, in other words, “how emotion moves”. This reflection dominated the cycle Traces I – VI(1989), which in its structure repeatedly employed such ephemeral means of theatrical expression as shivering, instant reflexes, spasms and screams. The works from that period often started from improvisation inspired by the choreographer’s drawings. His method for working with dancers was essentially based on the principle of give-and-take. This approach pushed Léveillé’s work in the direction of minimalist, or rather ‘aesthetic’, form of expression, gradually moving away from the lyricysm of his earliest pieces. Since 2001 the main material for Daniel Léveillé’s work and the main motif of his productions is the naked body, devoid of any individual traits of the one to whom it belongs, reduced to the status of, as one might say, a ‘clinical’ object. The dancer’s body exposed to hard physical conditions, restricted by the effects of aging and fatigue, transforms into the carrier of pure emotion, whose subtlety gets captured in re-occuring and looped signs of expression. During the 5th Spring Festival, next toLe Sacre du Printemps, the artist will present his later work, Amour, acide et noix(2001), which specifically addresses the themes outlined above and constitutes Léveillé’s greatest masterpiece – one that has made him a world-famous dance artist recognized for his independence of the rules dictated by the global art market.

The workshop in Poznan’s Old Brewery will be led by Ivana Milicevic – a dancer involved with Daniel Léveillé’s group since 1998. She participated in all of Léveillé’s more recent productions (Utopie; Amour, acide et noix; La pudeur des icebergs; Crépuscule des oceans) and led numerous workshops and master classes devoted to his technique (organized, among others, by l’Université du Québec/Montéral, Tanzwerk/Bremen, Théâtre L’Arsenic/Lausanne, l’Atelier de Paris Carolyn Carlton). Apart from collaboration with Léveillé, at the onset of her career Milicevic worked with Emmanuel Jouthe and Rolline Laportewhith, at present she takes part in the productions of two young choreographers– Frédéric Gravel and Marie-Julie Asselin.

An additional contribution to the workshop will be made by one of the dancers of Daniel Léveillé Danse who will be visiting Poznan during the Spring Festival.