Artistic Direction, Choreography and Dance : Louise Bédard

Artistic Advisor : Ginelle Chagnon
Music : Jean Derome
Set Design and Lights : Axel Morgenthaler
Costumes and Make-Up : Angelo Barsetti

A Louise Bédard Dance production

Running Time : 61 minutes

La femme ovale’s first public demonstrations were at the Taller de la Bicicleta (the bicycle workshops) in Tlaxcala and at the Centro cultural Hélenico in Mexico in November 2001.

The world premiere of the piece took place at Dancemakers Studio in Toronto in February 2003.

The Quebec premiere, and final version of the work, was presented in Montreal, at l’Agora de la danse, from May 9th to the 17th, 2003.

" Behind every solo I dance hides a woman I’ve never met. Only by dancing does a portrait gently emerge followed by another and yet another, giving rise to a multitude of faces. The creation of this solo is the direct result of my need to give life to these voices whispering in my ear. I dance to revive my memory and keep theirs alive This solo has been within me for a long time. It links two parts of me, one belonging to the past, another to the future. Though movement, I seek to convey the essence of this singular woman. "

Louise Bédard

Once, while Louise bédard was out wandering, she came by chance across a doll with an ageless face and a body hidden under a billowing dress. Intrigued and taken by this woman-figure, Louise Bédard threw herself into the creation of La femme ovale in April 2001. This new work, which is performed by the choreographer, transports us to a vigorous, lavish world in which the serious encounters the unrestrained. Louise Bédard brings to life on stage a character of disconcerting beauty who is both tragic and jubilant. This enigmatic woman-girl-child reveals a radiant essence in a space – inspired by the natural elements of water, air, earth and fire - that is like a multifaceted prism. She is a character of restless disposition, ever alert to her senses, whose body speaks an edgy language: a volcano on the verge of erupting.

Louise Bédard created the work by juxtaposing a square, the geometrical paradigm in which she evolved, on a circle, the shape that is found on her costume. Her bearing and her step are amplified by the many layers concealing her. Over the course of a journey that marks the stages of her dramatic evolution, La femme ovale gradually sheds these in an act of renunciation that is a true metaphor for a rite of passage, one that will liberate her and allow her, at last, to achieve the purest form of abandonment.

As in her earlier works, including Braise Blanche (1990), Vierge Noire (1993), Cartes postales de Chimère (1996) and the duo Elles (2002), La femme ovale presents a choreographic portrait of a woman that gives expression to Louise Bédard’s social and personal concerns.