CANCELED – CATHERINE LESSARD (MTL) — The Constellation of Archetypes

Oct. 10 to 14, 2022 — 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.)
Full week rate: 85$ with Service Québec / 110$ if non-eligible
Drop-in class rate: 19$ with Service Québec / 24$ if non-eligible* 
Language of instruction: French
Capacity: 23 people
Open to artists of all disciplines

*Drop-in on Monday and/or Tuesday only. No advance registration for drop-in attendance – pay by credit or e-transfer on site the morning of, if places remain.

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By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

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CONTENT // The Constellation of Archetypes is an opportunity to learn how to generate one’s own dance from the inexhaustible reserve of universal human experience. Finally offered in person, this workshop welcomes dancers in search of artistic depth and clarity, and of connection to the root of their life movement. In this process, each sequence of exercises is a return to our primordial knowledge, a knowledge coming from our collective unconscious, a vast heritage of archetypes, images, symbols and ancestral myths, in order to receive the power of expression, creation and transformation. Each dance here will be a “metaphorical act” allowing us to draw from the unconscious matrix formed by the universe of Carl Gustav Jung and the “Jungian archetypes”.

ACCESSIBILITY // This work involves danced and ritualized structures that imply that each participant is in spontaneous movements in space-time. For this, the instructions and safety of each participant depend on visual and auditory cues. Artists living with a physical disability who are able to move independently, either alone or in a wheelchair, can carry out this work by adapting it. Participants are encouraged to interpret the instructions and exercises according to their own abilities.

The training includes individual exercises in which participants can work according to their abilities. It also includes group exercises where each participant must be able to offer support and presence to the other participants. This workshop requires a certain physicality, while respecting your limitations. This training based on authenticity of presence can generate quite intense emotions. There is also feedback in small and large groups. This training is not recommended for people with a group A (schizoid) or group B (narcissistic) personality disorder.

From the beginning to the end of the class, participants take a journey through different mind-body states. Instructions are given orally by the teacher. When there are no verbal instructions, the information is transmitted by looking at the teacher and her body (demonstrations). All parts of the body are involved, although each participant can work at his or her own level, including subtle and unnoticeable movements. Please note that this class does not allow “spectators”. Some people may move less due to limitations, but no one is invited to withdraw into an observer-spectator role during the rituals and sessions. Everyone is “in”, no one is “out”. The psychic safety of the whole group is at stake. Music plays an important role in the development of the course, sometimes the sound level of the music will be particularly high. People with hearing difficulties are invited to observe the demonstrations carefully (they can partially replace the access to the precision of the music).

BIO // Catherine Lessard is a teacher and gestural poet. For 25 years she has been transmitting the art of improvising and connecting through dance. She is a guide in Authentic Movement, a researcher in Somatic Education and a teacher of Contact Improvisation. Most recently, she is a facilitator of Biodanza. She is also trained in music, literature, Gestalt, art therapy and communication. Her passion is the human being, in all its psycho-corporal reality and in all its ‘states’.

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