Saturday December 8th 2018, 8pm @ la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent)
$10-20 (sliding scale, cash at the doors)
8pm – Doors and soup kitchen (included in price)
9pm – Performances
10:30pm – DJ
Cabaret Tollé returns for its sixth edition to present an unconventional evening of visionary performance hosted at La Sala Rossa. Born during the Harper regime, Cabaret Tollé has become a site for the Studio 303 community to come together and blow off steam.
This year, our evening of artful investigation explores the ways in which digital technology, and specifically the tidal wave of government incentives and cultural policy related to it – are currently affecting artists’s lives and practices.
In the past year, the federal, provincial and municipal governments have rolled out new cultural policies and substantial funding for digital projects in the arts sector. While Quebec’s $600M Cultural Policy for 2018-2023 earmarks $168M towards a “digital future” for the arts, only $5M is attributed to address the precarious economic status of artists.
Within this trend, is (digital) form valued over artistic content? Will the income gap between high and low-tech artists be amplified? How can artists – whether they work with technology or not – best navigate these new policies? At Cabaret Tollé, diverse creators present short works responding to the current digital-cultural paradigm.
Hosted by « A.I. » O’Hara, an Android Assistant that will guide us through the evening to help us be a better audience and enhance our viewing experience. In other words, a Cynical Siri, a Smart Voice Nag, an angry Alexa, a Bitchy Bixby.
On the menu for the evening, Jacqueline van de Geer, performance artist and actress, will perform an interactive and performative standup, revealing artists’ cheating strategies. Multidisciplinary artist Kofi Oduro will present The Brain Wanders ”Where is my Destination?”, an interactive transmedia piece using live coding to create a dialogue with the audience in order to underlie the workings behind human health, creativity and performance, in relation to technology. Audrée Juteau will perform, in duet with Natalie-Zoey Gauld, La Mystique informatique, a piece that uses the mushroom as a metaphor and proposes dance as a resilient force capable of breathing new life into technological waste. Tanya Davis, poet, musician and performance artist, offers a performative spoken word piece, written especially for this evening, with a mix of theatrical monologue, storytelling and humour elements! The duo Jordan Arseneault and Maxine Segalowitz, aka Peaches Lepage and Rodolfo, propose L’application Bohème, an hommage to doomed love and lusty geolocation, set to the music of Puccini and the sounds of 21st-century app-iness. Sandy Bridges (the character of Lenore Claire Herrem), corporate bimbo, shares tips on the process of applying for grants for a digital project! Betty Pomerleau and Dave Biddle will present a virtual reality performance starring Clara Furey. Virginie Jourdain, will surprise us again, and complete this new tech lineup!
The evening is capped by a dance party with the fabulous DJ Tay!
*—–> ARTIST SOUP KITCHEN <—–*
For those who show up early, a delicious organic, local, gluten-free, “low-tech!” and vegan meal will be served from 8pm. This soup kitchen lovingly prepared by members of the 303 Board of Directors, overseen by our intern Magalie, aims to feed the artists, reverse / question the dynamics of traditional power and demonstrate once again that together we can accomplish great things! Bring your own forks & containers!
Artists bio
Alexis O’Hara is a transdisciplinary artist whose work comprises elements of cabaret, pop music, spoken word, stand-up comedy, vocals and electronics, drag, photography and installations. The eclecticism of her work attracts international programmers from various disciplines. She has presented work in Scotland, Austria, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Slovenia, Australia, Finland, Denmark, Brazil, Monaco, Serbia, Switzerland, the U.S. and across Canada. She lives and works in Montreal.
Founder of Nadere Performing Arts, Andréane Leclerc graduated from the National Circus School of Montreal in 2001. Driven by a desire to harness contortion technique as a malleable material that is capable of generating a world of sensation and imagery beyond the spectacular, she now creates her own experimental and conceptual performances – Di(x)parue (2008), Insuccube (2012), Eat Me (2013), Bath House (2013), Cherepaka (2014), Sculptural body (2014) and The Whore of Babylon (2015). In 2013, she finished a master’s degree in circus dramaturgy in the Theater department at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) under the direction of Marie-Christine Lesage. Actually in a co-creation with the dancer and choreographer Dany Desjardins called Sang Bleu, Andreane has a particular interest in the scenes that pushes limits out (cabarets, Edgy Women Festival, Short and Sweet, Piss in the Pool, Salon K). She continues to interpret for choreographers and directors such as Peter James (Famille Déjantée), Angela Konrad (Variations pour une déchéance annoncée) and Theatre Republique in Denmark (The Tiger Lillies performs Hamlet, 2016). Since 2014, Andreane gives workshops around the world for circus artist: Acrobatic dialogue and Contortion technique. Recently, Andréane also offers Contortion for All that aims to demystify and undo clichés inherent to the art of contortion by introducing a strong technique and giving tools to allow movements throughout the whole spine.
Originally from Abitibi, Audrée Juteau graduated from LADMMI in 2003. She works with several choreographers and companies such as Katie Ward, Deborah Dunn, Estelle Clareton, Aurélie Pedron and the Jean-Pierre Perreault Foundation (in Joe’s final tour). ). In 2016, she completed her master’s degree in dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Audrée has also been interested in choreography since 2008, first in the group The Choreographers and has been developing her own choreographic approach since 2012. Audrée is the winner of the DanceWeb 2010 – ImPlusTanz (Austria) scholarship awarded by Jardin d’Europe and David-Kilburn Award (2015). In 2018, Juteau sets up L’Annexe-A, an organization that creates and supports artists.
Now that the future is eternally imminent but technically impossible, and any promise of a radical new human experience is always already broken, Betty P and Davey B are finding immediate pleasure in a mediated present. (Virtual Reality) is both an incessant anticipation and a clumsy nostalgia.
Jacqueline van de Geer was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to Canada in 2005. She holds a degree in both visual and performance arts. Growing up in Rotterdam, a scarred place that was accidentally bombed twice during World War II, taught her a ’do a lot with almost nothing’ – approach to her practice. She works in Europe and Canada as a performer and theatrical DJ. Since coming to Montreal, Jacqueline has started to write short plays and create solo works that are bilingual, non-linear, and somewhat dada-inspired. In her performances, she likes to challenge herself and her audience in a non-invasive way. Jacqueline hopes to create a space where participants can open up to a collective experience: to share, to exchange, to be touched, and to speak out. Her work focuses on issues of intimacy and reconnection. This happens in various settings such as a gallery, a hotel room, a hall corner, a tent, or an exterior performance space. Offering possibilities for participation with her audience keeps the work feeling fresh and alive. She is thrilled to be part of the Montreal eclectic arts community, which has generously welcomed her since her big move across the Atlantic.
Jordan Arseneault is a gay male bilingual artist of mixed Acadian extraction. Active in Montréal’s independent performance scene since 2008, Jordan employs song, spoken word, cello, drag, humour and movement in his staged work, which is often improvisational. He has been developing the social practice workshop Fear Drag since 2010. Both his performances and participative workshops address issues of criminalization, stigma, mental health, HIV/AIDS, addiction, biculturalism, inherited trauma, queerness and community. He was a Studio 303 artist in residence for 2015-2016.
Kofi Oduro work is an observation of the world around us and putting it into pieces that others can relate or disagree with. Through the Mediums of Poetry, creative coding and videography, he tries to highlight the realm of human performance and mentality under different pressures and scenarios. These scenarios can be described as societal, internal or even biological issues that humanity faces on the regular. By adding Music and visual aids, it helps magnify the sensation of how one may feel and noticing the little subtleties that make them human.
Lenore Harrem is Sandy Bridges, a self-made woman, inspiring those around her to get through all hardships of all walks of life via the easiest route possible. Whether sharing the good word with trickle down economics, or providing opportunities for growth and great experiences, Sandy has the answer to all your questions.
Maxine Segalowitz is a queer, Jewish emerging dance artist in Tio’tia:ke, commonly known as Montréal. Since arriving in 2009, she’s gathered skills as an interpreter, facilitator, choreographer, and recently, a clown – presenting at Montreal Clown Fest with her trio Les Dancing Queens! As a dance interpreter, she’s worked with Karen Fennell, Ingrid Bachmann, Corpus Dance, Yannick Desranleau, Chloe Lum and Helen Simard, performing in Montréal at Tangente, Completement Cirque, MAI, and internationally in KUNST KRAFT WERK (Germany). With creative collaborator Phoebe Heintzman Hope, Maxine has co-facilitated The Pleasure Model: A voice+movement+choreography workshop series. She has been an Artist-in-Residence for Festival Bouge D’ici and Studio 303, where she has researched SEXPECTATIONS, her solo-show highlighting comparisons between strip club clientele and theatrical audiences. Otherwise, she can often be found on the bike path, lighting candles under the Moon, or sweating it up on the dance floor.
Natalie-Zoey Gauld never let go of the dance. She danced and dances with choreographers Marie Béland, Deborah Dunn, Johanna Bundon and Bee Pallomina, Jacques Poulin-Denis, Andrew Tay and Dean Makarenko among others. Between 2005 and 2011, Zoey participated in creative projects, shows and tours with the Pigeons International dance-theatre company. In 2010, she received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to study at the Impulstanz Festival in Vienna, Austria. Zoey holds the AEC Trainer in Contemporary Dance from the Montreal School of Contemporary Dance and is currently a Master’s student at the Université de Québec in Montreal. Zoey is also a creator of small choreographies that she sometimes presents in public.
Tanya Davis is a poet, musician, and performer currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She has 4 albums and 2 books, including a hardcover by HarperCollins of the widely popular video poem. How to be Alone, a collaboration with Andrea Dorfman. Tanya is a past poet laureate of Halifax and was the 2016 artist in residence with Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine. She is currently exploring new ways to merge music and poetry while teaching herself the drums and working on a book about union.