PROJECT // The Conditions (working title)
In collaboration with musician-composers Patrick Conan and Vicky Mettler, choreographer Lucy M. May is currently building a container for new improvisational research. The Conditions (working title) is envisioned as an installation for gallery space. Third in a series of pieces investigating the ecologies of place, it will follow Vivarium (2014/17), created in alleyways and rail yards, and Anima / Darkroom (2019), a Krump solo for black box theatres. Recalling the emotional content of dancing alone at the Reversing Falls in New Brunswick (The Lips of the River, 2017) and drawn to the intimacy of gazing in the gallery, Lucy is investigating processes that entrain gesture and emotion. The Conditions seeks to track and induce fleeting sensations (butterflies, shivers) through voice and movement. New and archaic methods of sense-perception (Micro-Phenomenology, medieval medicine, the Occult) and non-equal-tempered musical tunings inform the work. Freestylers from both Contemporary and street dance styles will join the project, and a visual environment for The Conditions is being created by cut-paper artist Maisie O’Brien and lighting designer Jon Cleveland.
BIO // Lucy M. May is a contemporary dance artist based since 2003 in Tio’tia:ke/Montréal. Attracted to the porousness of collaboration and the vastness of dancing, Lucy has developed choreography for stage, screen, paper, and unusual locations. Her creations, such as Anima / Darkroom (2019) in collaboration with the Krump artist 7Starr; Vivarium (2014/17), and Le Goulet (2017) often ask how environments thread their way through human movement. She deepened her research in New Brunswick, her native province, during the artist residency entitled Esemplastic Landing (2016-17). Between 2009 and 2016, Lucy was a member of Compagnie Marie Chouinard. She is an affiliated artist of Margie Gillis’s Legacy Project and has been entrusted with two solos: Complex Simplicity of Love and Give Me Your Heart Tonight. A graduate of EDCM in Montréal and Rotterdamse Dancacademie, she began studying Krump in 2016. Her work has been presented in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Sweden. lucymmay.com
DETAILS //
Working Title: The Conditions
Creation: Lucy M. May & Guests
Country Of Origin: Canada
City: Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyaang/Montréal
Research Phase I : October 2019-October 2020
Creation Phase I : November 2020-February 2021
Creation Phase II: Projected for Fall 2021-Summer 2022
Direction & Production: Lucy M. May
Dance & Voice: Peter Jasko, Ja Britton Johnson, Francesca Chudnoff, Marie-Reine Kabasha, Lucy M. May, Sovann Rochon-Prom Tep
Music: Patrick Conan & Vicky Mettler (Kee Avil)
Visual Art: Maisie O’Brien
Lighting Design: Jon Cleveland
Artistic Advisor: Ola Maciejewska
Tarot Consultant: Eroca Nicols
Voice Coach & Mentor: Judith Koltai
Photographers: Francesca Chudnoff, Kinga Michalska
Videographers: Francesca Chudnoff, F. Chris Giles, Lucy M. May, Do Phan Hoi
Video Editing: Lucy M. May
With the support of: Canada Council for the Arts, Festival Transamériques (Montréal), The Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton), Studio 303 (Montréal), Circuit-Est (Montréal), Gallery TPW (Toronto), Maison de la Culture Marie-Uguay/Charles Brécard/Le Sud-Ouest (Montréal)
