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Mavis Gallant : a docudance

Louise Moyes presents a new docudance based on the works of expat Montreal writer Mavis Gallant, who lived in Paris from 1950.

Photo Jared Reid

"My second wife, Juliette, died in the apartment on Rue de Lille, where she had lived – at first alone, more or less, then with me – since the end of the war.... We often talked about looking for a brighter flat, on a top floor with southern exposure and a wide terrace, but Parisians seldom move until they’re driven to. “We know the worst of what we’ve got,” we told each other, “It’s better than a bad surprise.” An excerpt from Mavis Gallant's Rue de Lille.


REVIEWS

Festival of New Dance blogger, Candace Fulford on Mavis Gallant a Docudance:
This highly entertaining narrative by Mavis Gallant led us carefully through this docudance…I was wrapped up in a story telling circle with various narrators, all giving me their own versions of the same story in someone else’s living room…. comedic moments and movements…

Festival of New Dance reviewer Joan Sullivan: "Docudance is a format Moyes has created and pioneered. It brings multiple media into play in a work that holds movement as its core.... The show moves swiftly, dialogue becoming song, dance often set to [voice-over]…‘Mavis Gallant’, in full flow, carries us along in an engaging mix of texture, page, music and movie frame.