Festival Quartiers Danses has made its mission to democratize contemporary dances in all their forms and hybrids by making them more accessible to all audiences in traditional and unusual venues. The FQD primarily presents shows from local artists, but also frequently invites national and international creators. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach to original dance that comprises presentation, performances, installations, films, exhibits, meetings, discussions, and, last but not least, cultural mediation workshops.
Emerging talents and renowned contemporary choreographers alike, of all genders, of all cultures, and of all horizons (differently mentally- and physically-abled, Indigenous, and under-represented artists). The FQD presents debut works, works in progress or new versions (creative laboratories), and reconstructed performances from the choreographic heritage; sometimes performed by pre-professionals.
The festival affords enviable visibility to local and international artists. Exchanges with other cities, provinces, and countries are organized to promote Quebec dance performers, choreographers, and directors.
In keeping with its inclusion mandate, the Festival is active in several Montreal neighbourhoods with cultural mediation workshops in community, education, social, and health centres in order to make dance accessible to as many people as possible.
The Festival organizes performances in locations throughout the city of Montreal, depending on the specificities of every piece and in partnership with recognized performance venues, unusual spaces, neighbourhood, university, and cegep theatres, and diverse public locations. The Festival’s policy is to offer attractive prices or free admission to its shows, in keeping with its mandate of democratizing contemporary dance and increasing its reach.
Rafik Hubert Sabbagh, dancer, teacher and choreographer, was the artistic and general director, but also the resident choreographer of this dance-theatre company. The company produced fourteen dance-theatre pieces presented in Montreal and New York while incorporating the work of choreographers, dancers, directors, dramatists, composers, musicians and actors from varied nationalities and cultures.
This company acts for the development and the promotion of local contemporary companies both in Canada and overseas. The company’s activities include the coordination of local and international tours in Europe, Africa and North America.
It’s only in 2001 that the first artistic manifestation takes place at Maison de la culture Frontenac, in the Centre-Sud borough of Montreal. This event included 5 performances, a dance photo exhibit and a conference about the networking of cultural policies and independent initiatives. The Maisons de la culture (houses for culture) in Montreal were the first venues invested by Transatlantique Montréal. By the second edition, events were taking place in five of them: Frontenac, Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Plateau-Mont-Royal, Ahuntsic, and Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension.
Thanks to a partnership with Pierre Larivière, cultural agent at Maison de la culture Maisonneuve, Transatlantique Montréal creates artistic manifestations in many venues throughout the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough: the Maison de la culture Maisonneuve, the Cégep Maisonneuve, the Chateau Dufresne Museum, and the Place Valois.
Starting in 2008, Transatlantique Montréal can be found in 5 of Montreal’s borough ; Côte-des-Neiges, Ville-Marie, Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Plateau Mont-Royal, and, of course, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. It is also then that the first dance film projection is broadcast at the ONF and the Verdun’s public Library.
Since it was now invested in different boroughs, the event had to bear a name that suited its identity: Festival Quartiers Danses. The festival then includes more than performances in theatres and in urban context. Its program also presents workshops, film projections and exhibits, all circling around contemporary dance practices.
In order to further its mission of bringing dance where it is not present, FQD starts offering, all year round, dance workshops and activities to social, community and health organizations throughout Montreal. This new department works with different public and communities — youth, elders, disabled or mentally challenged people and immigrants among others — that is to say anyone who would not otherwise have an easy access to dance and culture.
2013 also marks the first incursion of the festival at the Place des Arts, for the performances in theatres, and in the Quartier des Spectacles for the performances in urban context.
Since 2015, FQD presents its program at the Cinquième Salle, in Place des Arts, which acts as headquarters for the festival’s activities. Emerging, mid-career, and established artists invited to the festival presented their work there, but also in 14 outdoor venues covering 5 boroughs of the city and 8 neighbourhoods.
Reacting to the extraordinary events that marked the year 2020, FQD embarked in the digital era for its 18th edition, which became the first hybrid edition happening both online and in urban context. FQD unveiled a program of Montreal based short films co-created by the festival’s choreographers associated with local filmmakers. 16 new dance short films were therefore presented as world premieres on the FQD’s website along with 20 outdoor short performances mainly in the Quartier des Spectacles and downtown Montreal.
The 20th edition of Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD) ended on September 18, finally returning to indoor and urban settings after the pandemic. From September 7 to 18, 2022, FQD returned to the public, totaling 12,900 festival-goers in indoor and urban settings! In indoor venues, there were 12 Montreal choreographers and companies, as well as 4 international choreographers and companies, for a total of 19 shows at the Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts, at the Salle Bourgie at Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal and at the Studio Théâtre des Grands Ballets.
The Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD) proudly presents the indoor program of its 23rd edition, taking place primarily in Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles. Featuring 38 choreographers and companies from 5 countries, this edition highlights the diversity of contemporary choreographic approaches and welcomes Les Grands Ballets, Willow Seeds, Montreal krump pioneer 7Starr, along with a special Indigenous Focus and a Poland Focus.
The Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD) has paced Montreal in all its cracks and nickels visiting as much as 85 venues since its foundation in 2000. In theatres as much as in urban context, the creations featured in the festival represent the power, the identity, the timing, the humour, the fierceness, and the revolt typical to Montreal’s creative dance scene, one of the 6 international dance capitals.
In a sharing state of mind, established, mid-career, and emerging artists caught the eye of the audience throughout the years. FQD allowed the public to discover choreographers mainly from Montreal, but also from overseas inviting artists from Brazil, U.S.A., France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Danemark, England, India and South Africa to perform. Moreover, FQD established significant cultural partnerships with allies like the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the McCord Museum, the Musée d’art contemporain, the Phi Center For Contemporary Arts, the Cinémathèque Québécoise, the Place des Arts, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, The dance department of Concordia University, and a dozen of Montreal’s studios and dance companies that share their spaces for artists’ residencies. After 18 editions, FQD is no less than 1745 artists, 405 choreographic pieces, 121 dance short films, 26 art exhibits, 70 conferences and run tables about dance and more than 1000 cultural mediation activities.
