2019 – 2022 | DANSE TES MOTS

Following the success of the project Corps poèmes (Poetic Bodies) with Danse Humaine and Debout Actes de Parole where we experimented with the creative marriage between words and movement for the first time, FQD decided to pursue this exploration with a new audience. Danse tes mots (Make your words dance) therefore offers a playful approach to the learning of the French language with immigrants at the , a social and economic reference center dedicated to help and support newcomers in the Saint-Laurent borough. Since 2021, a new partnership has been created within the the project with , whose mission is to facilitate the integration of immigrants into the community life of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce as well as the host society and foster intercultural relations.

The workshops given collaboratively by a dancer and a poet are part of a French conversation class dispensed at the center. The class is for people who need or want to improve their conversation skills and don’t have the opportunity to practice French on a daily basis. The approach through the marriage of dance and literature allows a new gateway to explore the language and develop a different vocabulary under the guidance of Estelle Lavoie, dancer, and Marie-Paule Grimaldi, poet.

The session comes to an end with a collaborative creation involving the artists and the participants. In 2019, it took the form of a short film under the direction of the filmmaker Arthur Barbier. Participants are invited to compose with words and movements and therefore create a distinctive piece at the crossroads of dance, poetry and film. In 2020, the session was concluded with the creation of two zines, small publications that can be printed and assembled from home. The visual artist Alexandre Leblanc illustrated the participants’ movements into images that were added to the leaflets. Finally, in 2021 and 2022, two zines created by Francesca Désulmé (Koukatelier) and two photographic films by Sarah Seené, photographer and filmmaker, captured the most poetic moments of the workshop sessions.

Project funded under the Agreement on the cultural development of Montreal between the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec.