Following the success of the Corps poèmes project in partnership with Danse Humaine and Debout Actes de Parole, where we first experimented with the creative fusion of dance and poetry, FQD decided to continue this exploration with new audiences. Thus, the Make your words dance project offers a playful approach to learning French for users of the Centre d’accueil et de référence sociale et économique pour immigrants, CARI St-Laurent. Since 2021, a new partnership has been formed as part of the project with Bienvenue à NDG, a non-profit organization whose mission is to facilitate the integration of immigrants into the community life of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and the host society.
The workshops of FQD are integrated into the conversation courses offered to members of CARI St-Laurent and Bienvenue à NDG. They are aimed at people who want to improve their French and who sometimes do not have the opportunity to speak it in their daily lives. The workshops invite participants to explore less pragmatic lexical fields and to engage in a more personal register, evoking emotions or memories. The workshops are co-led by Estelle Lavoie, dancer and choreographer, and Marie-Paule Grimaldi, poet. Through creative and improvisational games, they help participants find words, even if few, and engage the body in search of a new form of expression.
The workshops culminate in a co-creation between the artists and the participants. In 2019, this creation took the form of a video directed by Arthur Barbier, videographer. Participants worked with words and gestures to create a piece that blends dance, poetry, and video. In 2020, the words and gestures of the participants were illustrated in two zines, small publications that can be printed and assembled at home, in collaboration with visual artist Alexandre LeBlanc. 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.
This project is funded under the Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal agreement between the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec.
