For the 19th edition, the eighteen original works and world premieres of the indoor program we are presenting will feature fifty-seven performers and eighteen choreographers (thirteen women and six men), the majority of whom are female choreographers from Montréal between the ages of 23 and 92 years old. During the twelve-day festival, performances will be held in Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Bourgie Hall, and the McCord Museum’s Amphitheatre.

The urban program of Festival Quartiers Danses will feature seventy-four performances by twenty-one Montréal choreographers in seven key locations throughout Montréal. The original pieces will be performed at Place des Festivals, Jardins Gamelin, Place du Marché at the Atwater Market, the McCord Museum’s Urban Forest, the Avenue of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), Bernard Street in Outremont, and Lien Nord on the Lachine Canal.

For the thirteenth year in a row, through its selection of local, national, and international short films on dance, FQD will explore creative dance as viewed through the camera.

We will present forty films via three distinct programs: FQD’s thirteen-year retrospective of dance shorts (9), the national and international program (12), and FQD’s joint productions from 2020 (16) and new joint productions for 2021 (3).

On Thursday, September 9, starting at 7:00 pm, the retrospective program and the three new 2021 joint productions will be screened at Cinéma du Musée (MMFA). On Saturday, September 11, from noon onward, the sixteen jointly produced short films that were made in 2020 and presented online during the 18th edition of the festival will be shown on the big screen.

For a second consecutive year, we are collaborating with the community channel MAtv, which will co-produce the 2nd season of the series Festival Quartiers Danses, still hosted by Marc Béland. You will be able to discover the interviews of the 36 choreographers of the 19th edition of the festival. These interviews will be broadcasted online on the Videotron MATv community channel in 2022!

The 19th edition of the festival will also feature a conversation between Jérôme Pruneau, ethnologist by training and specialist in multicultural issues, and Angélique Willkie, professor of dance at Concordia University, on the topic of systemic racism in the performing arts. It too will be available online. Through their engagement, these two stakeholders, who are familiar with issues related to multiculturalism in the arts, will discuss challenges and possible solutions. This vignette will be the first in a series featuring creative dance artists concerned about social issues.

Since 2013, the FQD’s cultural mediation department organizes a multitude of activities in social, health and community organizations all around Montreal. This branch of the FQD searches for concrete ways to reduce the gap between the public and the art, between the artist and those who benefit from their work. Cultural mediation also fastens the existing mission to democratize dance and make it accessible for all publics. The activities take the form of workshops adapted to the different communities, intimate and privileged performances, conversations with artists and round tables to name a few.

Throughout the years, the cultural mediation team has developed an offer of workshops that can be tailored and adapted to the specific needs of different groups and populations: On the move, Lil’ dancers, The universe of… Our department also develops special projects collaborating with different organizations and partners in the community. These innovative projects are imagined and brought up to fit the specific needs and particularities of the population involved.

This year, the project Balcons Danses aims to break the isolation of seniors in residencies and CHSLD, who were badly affected by the pandemic. Through intimate shows taking place in various centers, the choreagrapher and interpret Janelle Hacault as well as the musician Coralie Gauthier, performed for small groups of residents. A beautiful way of bringing creative dance to people.