PRESENTATION

Created in 2018, Èbe (which signifies the outgoing tide) is the result of an artistic collaboration with Patrick Saint-Denis (robotic and audio art). An extended version was created in 2021, with a new team of collaborators including Olivier Arseneault as performer and co-creator. The piece unfolds around a choir of five accordion-robots with choreography anchored in flamenco to explore the communicational dimension of breath. The unconscious adaptation of the breath to the accordions’, like the hypnotic effect of the sea, reveals the power of the unknown, situating us somewhere beyond our own personal questioning. It is from this cyclic and vital phenomenon that Èbe came to be. The poetic anchors that sustain the work are the cyclic movement of waves, the breath, and the remnants on a beach when the waters have retreated. From this metaphor of what remains after the tides, we dig below the surface beyond what is commonly heard from an accordion and flamenco, as we seek to find what connects us in the interstices. Èbe offers a contemplative and sensorial experience shared through different rhythms that live in us and around us. Since 2023, a new version of the piece, Ebe_in situ, offers the possibility to encounter new publics and diverse contexts.


DISTRIBUTION
 

2026

 

March 14th _ Théatre Lac-Brome (Lac-Brome, Qc)

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2025

 

April 5th _ Centre Notre-Dame (Granby, Qc)

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2024

 

November 7th _ Forum Lab7, Sept doigts de la main (Montreal, Qc)

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September 21st, 6pm to 11pm _ LUNA Fest (Revelstoke, BC)

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September 18th, 8pm _ Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, Waterfront Theatre (Vancouver, BC)

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September 15th, 6pm _ Alliance Française de Vancouver (Vancouver, BC)

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July 26th - 27th _ Sentiers de la danse, Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur (Saint-Sauveur, Qc)

March 27th _ Azimut Diffusion (Sorel-Tracy, Qc)

March 14th _ Théâtre du Bic (Bic, Qc)

2023

November 18th _ Azimut Diffusion (Sorel-Tracy, Qc)

August 25th _ In situ version presented by Culture 3R (Trois-Rivières, Qc)

March 26th _ Isabel Bader Theatre, by the French Alliance of Toronto (Toronto, On)

 

2022

December 7th _ Carré 150, Espace Culturel de Victoriaville (Victoriaville, Qc)
 
November 28th _ Salle Pauline-Julien (Sainte-Geneviève, Qc)

 

2021

November 23rd _ Opening presentation for the International Festival of Video Art (FIAV), Studio les arts vivants (Casablanca, Maroc)

April 21st _ Théâtre Gilles-Vigneault (Saint-Jérôme, Qc)

May 3rd _ CD Spectacles (Gaspé, Qc)

May 5th _ Théâtre du Bic (Bic, Qc) _ CANCELED

May 7th _ Salle Jean-Marc Dion (Sept-Îles, Qc)

 

2019

November 28th _ Programming in the official selection for Parcours Danse, Wilder Espace Danse (Montreal, Qc).

November 14th _ Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal (Montreal, Qc)

November 15th_ Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée (Montreal, Qc)

November 17th _ Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay (Montreal, Qc)

November 19th _ Maison de la culture Rosemont-La Petite Patrie (salle Jean-Eudes), (Montreal, Qc)

November 21st _ Centre culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (salle Iro-Valiskakis-Tembek), (Montreal, Qc)

November 22nd _ Maison culturelle et communautaire de Montréal-Nord, (Montreal, Qc)

November 23rd _ Maison de la culture Ahuntsic, (Montreal, Qc)

February 26th _ Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT) for the Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques organized by the SMCQ (Montreal, Qc)

 

2018

February 8th – 11th_ Premiere presented by Tangente at the Wilder Espace Danse (Montreal, Qc)


PARTNERS

Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec _ Strategic opportunity 2021
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Festival International d'Art Vidéo de Casablanca (Maroc) _ Presenter 2021
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Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec _ Circulation of works within Quebec 2021
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Maison Culturelle et Communautaire de Montréal-Nord _ Creation residency 2021
 
Conseil des Arts du Canada _ Remount grant 2020
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Théâtre du Bic (Rimouski) _ Creation residency 2020
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Place des Arts (Montréal) _ Creation residency 2020
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Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec _ Production grant 2019
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La Danse sur la Routes du Québec _ Distribution support for Parcours Danse 2019
 
Département de danse de l'UQAM _ Creation residency 2019
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Maison de la Culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâces  _ Creation residency 2019
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Tangente _ Presenter 2018
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Mécènes Investis pour les Arts _ Creation grant 2017 
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Corps Chorus (Laurentides) _ Creation residency 2016
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Studio 303 _ Creation residency 2016


PRESS

 

" Èbe worked strongest on a level of high-concept visual art. Everything about the piece was composed with the care of a gallery installation, from the formations of the accordion stands to the fiery burnt-red shawl tornado whirling against the clean, grey, minimalist sets. The lighting was gorgeous, too, sometimes throwing tall shadows of the wheezing accordions against the wall, or illuminating the shawl like a warm, glowing tortoise shell. (...)

 

On another level, it felt completely different from the catharsis of so much flamenco, instead inviting us to listen to our own breath, to the spaces between sound, in meditation and reflection. The title—which translates as the outgoing tide—perfectly encapsulated the mood of a piece that lulled, its heaving accordions cycling like waves at the beach.

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In fact, it’s up for discussion whether this piece that so deconstructs the form can be defined as “flamenco” at all—or whether that even matters when it feels so artfully original. It may be enough to just call it striking visual poetry."

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Dance review: Wheezing robotic accordions and whirling shawls, as Èbe pushes definitions of flamenco. Stir, September 19, 2024

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Radio-Canada BC, interview, September 16, 2024

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Radio Gaspésie interview, April 27, 2021

Radio-Canada Sept-Iles interview, May 7, 2021

"(...) Èbe, between humans and machines, is very beautiful. Astonishing by the space that the creators allow to breathe - it is rare among young artists -; by their own erasure, very effective; by a beautiful contemporization flamenco; by the surprises that the frame of the beginning unfolds, so coherent in the universe that they seem obvious once they appear."

"Contemplative Technologies"  - Faire fragment, by Catherine Lalonde, Le Devoir, February 9, 2018