Thanks to Youtube and Facebook, José Navas/Compagnie Flak had already established an active Web presence. Today, the videoblog strengthens that presence at www.flak.org. A space for dynamic and interactive encounters, this new tool aims to open a window on the daily life of the company and its creations, as well as to increase the understanding of dance and to stimulate reflection on the challenges confronting dance today. Aesthetically pleasing and convivial, the new site will appeal to the general public as much as to producers, the media, and other organizations.

“The idea is to provide an online conversation in order to create a long-term relationship with the public,” comments Christian Aubry the developer and maintainer of the blog. “Still largely underused in the dance world, the videoblog is a fantastic tool that promotes both distribution and intimacy.”

The site already features four excerpts from the solo show Miniatures, an excerpt from the group piece S, which be will presented in Montreal by the series Danse Danse in November, and three interviews with José Navas. He speaks of the concept of meditation in movement, recounts the experience of remounting Anatomies with a new cast, and calls for stronger political and financial support for the arts.

Presented over twenty times since its creation in Montreal in 2006, this piece for five dancers is reinvented by a completely new cast.  This time, José Navas is surrounded by the talented dancers Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Lindsey Parker, Eldon Pulak and Lauren Semeschuk.

Between these two Anatomies tours, José Navas will fly solo for the Dublin Dance Festival where he will present Miniatures; an auto portrait in seven solos created in 2008 after seven years consecrated to the creation of group pieces.

Theatres

• April 23rd to 26th (supplementary), La Rotonde, Québec City
• May 20th and 21st, Dublin Dance Festival, Project Cube Space, Dublin, Ireland
• May 29th, Festival MODAFE, Seoul, Korea

Anatomies and Miniatures are José Navas/Compagnie Flak productions in coproduction with l’Agora de la danse

Photo: Valerie Simmons

Anatomies will be presented at two festivals this month: the 9th edition of the Internationale Tanztage 2009 in Oldenburg and the Schrit_tmacher 2009 in Aachen, where it will be performed in the Ludwig Forum Museum, an amazing international art space. The piece has also been programmed as a part of the regular season at the Theater im Pumpenhaus in Münster.

Created in Montreal in 2006, this work for five dancers has already been presented twenty times in Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. It will be presented for the first time to the Korean public in May. Stay tuned…

Performances

• March 23, Staatstheater, Internationale Tanztage 2009, Oldenburg
• March 25, Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster
• March 27 & 28, Ludwig Forum, Schrit_tmacher Festival, Aachen

A José Navas/Compagnie Flak production in coproduction with l’Agora de la danse.

Photo: Valerie Simmons

After seven years of creation devoted to group pieces, José Navas returns to solo work with a renewed passion and reveals himself with all the nuances and subtleties of a mature dancer. Exposing the fragility of a soloist who bares his soul, he invites the public to an intimate encounter with the artist and man, in an unveiling of his personal history in seven short solos to music chosen by the artist. One of the most romantic shows in Compagnie Flak’s repertoire. Touching and exhilarating.

Agora de la danse

• Premiere: 23 October 2008
• Shows: 24_25_29_30_31 October_1 November, 8 pm
• Tickets: 514 525 1500

A production of José Navas/Compagnie Flak in coproduction with Agora de la danse.

Photo: Valerie Simmons

For its first foray in to french Belgium, Compagnie Flak is honored to be closing the celebrated International Brigittines Festival.

The 5th and 6th of September, José Navas, Mira Peck, David Rancourt, Ami Shulman and Jamie Wright will take the sacred space of the historic Chapel of the Baroque church which is a part of Les Brigittines Contemporary Art Center for Movement and voice City of Brussels. The soundscape of Anatomies, composed by Alexander MacSween using the voices of the dancers, will be most appreciated in this venue.

Created in Montréal in 2006 and performed more than 20 times, Anatomies embarks on its third European tour. After having been seen in Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway, it will be presented for the first time before the German public.

Performances

• September 5th and 6th, Les Brigittines, Brussels, Belgium
• September 26th and 27th, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany
• September 30th, Stadsschouwburg, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

A production of José Navas/Compagnie Flak in co-production with l’Agora de la danse

Photo: Valerie Simmons

2nd & 17th May: The Netherlands
7th & 9th: May Belgium

Following in the steps of Portable Dances, Anatomies will be presented in four European theatres. It will be a tour that solidifies our relationships with Belgian and Dutch producers and that precedes another crossing of the Atlantic this coming autumn.

With Anatomies, José Navas refines the alphabet of his calligraphy in space with a renewed spirit of meditation in movement. Accompanied by four talented dancers, he reveals the mechanics and precision of bodies in movement. The piece was described as fascinating and sublime in Oslo, where it was presented at the opening of the CODA Festival last September.

“A spectacle of definite intelligence that releases waves of emotion.”
Christian Saint-Pierre, Voir, Montreal, 2007

Performances

• May 2nd, Stadsschouwburg, Groningen, The Netherlands
• May 7th, De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium
• May 9th, CC De Werf, Aalst, Belgium
• May 17th, Schouwburg, Arnhem, The Netherlands

A production of José Navas/Compagnie Flak in co-production with l’Agora de la danse.

Photo: Valerie Simmons

Following in the steps of Portable Dances, Anatomies will be presented in four European theatres. It will be a tour that solidifies our relationships with Belgian and Dutch producers and that precedes another crossing of the Atlantic this coming autumn.

With Anatomies, José Navas refines the alphabet of his calligraphy in space with a renewed spirit of meditation in movement. Accompanied by four talented dancers, he reveals the mechanics and precision of bodies in movement. The piece was described as fascinating and sublime in Oslo, where it was presented at the opening of the CODA Festival last September.

“A spectacle of definite intelligence that releases waves of emotion.”
Christian Saint-Pierre, Voir, Montreal, 2007

Performances

• May 2^nd, Stadsschouwburg, Groningen, Netherlands
• May 7^th, De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium
• May 9^th, CC De Werf, Aalst, Belgium
• May 17^th, Schouwburg, Arnhem, Netherlands

A production of José Navas/Compagnie Flak in co-production with l’Agora de la danse.

Portable Dances © Michael Slobodian

Montreal, September 11th 2007 – For the first time since its creation in 1995, Compagnie Flak departs on tour with two shows. Between mid-September and mid-October, José Navas and his dancers will be on tour in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands for a total of eight performances of Anatomies and Portable Dances.

For their first visit to Norway, Compagnie Flak has been invited to Oslo to open the CODA Festival. The CODA Festival presents diverse European companies which this year includes the celebrated Sasha Waltz & Guests. Throughout three days, the students at the Oslo Academy for the Arts will profit from Master classes offered by José Navas, who will also participate in
a talk with Swedish artist Cristina Caprioli. The two choreographers will speak about abstraction and formalism while using as a base of reflection Cristina Caprioli’s statement “Dance is not a language”.

The artists continue their tour by returning to Bruges before discovering five new theatres in Belgium and the Netherlands. A stimulating autumn season for Compagnie Flak that reinforces ties with their European partners before presenting a reprise of Anatomies at Agora de la Danse from November 7th to the 10th.

European Tour, details:

Anatomies

September

• 18th & 19th, CODA Oslo, International Dance Festival, Norway
• 26th, Bruges, Belgium
• 28th, Courtrai, Belgium
• 29th, Dordrecht, Netherlands

October

• 3rd, Dilbeek, Belgium

Portable Dances

October

• 5th, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
• 9th, Hasselt, Belgium

Anatomies and Portable Dances are both co-productions of José Navas/Compagnie Flak and Agora de la Danse (Montreal)

“The pure and simple gestures come from a solo that I had begun to create for myself that I found too lyrical”, confides the choreographer, moved and honored by the invitation of Gradimir Pankov to pay homage to the dancer who will have danced 18 years with Les Grands Ballets. “With Anik, it became something completely different. She appropriated the material and made it into something that suited her. (…) She is 45 years old, we sense in her way of moving that she is a mother and she continues to dance with subtlety and an immense passion. It is a gift to have been able to work with her.”

The Gala Anik Bissonnette will be presented at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts for one night only, June 6th at 8pm. It will also include the piece Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon and Noces by Stijn Celis.

Photo: Valerie Simmons

Montreal, November 6, 2006 – Anatomies, the new creation of José Navas, will be presented at l’Agora de la danse from 8-11 November and as part of OFF CINARS, 14 and 15 November 2006. In this new piece, the spirit of meditation in dance is taken still further than in Portable Dances, the piece in three parts by José Navas/Compagnie Flak. That piece marked a turning point in the work of José Navas and was praised unanimously by critics in 2005.

With Anatomies, José Navas explores and exposes the intelligence of the human body. He gives himself over to an intimate listening to show the source of movement: departing from its point of departure, he follows its path through the body to its development in the space.

Thus, five bodies in movement revealing the mechanical precision of the human anatomy. In a space stripped of all décor, three women and two men give themselves up to a wave of movement, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, but always clean and precise. Graphic and incisive. In solos and trios, in duos and a quintet, the bodies dance the silence of an interior peace. They are living channels for a meditation in movement. The work’s five dancers are José Navas, Mira Peck, David Rancourt, Ami Shulman and Jamie Wright.

For the sound environment, José Navas collaborates once more with Montreal composer Alexander MacSween, who pushes still further his work with the voices of the dancers. The composer contributes to creating the poetry of the present moment that is unique to Anatomies. The light design is by Marc Parent, a long-time partner.

Anatomies is a co-production of José Navas/Compagnie Flak and l’Agora de la danse.

This fall, José Navas/Compagnie Flak will go on tour, taking Portable Dances to Belgium and the Netherlands, where the piece was presented in March 2006. They will also perform Portable Dances in Spain, dancing in the magnificent Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. Next dates:

• November 24: CC De Werf, Aalst, Belgium
• November 30: CC De Spil, Roeselare, Belgium
• December 2: Schouwburg Arnhem, The Netherlands
• December 13: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Photo: Michael Slobodian

Montreal, September 12, 2006 – It will be a busy fall for José Navas/Compagnie Flak. In addition to the new piece by José Navas to be presented at the Studio de l’Agora de la danse in November, Portable Dances will be presented in five European countries. This new stage in the development of the company is especially important because in Europe, José Navas is known above all as a soloist, and because Portable Dances is a landmark in his artistic development with the creation of the famous danced meditations that have seduced the public.

Premiered in October 2005, Portable Dances is a piece in three parts based on the simplicity of movement and the resonance of the body in space. After having already toured in several Canadian cities, the piece will be shown at the Maison des Arts de Créteil for Les Plateaux de la Biennale, a French professional showcase, and then at the Autumn Festival in Budapest, Hungary. Portable Dances then returns to Belgium and the Netherlands, where it was presented last March. It will perform its Spanish premiere in the magnificent setting of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Recall that Portable Dances is performed by José Navas and three other remarkable performers: Mira Peck, Magali Stoll and Chanti Wadge.

Portable Dances – Next dates

• November 24: CC De Werf, Aalst, Belgium
• November 30: CC De Spil, Roeselare, Belgium
• December 2: Schouwburg Arnhem, The Netherlands
• December 13: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Portable Dances is a co-production of José Navas/Compagnie Flak and l’Agora de la danse.