Tickets available at the cinema box office, subject to availability.
Duration
40’ (Amelia 17’ / ÉCHO 23’)
Screening in the presence of Édouard Lock
In collaboration with
JFC cinema – IRIDE Lugano
Amelia / ÉCHO
Édouard Lock
Cinema Iride
Past event
12 June 2024
19:30
Amelia / ÉCHO
Édouard Lock
Cinema Iride
Past event
12 June 2024
19:30
The world-renowned and visionary Canadian choreographer Édouard Lock, founder of the famous contemporary dance group La La La Human Steps, presents two of his short art films on the theme of “dance and architecture” at the Cinema IRIDE in Lugano.
Amelia, a multi-award-winning dance film adapted from the ballet of the same name – presented here in excerpt form –, explores the use of the en pointe technique through long, intertwined solos, complex partnering sequences, and extreme speeds, to generate powerful performances with unexpected moments of sweetness and serenity. Lock creates an intricate choreography for both the camera and the dancers, giving rise to surprising and ever-changing points of view. The original score, composed by David Lang for violin, cello, piano, and voice, combines evocative minimalism with the lyrics of five of Lou Reed's most famous songs, written in the 1960s for the Velvet Underground.
The more recent ÉCHO is a choreographic and cinematographic composition in which lights and shadows form a dialogue with the original music by James O’Callaghan and the movements of Rachele Buriassi, the prima ballerina of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Within a gallery of cinematic mirrors, where shapes and light chase each other along the surfaces like shadow on water, shaping and distorting geometries and bodies, the ballerina peers into herself: her memories float above and below her, each leading to a different resolution. One shared beginning, one source, one end, multiple echos. A world where illusion and dance are derived from feelings of solitude.
Amelia (film excerpt, 2003)
direction, editing and choreography
Édouard Lock
dancers
Andrea Boardman
Nancy Crawley
Mistaya Hemingway
Jason Shipley Holmes
Keir Knight
Bernard Martin
William Lee (Billy) Smith
Naomi Stikeman, Zofia Tujaka
composer
David Lang
director of photography
Andre Turpin
producer
Amerimage-Spectra
Luc Chatelain
world premiere
Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, Montreal
U.S. premiere
Tribeca Film Festival, New York
european premiere
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic
ÉCHO (2020)
direction, editing and choreography
Édouard Lock
dancer
Rachele Buriassi
composer
James O’Callaghan
director of photography
Étienne Boilard
production and distribution
PHI Studio
world premiere
FIFA International Festival of Films on Art, Montreal
theatrical premier
Wilfried Pelletier, Place des Arts Montreal
He began his choreographic career at the age of 20 and founded the contemporary dance group La La Human Steps in 1980. Over the years he has been invited to create works for some of the world’s leading dance companies, including the Paris Opera Ballet, the Het Nationale Ballet of Holland, The Nederlands Dans Theater, the Cullberg Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. He co-conceived and was artistic director for David Bowie’s world tour, Sound and Vision. He also collaborated with Frank Zappa on the Yellow Shark concerts and with Gavin Bryars, Einstürzende Neubauten, Steve Albini, David Lang, Iggy Pop, Kevin Shields, David Van Tieghem and the West India Company. His works have garnered many awards, including the Chalmers choreographic prize, the New York Dance and Performance Award, the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the National Arts Centre Award, the Benois de la Danse choreographic award given in Moscow, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the Premio Positano Leonide Massine Award, The Molson Prize given by the Canada Council for the Arts and an honorary doctorate granted by the Université du Québec.