Ça danse en MOI

Cultural mediation

Ça danse en MOI workshop:
April to June session
11 workshops of 2 hours each

In collaboration with CAVAC Montréal, the project Ça danse en MOI is intended for victims of crime. Choreographer Sarah Dell’Ava, her assistant Laurie-Anne Langis, and psychoeducator Annick Cartier will lead workshops focused on helping participants reclaim control over their lives and guide them through a process of collective creation.

The explorations will be rooted in poetic dances inspired by the cycle of life, like a kaleidoscope of human experiences.An optional final presentation before a select audience (by invitation only) will take place at the end of the process. A safe, trauma-sensitive space will be provided throughout the session.

The artists

Originally from Switzerland, Sarah has lived in Quebec for nearly 20 years. Trained in contemporary dance at UQAM, she has come to specialize in guiding creative processes with various communities, in collaboration with other organizations (City of Montreal, Corpuscule Danse, Danse-Cité, Circuit-Est Centre Chorégraphique, Agora de la danse, Berceurs du temps, Espace Oriri).

The choreographic polyptych ORIRI-ORIR-ORI-OR-O (2013–2022), each installment of which was presented at Tangente, was a tireless exploration of Origin. Following this series came O2, a work for a large community of people of all ages and backgrounds, presented at the FTA in the wake of the pandemic.

Her works are multidisciplinary and participatory, often organized as “places,” spaces in which spectators are invited to settle in and experience duration, kairos time (O, O2, ORIR), with the aim of fostering togetherness and introspection.

Trained in contemporary dance, Laurie-Anne has been developing her practice since 2012 through self-study and direct transmission of vocal techniques, ancestral knowledge, and energetic practices. Her work is rooted in a quest to reconcile the body, the voice, and the invisible forces of life, at the intersection of ritual, performance, and sensory exploration. Thus, ael develops an aesthetic of the perceptive body: a body that listens, transforms, and shifts dance from the visible to the felt, questioning the hierarchy of the senses and the dominant gaze. Her creations weave together the poetic and the political by addressing the inclusion of marginalized audiences, ecofeminism, sensory accessibility, and the reappropriation of the body and speech, making art a space for collective healing, emancipation, and social transformation.

Through a transdisciplinary, collaborative, and often immersive approach, her projects—such as merging, Au-delà du visuel, and Scuse—invite audiences to an experience where the boundaries between audience and performer blur, fostering an ecology of connection in which bodies, voices, and narratives become sites of memory, resistance, and the re-enchantment of reality.

With a passion for people, connections, and movement, Annick Cartier has shared her love of dance through teaching for over a decade
and co-founded Studio Synapses. Her fascination with the human experience led her to pursue parallel training as a psychoeducator and to specialize in
crisis intervention for victims of crime for over nine years. These years of intervention work and dance taught her how the body is
often a reflection of the inner world, and how expression through the body and speech are complementary paths toward greater well-being.

In partnership with: