La Salle des pas perdus

La Salle des pas perdus * (The Hall of Lost Steps) is an interdisciplinary, bilingual show with a more theatrical approach than our usual spoken-word productions. Four performance poets each present a solo text. But while each of them is on-stage, so is everyone else. No one waits in the wings. All the artists are in full view throughout, taking up space and having to find something to do with their bodies. It’s a situation that creates a genuinely close collaboration, even intimacy, within the group. Suddenly, the poets are using gesture, voice and asides to the musicians in equal measure. Poets D. Kimm and Alexis O’Hara add to the musical landscape, while the compelling Fortner Anderson and Michel Vézina may waltz. Joining them is Brazilian-inspired dancer and movement artist Luciane Pinto, who offers a stunning physical and vocal display. Improv music and light complete the show, as guitarist Bernard Falaise and percussionist Michel F Côté become trampoline and net for poets stepping into space, while video artist Brigitte Henry captures the mood and rhythm of each piece in live images she sends shimmering back into the air.

La Salle des pas perdus (Raum der verlorenen Schritte) premiered in June 2007 at Berlin’s KulturBrauerei as part of the Berlin Poetry Festival, with video images by French VJ Franck Esposito. The show was reprised in Montreal on February 4, 2008 at Ex-Centris as part of the 8th Festival Voix d’Amériques and the Saint-Laurent boulevard Series.

Les Filles électriques wishes to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des Arts de Montréal for their support for the Berlin performance, as well as Ex-Centris, who made the Montreal show possible. Further bookings of the show are available in French or English.

* The title of the show (La Salle des pas perdus), literally translated as “The hall of lost steps”, is an expression familiar in civil law systems and refers to a central space in a court house where lawyers and their clients consult each other. It is also used to refer to the “great entrance hall” in a stately home or chateau.