Slowly but surely, it seems, I’m getting to all of the current and past ADs of hub14. The amount my hub colleagues work is astounding to me, and I feel like I can never keep up with their ability to constantly produce. At least, in terms of this project. I’m happy about what my dossiers can do, but sometimes they feel inadequate as I keep wanting to promote the amazing work folks like Heidi Strauss, Cathy Gordon and Kate Nankervis are doing. This project, however, would get overrun with the same names too quickly, and that’s definitely not the direction I want to take this. I want each dossier to be unique.
I am lucky to be working closely behind the scenes at hub14 with Marie France Forcier. She radiates a maternal energy, one that is always in control and capable of steering the ship safely through the storm. She helps bring stability to what can otherwise easily turn into chaos, and the amount of trust she has in others is admirable. I can only imagine what it’s like to work with her creatively.
Enough gushing, on to dossier #25:
Who are we talking to?
Marie France Forcier, artistic director of Forcier Stage Works (forcierstageworks.com) and MFA candidate in Dance at York University; co-artistic director at Hub 14. Montreal-born and raised, Toronto-based for the last decade. Graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s professional training program, performer, writer, pedagogue, road warrior but most predominantly choreographer ever since. Academically researching the expression of trauma and dissociative states in contemporary choreography.
What gets you going in the morning?
Since I started my grad studies while keeping up my professional life? The sheer fear of not being able to stay on top of an ever growing pile of work! …In all seriousness: the excitement I feel about my work and my research.
What is your earliest memory of realizing, yep, this is what I’m going to do with my life?
I was in my first of a three year as a double major in Psych and Dance at CEGEP de St-Laurent in Montreal. I noticed that the director of the dance department and senior dance majors were addressing me with the assumption that I was planning on a career in dance.
I’d always vaguely dreamt of it as I was growing up, without ever allowing myself to believe that I had the chops. Finding out that others thought that my going in that direction was plausible allowed me to get there myself.
Have there been times you seriously question why you pursue this lifestyle/art form? If so, what was it that keeps you in it, or has brought you back?
I never question why I do. The drive is always very present although it constantly renews and redefines itself. There certainly are times when the hardships that come with a career in the live arts seem to outweigh the benefits, but those dips never make disconnect with the impetus.
Why IN absentia?
Three choreographic projects make up my MFA’s practical component: an autobiographic solo in studio theatre, an ensemble work for the proscenium stage and a self-produced dance event including the candidate’s choreography off campus. IN absentia is my off campus production. My choreographic contribution to the program is entitled Levity as IN (absentia); it is a short duet, it explores the experience of dissociative states in the presence of the other, revealing the dissonance that creates for the viewer.
My piece being less than 15 minutes long, and since I had Hub 14 for the event at my disposal, I figured: why not create a mixed program, providing an opportunity for other artists to present new work in a casual setting? Lucy Rupert (Blue Ceiling dance) and Brandy Leary (Anandam) are prolific creators, whom I admire and have know through collaborations on various projects. Heather Berry-MacPhail has been a pillar in my work since Forcier Stage Works’ inception.
Half Second Echo is an emerging collective of recent York dance graduates. Offering them a spot addresses my personal mandate to create opportunities for the emergence wherever I can.
In the year that followed my own graduation years ago, I was blessed with opportunities that kept me active and persevering in a competitive world. I am very grateful to those who provided me with such opportunities; the first year often determines the course of a career; whether the young person will persevere in the arts or abandon. I believe that returning the favor is a good way to make the dance community sustainable, on a micro-level.
What kind of atmosphere do you wish to create with IN absentia?
With Levity as IN (absentia), I am creating an atmosphere where coping mechanisms keep the characters standing. Where “retreating within following an episode of trauma” becomes the new normal. Where they have to share physical space with one other, externally present, internally elsewhere, trapped in a snapshot that may never be successfully processed; in absentia.
The other pieces on the program will bring their own atmospheres.
This is part of your MFA thesis work with York University. Did you ever think your work would bring you to IN absentia?
It has been a gradual process. The awareness that my own history of trauma had been seeping through the symbolism in my choreographic work arose within me over the course of 2 years or so, in phases. This insight about my own work led to my decision to dedicate my MFA research to the expression of post-traumatic stress in choreography. The process for Levity as IN (absentia) is a part of that.
What’s your favourite story about working on this project?
Levity as IN (absentia) is a work that has been in progress for nine months now, re-adapted twice for presentation over the course of that period. The most recent one was presented at Collective Space in Toronto, where the walls are curved, and the two dancers were climbing, reaching for unattainable levity, and sliding off walls as a choreographic feature. It was fun to watch, playful despite the contrasting content.
Describe IN absentia in three adjectives, a phrase, or with sound.
An assignment adapted for the better into a community event.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?
a field of crowns 