Édouard Lock
Encyclopedia
La La La Human Steps
La La La Human Steps is a Québécois contemporary dance group in Canada, known for its energetic, acrobatic style that often involves fast-paced and athletic physical contact...
.
In 1957 Édouard Lock's parents moved to Montreal, where he studied film and literature at Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...
.
He began his choreographic career at the age of 20, creating works from 1974 to 1979 for a variety of Canadian dance companies and institutions. He formed La La La Human Steps in 1980 and began choreographing full-length works whose boldly challenging style soon attracted international attention. Since 1985, each work for La La La has toured internationally for up to two years, spreading its influence to artists and audiences everywhere.
He founded Lock Danseurs, the precursor of La La La Human Steps, in 1980, and started to work with dancer Louise Lecavalier, his muse and close collaborator for 18 years. In 1980 Lock's Lily Marlène dans la jungle was presented at Montreal's Théâtre l'Eskabel, then at The Kitchen
The Kitchen
The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary art and performance space located at at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
in New York. The following year he won the Jean A. Chalmers Award for choreography for Oranges, and was honoured with the same award again in 2001. Since then, his career has gone from strength to strength, with La La La Human Steps becoming a fixture on the international stage.
In 1985 Human Sex established Édouard Lock's international reputation as one of the great choreographers, and in 1986 it earned him a Bessie Award from New York's contemporary dance professionals. Since then, original works by La La La Human Steps have been presented in international two-year tours and have influenced countless artists and spectators.
He has received commissions from the Dutch National Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theatre, Montreal's Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Opéra de Paris.
In 2001, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec
National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...
and an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
. In 2006, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
. http://www.rsc.ca/files/media/newfellows/new_fellows_2006_citations.pdf
Choreographic style
Reviewers in Montreal dailies described Édouard Lock's first works as almost cartoon-like, correctly identifying his style as urban in nature, his choreographies characterized by stop-start movements restricted by the space available to the dancers. His style then began to concretize with Human Sex, which combined high-energy performance with precise gestures, culminating in an integration of dance, sport, rock and cinema. In New Demons, film projection became part of the dance, with the repeated image of a continually falling body. In Infante, c’est destroy, the film-related work approached the realm of symbolic analysis.In 1988 Lock drew upon the vocabulary of classical dance for the first time in his career as part of a commission for the Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Ballet
Dutch National Ballet was formed in 1961 when the Amsterdams Ballet and the Nederlands Ballet merged. The company has been directed by Sonia Gaskell , Rudi van Dantzig , Wayne Eagling and is currently directed by Ted Brandsen. It is the largest dance company in the Netherlands and attracts many...
. His artistic partnership with dancer Louise Lecavalier continued until 1998, with her horizontal twisting leaps becoming an iconic feature of their collaboration. Pure athletic performance ultimately produced a choreographic language which channelled expressivity and sensuality, while pushing the boundaries of exceptionally fast dance tempos. Since 2001 he has required his classically trained dancers to undergo sports training.
Édouard Lock's works feature modified ballet, a melding of choreography, music and film, as well as multiple lighting changes that create a distorted sense of the perception of the body. Sexual ambiguity is another ongoing thread, and in Human Sex he was already reversing the expected roles, with female dancers raising their male partners into the air and Louise Lecavalier, with her androgynous body, wearing a tutu and false moustache. In a general sense, Lock's style has been based since the mid-80's on the pointe work of his female dancers (plus the male ones since Amelia and Amjad) who, spun by other dancers, perform extremely fast pirouettes and borrow from various figures in the vocabulary of classical dance.
Cinema
Édouard Lock's works have also appeared on the big screen. 1987's La La La Human Sex duo no 1, directed by Bernar Hébert and starring Louise Lecavalier and Marc Béland, is a short black-and-white film which won six international prizes including one from the Festival international du film sur l'art de Montréal. Also directed by Bernar Hébert, Le petit musée de Velasquez (1994), is a free adaptation of eight choreographed pieces from Infante, c’est destroy. Actress Markita Boies appears alongside the La La La Human Steps dancers in this colour feature film in which blends contemporary dance with the world of the great Spanish Baroque painter Diego VelázquezDiego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
.
The film adaptation of Amelia, directed by Lock himself, received its American premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2004 and its European premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
. It was honoured at the Chicago International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
, the Festival de la Rose d'Or in Switzerland, and at the Prague International Film Festival. Amelia also won the Jury Award in all categories at the Banff World Television Festival, as well as two Gemini Award
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
s for Best Performing Arts Direction and Editing.
Collaborations
Édouard Lock has also worked with several figures in the world of music. He created a choreographed event with David BowieDavid Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and Louise Lecavalier as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, filmed by video artist Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
, then continued his collaboration with Bowie in 1990 as creator and art director of his Sound + Vision
Sound + Vision
Sound + Vision is David Bowie's box set compilation released on Rykodisc in 1989. By the end of the 1980's, the rights to Bowie's pre-1983 catalogue reverted back to Bowie. Rykodisc had approached Bowie in 1988 to re-release albums on CD and Bowie agreed, and in September 1989 the Sound + Vision...
world tour. In 1992 he worked with Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
on the performance of Yellow Shark alongside the Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....
, the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has also called upon British composer Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
, composer of the music for 2 and Amjad.
Works
- 1976 : Temps volé
- 1977 : La Maison de ma mère
- 1977 : Remous
- 1978 : Le Nageur
- 1980 : Lily Marlène dans la jungle, Western
- 1981 : Oranges ou la Recherche du paradis perdu
- 1983 : Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel
- 1985 : Human Sex
- 1987 : New Demons - La belle et la bête
- 1988 : Bread Dances for Het Nationale Ballet
- 1990 : Infante, c'est destroy
- 1995 : 2
- 1996 : Étude for Les Grands Ballets CanadiensLes Grands Ballets CanadiensLes Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal is a Canadian ballet company based in Montreal, Quebec.It was founded in 1957 by Ludmilla Chiriaeff. Conductor and composer Michel Perrault served as the organization's first music director. In 2000, Gradimir Pankov became Artistic Director...
- 1999 : Exaucé/Salt
- 2002 : Amelia, AndréAuria for Opéra national de Paris
- 2003 : Les Boréades for Opéra national de Paris
- 2007 : Amjad
- 2011 : Untitled/New Work/A Piece by Édouard Lock
Awards
- 1986 : Bessie Award (New-York)
- 2001 : Knight of the National Order of QuebecNational Order of QuebecThe National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...
- 2001 : Officer of the Order of CanadaOrder of CanadaThe Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
- 2001 : National Arts CentreNational Arts CentreThe National Arts Centre is a centre for the performing arts located in Ottawa, Ontario, between Elgin Street and the Rideau Canal...
Award - 2002 : Prix Denise-PelletierPrix Denise-PelletierThe Prix Denise-Pelletier is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals for an outstanding career in the performing arts. It is awarded to a creator, performer, stage-craftsman or person who has made a noteworthy contribution in the fields of song,...
- 2003 : Prix Benois de la DansePrix Benois de la DanseThe Benois de la Danse is one of the most prestigious ballet competition. Founded by the International Dance Association in Moscow in 1991, it takes place each year on or around April 29 and is jury-based in its judging...
- 2004 : Gemini Awards
- 2006 : Fellow of the Royal Society of CanadaRoyal Society of CanadaThe Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
- 2010 : Governor General's AwardGovernor General's AwardThe Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...
for Performing Arts - 2010 : Molson PrizeMolson PrizeThe Thomas Henry Pentland Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by The Canada Council for the Arts. Two prizes are awarded annually to distinguished individuals. One prize is awarded in the arts, one in the social sciences and humanities...
- 2010 : Doctor honoris causa, Université du Québec à MontréalUniversité du Québec à MontréalThe Université du Québec à Montréal is one of four universities in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Basic facts:The UQAM is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québec , a public university system with other branches in Gatineau , Rimouski, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec City, Chicoutimi, and...
External links
- Édouard Lock at The Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...
- La La La Human Steps