Dave St-Pierre

Working on the edge – between the beautiful and the kitsch – is Montréal choreographer Dave St-Pierre, well-deserving of the title of VIP 2007 for his work “Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde!”. Loosely translated, the title for his piece is “A little tenderness for fuck’s sake,” and he goes to great lengths to show us where we have ended up, to make us realize the value of a brief moment of intimacy. While the performance might ruffle a few feathers, it has earned its choreographer the title of rising star on the Québec scene.

Claiming to be neither a provocateur nor an old-fashioned romantic, he moves between discipline and chaos, attempting to disrupt conventions and fashions. He really leaves the audience uncomfortable for moments on end, after which follows laughter, and then tears. “Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde!,” which was the talk of the Festival TransAmériques, is the second part in a trilogy titled “Sociologie et autres utopies contemporaines.” In it, St-Pierre portrays the emotionally handicapped who, like drowning men, cling to things that just go down with them. The production catapults some twenty dancers/actors – bearded, naked men, drag queens in blonde wigs ...