The 7 Fingers

Last updated
The 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts)
Formation2002
FounderShana Carroll, Isabelle Chassé, Patrick Léonard, Faon Shane, Gypsy Snider, Sébastien Soldevila, Samuel Tétreault
Founded atMontreal
PurposeCreation, production and touring of shows
Headquarters2111 Boul. St Laurent. Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Products2019 “Passengers”
2018 Temporel
2017 Vice & Vertu
2016 Réversible
2016 Bosch Dreams
2016 Princesse de Cirque
2015 Triptyque
2014 Cuisine & Confessions
2014 Intersection
2013 Le Murmure du coquelicot
2012 Séquence 8
2012 Amuse
2011 Patinoire
2009 Psy
2007 La Vie
2007 Projet Fibonacci
2006 Traces
2002 Loft
Website 7fingers.com
The 7 Fingers circus troupe performing an acrobatic act in the show "Dual Reality" in Boston, February 2024 7 Fingers 2024.jpg
The 7 Fingers circus troupe performing an acrobatic act in the show "Dual Reality" in Boston, February 2024

The 7 Fingers is an artist collective based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The group is also known by its French name "Les 7 doigts de la main", which is sometimes shortened to "Les 7 Doigts".

Contents

History

The 7 Fingers is a collective founded in 2002 by seven circus artists: Isabelle Chassé, Shana Carroll, Patrick Léonard, Faon Shane, Gypsy Snider, Sébastien Soldevila, and Samuel Tétreault. [1]

Since 2003, the collective has been led by Nassib El-Husseini, a political scientist, author, and former advisor to numerous governmental and non-governmental organizations both in Canada and abroad. [2]

On July 14, 2016, the collective created The 7 Fingers Foundation. [3]

Until the end of 2017, the collective's headquarter was on 225 Roy East st. in Montreal. After 18 months of renovation work, The 7 Fingers moved to their new centre of creation and production, on 2111 Sain-Laurent boulevard, in the quartier des spectacles. [4] [5]

Original and Touring shows

Passagers (2018)

Passagers is a show celebrating the Human and a reflection on the importance and the beauty of interpersonal relationships, mixing dance, physical expression, acrobatics and projections, gathering six artists from all around the world, and accompanied by original musical compositions. This new creation is directed by Shana Carroll, assisted by Isabelle Chassé. Its premiere will take place at the Tohu, in Montréal, [6] on November 14, 2018.

Patinoire (2011)

The company's first solo show, Patinoire, features The 7 Fingers' co-founder Patrick Léonard. It is directed by Patrick Léonard himself and assisted by Nicolas Cantin. [7] The show was most shown for a month at the Festival d'Avignon in 2014. [8]

In July 2008, Montreal artists from The 7 Fingers, and some Mexican artists from Cirko de Mente, went to the Canadian great north to meet with Inuit artists from Artcirq, in order to associate their arts and their talents. After two weeks of creation, the artists gave several shows in Nunavut. [9]

A third stopover happened in Montreal in 2008 with the Mexican, inuit and Montrealer artists. The show continued on mutating. [10]

In 2010, Barcelona hosts the residency of The Fibonacci Project for three weeks. The show is composed of seven Catalan artists and seven Quebecois artists. [11]

In April 2016, The Project sets camp in Marrakesh for two weeks. The show is composed of three Quebecois artists, seven Moroccan artists and three Guinean artists. [12]

Past original productions

Temporel (2018)

Temporel is a multidisciplinary show combining the universe of The 7 Fingers and the company Lemieux Pilon 4D Art, conceived and directed by Patrick Léonard, Isabelle Chassé, Michel Lemieux et Victor Pilon, and its choreography was created by Shana Carroll. [13] Its world premiere took place at the Place des Arts [14] (Montréal) on January 11, 2018.

Vice & Vertu (2017)

Directed by three of the collective's co-founders – Isabelle Chassé, Patrick Léonard, and Samuel Tétreault – Vice & Vertu was performed from July 10 to August 6, 2017, at the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT) in Montreal [15] as part of the city's 375th Anniversary Celebrations. [16] Vice & Vertu was an immersive, three-hour, promenade-style performance for audiences 18 years and over. The production was a work of fiction heavily inspired by historic figures from 1920s to 1940s Montreal. [16] [17]

Bosch Dreams (2016)

Bosch Dreams pays tribute to the painter Jheronimus Bosch. The show was directed by Samuel Tétreault and coproduced by Theatre Republique (Denmark) upon an invitation from the festival Circolo (Netherland) with the support of Wilhelm Hansen Fonden and the Jheronimus Bosch 500 Foundation. The show was created for the 500 year-anniversary of the painter's death. [18] The show premiered in September 2016 in Copenhagen. The show performed in France for the first time in November 2017 during the festival "Québec à La Villette [19] " before touring there and abroad.

Réversible (2016)

Directed Gypsy Snider, Reversible was coproduced with the Théâtre du Gymnase-Bernardines (Marseille), [20] Thomas Lightburn (Vancouver), and the Tohu (Montreal). [21]

Triptyque (2015)

Under the artistic direction of Samuel Tétreault, The 7 Fingers partnered with three choreographers to create a performance composed of three acts: [22]

The show was coproduced by Sadler's Wells Theatre (London), Thomas Lightburn (Vancouver), the Tohu, la Cité des arts du cirque (Montreal), Albourne (Norwalk), and Danse-Cité (Montreal). The show's official premiere was at the TOHU on October 14, 2015. [24]

Traces (2006 – present)

The show had its world premiere in Montreal in January 2006, shortly before performing at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. With ten years and nearly 1900 shows to its name, Traces is considered one of the collective's biggest successes. In 2011, the show played for one year at Union Square Theatre in New York. [25]

Artistic collaborations

Peter Pan 360 (2015–2016)

In 2015, The 7 Fingers led the choreography and movement direction of Peter Pan 360 [26] in the United States. Presented in the Threesixty Theatre, a 360-degree stage within a 100-foot high structure, Peter Pan was directed by Thom Sutherland with original music by Benjamin Wallfisch.

Pippin (2013–2017)

The choreography and integration of circus into the Broadway revival of the musical Pippin [27] was entrusted to The 7 Fingers. In 2014, the show was performed 420 times at the Music Box Theatre in New York. Pippin also toured the US.

Special events

Awards and recognitions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cirque du Soleil</span> Canadian contemporary circus company

Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Quebec</span> Culture of Canadas Quebec province

The culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting predominantly from the shared history of the French-speaking North American majority in Quebec. Québécois culture, as a whole, constitutes all distinctive traits – spiritual, material, intellectual and affective – that characterize Québécois society. This term encompasses the arts, literature, institutions and traditions created by Québécois, as well as the collective beliefs, values and lifestyle of Québécois. It is a culture of the Western World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lepage</span> Canadian writer, actor, director

Robert Lepage is a Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and stage director.

Franco Dragone was an Italian-born Belgian theatre director. He was the founder and artistic director of Dragone, a creative company specializing in the creation of large-scale theatre shows. He was also known for his work with Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion.

Cirque Éloize is a contemporary circus company founded in Montreal in 1993 by Jeannot Painchaud, Daniel Cyr, Claudette Morin, and Julie Hamelin. Its productions combine circus arts with music, dance, technology, and theatre. "Éloize" means "heat lightning" in Acadian French, a dialect spoken in Acadia and the Magdalen Islands, where the group's founders are from.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Curzi</span> Canadian politician, actor, and screenwriter

Pierre Curzi is an actor, screenwriter and politician in Quebec. He is a former Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the riding of Borduas in the Montérégie region south of Montreal. Elected under the Parti Québécois (PQ) banner, he later sat as an independent.

Paule Baillargeon is a Canadian actress and film director. She won the Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, and was a nominee for Best Director for The Sex of the Stars . Her film roles have included August 32nd on Earth , Jesus of Montreal , A Woman in Transit , Réjeanne Padovani and Days of Darkness .

Artcirq is an Inuit circus performance collective based in Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada. It was co-founded in 1998 by Guillaume Saladin and several circus artists from Montreal and youth from Igloolik, with the financial support of Igloolik Isuma Productions, Canada's first Inuit independent production company and Cirque Éloize. Its activities provide Inuit youth with a vehicle for creative expression that maintains strong links to Inuit traditions and performance styles.

Contemporary circus is a contested term in circus studies. In this article, it is used in contrast to the term 'traditional circus', combining with the genre elsewhere disambiguated as new circus or nouveau cirque. Many circus scholars prefer to separate these styles, as elaborated in circus. Contemporary circus, by this definition, is a genre of performing arts developed in the late 20th century in which a story, theme, mood or question is conveyed through traditional circus skills. For fans of animal performance in circus, this genre could arguably be found more akin to Variety as animals are rarely used, and traditional circus skills are blended with more choreographic, character-driven or mechanical approaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France Jodoin</span> Canadian contemporary artist (born 1961)

France Jodoin is a Canadian contemporary artist known for her maritime scenes. Painted in a semi-abstract style, her work is a modern interpretation of European Romanticism. Her work is found in Quebec museums, and in galleries in Canada, France and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Vialar</span>

Paul Vilar was a French author and writer of novels, tales and essays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Lafortune</span> Canadian actor and TV personality

Charles Lafortune is a Canadian actor and radio and television host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pic du Taillon</span>

Pic du Taillon or Pico Taillón is a summit in the Pyrenees, culminating at 3,144 m (10,315 ft) on the Franco-Spanish border in the Monte Perdido Range.

Krzysztof Soroczyński is an artist, performer, trainer, and designer who works in the circus industry. Soroczyński has been involved in the circus arts for almost five decades. He has worked with many companies, including Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize and has collaborated with many people, including directors Franco Dragone and Daniele Finzi Pasca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">René Morax</span>

René Morax was a Swiss writer, playwright, stage director and theatre manager. He founded the Théâtre du Jorat in Morges in 1908, and promoted historical and rural theatre in French in Switzerland. He is known for the play Le Roi David, with music by Arthur Honegger.

Claudine Chatel is a Québécoise actress who had mainly worked on television soap operas before she specialized in voice dubbing. She is the daughter of actor and screenwriter Marcel Cabay.

Brigitte Poupart is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. She is most noted for her performance in the film Ravenous and for directing the 2012 film Over My Dead Body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Dorion</span> Canadian politician

Catherine Dorion is a Canadian politician from Quebec, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 provincial election. She represented the electoral district of Taschereau as a member of Québec solidaire (QS) from 2018 to 2022. Dorion is aligned with Option nationale, a pro-independence faction, referred internally as a "collective", within QS.

Gypsy Snider is a Canadian–American director, choreographer, and former acrobat. She co-founded The 7 Fingers, an artist collective, and choreographed Pippin in 2013.

Olivier Guimond was a Canadian actor and humorist. He is the father of voice actor Richard Darbois.

References

  1. Boisseau, Rosita (2011-10-29). "Reprise : Les 7 doigts de la main à Bobino". Le Monde.
  2. Martin, Valérie (2013-05-12). "Nassib El-Husseini : de la politique au cirque". Actualités UQAM.
  3. "Guy Laliberté verse 1 million $ à la Fondation des 7 doigts de la main". 2018-02-06.
  4. "Un million pour le Centre de création et de production des 7 doigts de la main". Radio-Canada.ca. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  5. "Les 7 doigts de la main". Groupe TEQ. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  6. "Passagers – Les 7 Doigts". latohu.ca/fr (in French).
  7. "'Patinoire' des 7 doigts". TVA nouvelles (in French).
  8. JDD, Le. "Aimer, être... et patiner". www.lejdd.fr (in French). Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  9. "Artcirq".
  10. "Pôle Fibonacci: Projet Fibonacci" (PDF). Jeu Revue de Théâtre (in French): 32. 2008. ISSN   1923-2578.
  11. "Actualités Barcelone". Gouvernement Québec (in French). 1 December 2010.
  12. "awalnart" (PDF). awalnart.com (in French).
  13. "Temporel 2018". 4dart.com (in French).
  14. sa (2018-01-08). "Temporel – Cinquième Salle" (in French). Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  15. "Vice & Vertu Société des Arts Technologiques". Sat.qc.ca (in French).
  16. 1 2 "'Vice & vertu' – Plaisirs sur la 'Main'" (in French). 13 July 2017.
  17. Siag, Jean (2017-07-10). "Vice & vertu: incursion dans le Red Light montréalais | Jean Siag | Montréal complètement cirque". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  18. "Bosch Dreams". szenik.eu (in French).
  19. Rioux, Christian (2017-11-24). "Paris: le parc de la Villette aux couleurs du Québec". Le Devoir (Montréal) (in French). ISSN   0319-0722 . Retrieved 2017-11-29.
  20. "Réversibles – Les théâtres" (in French).
  21. "Une réussite... dans tous les sens". journaldemontreal.com.
  22. "Une création des 7 doigts de la main". telerama.fr. 8 June 2016.
  23. "La Veronal". La Veronal. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  24. "tohu" (PDF).
  25. Brantley, Ben (2011-08-09). "Les 7 Doigts de la Main in 'Traces' at Union Square – Review". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  26. Siag, Jean (2015-05-25). "Les 7 doigts à la rescousse de Peter Pan!". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  27. "Pippin returns to Broadway". A.R.T. – American Repertory Theater. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  28. TAYLOR, KATE (2014-02-06). "Montreal circus troupe has hand in Sochi opening ceremonies" . Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  29. Les 7 doigts de la main (2015-02-19). "The Naked Truth (BENCH/) By Les 7 doigts de la main". YouTube. Retrieved 2017-08-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. Siag, Jean (30 January 2012). "Les 7 doigts de la main raflent l'or à Paris". La Presse. Retrieved 23 November 2017.