This fall, we’ll be launching a major digital project, Mapping Black Holes. The project will be coordinated by Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, who came up with the original idea. The goal is to develop a participatory online platform to archive and share dancers’ hidden stories in the form of written and oral testimonials.
Mapping Black Holes is designed to conserve the stories of dancers’ bodies and experiences that are too often ignored or left untold—stories of injuries, yearning and loss. The platform will provide a space for dancers to record these experiences in a spirit of sharing and learning.
An important partner in this project is Karine Ledoyen, of Danse K par K. In the fall of 2018, inspired by documentary theatre, she created De la glorieuse fragilité—a work that conveys the personal accounts of 20 professional dancers who, for different reasons, decided to leave dance. Their accounts will be featured on the platform in the form of podcasts.
We would like to thank the CALQ for supporting this initiative through its Exploration and Digital Deployment program. We also want to thank the entire dance community for their active involvement. In a few months, we’ll be inviting you to contribute your stories and help us shape this inspirational project.