On November 25, 2021, in line with its new mission statement and desire to embrace diverse choreographic practices, the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault changed its name to Espace Perreault Choreographic transmission.
Mission
Espace Perreault is dedicated to research and creation around dance memories. It fosters reflection and develops cultural mediation tools based on dance creation, documentation and transmission processes. It is open to multiple voices and forms of experimentation, and its activities nourish the dance community and audiences.
From now on
The Espace Perreault will strive to decolonize dance through its reflections and actions. Recognizing the plural identities making up Quebec society involves revisiting the aesthetics, role and functioning of artistic institutions. We must question the value systems and cultural references we have inherited from colonialism.
Understanding and addressing the sources and impacts of systemic racism involves, first of all, acknowledging its existence, being aware of our own conscious and unconscious biases, repairing the inequalities of the past and present, and, above all, taking open and deliberate action against the racialization of individuals, peoples, their histories and their artistic practices. Starting today.
In 1984, the choreographer Jean-Pierre Perreault created the foundation that bears his name. Over the next 30 years, the FJPP presented 20 critically-acclaimed works, both at home and abroad, including Nuit, Lieux-dits, L‘Exil-L’Oubli, Les Ombres and Joe, and also exhibited Perreault’s many drawings and paintings. In 1993, the FJPP purchased the Saint-Robert-Bellarmin church in order to transform it into a choreographic centre (the church has since been handed over to Circuit Est).
In 2002, Perreault’s untimely death led the FJPP to reflect on its role in Quebec’s choreographic landscape, with a view to promoting and keeping alive the work of its founder. It began to broaden its horizons, reaching out to a growing number of choreographers. This transformation occurred during which the Fondation developed partnerships with various cultural institutions in Quebec and Canada, including the Société de la Place des arts and the National Arts Centre. With Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), the FJPP helped to create the Jean-Pierre Perreault fonds.
Originally focused on preserving the work of its founder, in 2014 the FJPP broadened its mission to include documenting and transmitting Quebec’s contemporary dance legacies, while encouraging reflection on the creation and promotion of our dance heritage. The Fondation initiates long-term strategies and collective actions—including new digital platform EC2, choreographic toolkits, virtual exhibition, international museum exhibitions, shows, cultural mediation workshops, seminars, focus days on copyright and dance heritage, and an artistic legacy guide—targeting dance professionals, the arts community and the general public. Through these initiatives, the FJPP makes works accessible for research, teaching and reinvention. All of these activities keep the memories of dance alive, inspiring creativity in the present and future, and allowing choreographers to earn royalties.
September 21, 2016, the Fondation launched the portal EC2_Espaces chorégraphiques 2, along with its first online collection of choreographic toolkits, ensuring the dynamic presence of our dance legacies in the digital world. This initiative was carried out in close collaboration with Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, the Dance Department at UQAM, Fortier Danse-Création, La 2e Porte à Gauche, Le Carré des Lombes, Louise Bédard Danse, Lucie Grégoire Danse, the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, PPS Danse and Tangente.
The new digital platform EC2_Espaces chorégraphiques 2, fulfils the Fondation’s new mission, paying tribute to the visionary spirit of its founder, Jean-Pierre Perreault.
Angélique Willkie
Vice-chair
Performer, singer, pedagogue and dramaturge, Angélique Willkie completed a Masters degree in Economics at McGill University before starting her dance training at the School of Toronto Dance Theater. Her career evolved in Europe over the following 25 years where she worked with, among others, Alain Platel, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jan Lauwers / Needcompany, and as a singer with the Belgian world-music group, Zap Mama. Working as a dramaturge for dance and circus, Angélique is also Assistant Professor in the Department of Contemporary Dance at Montreal’s Concordia University.
Josée Plamondon
Secretary
Master of Library and Information Science, MBA.
Trained as a librarian to be a data and information retrieval systems specialist, Josée was confronted with organizational and technological issues related to the dissemination of information in diverse areas including cultural industries. She has contributed to projects aiming at interoperability and data sharing, content indexing for machine processing and knowledge sharing. Now a consultant, she offers content creators and producers who are facing digital challenges to understand the dynamics of information and learn how to exploit the data that describes their content. Since 2016, she co-organizes an annual semantic web meeting in Quebec in the form of a conference.
Josée recently worked with the Canada Council for the Arts, the Quartier des spectacles Partnership, Canadian Heritage Information Network and SODEC. She sits on the Quebec government’s digital council.
Élisabeth-Anne Dorléans
Board member
A graduate of UQAM’s Bachelor of Dance program, followed by a Master’s degree from the same department, Élisabeth-Anne is a Montreal-based dance artist. Passionate about dance, she uses her diverse practice to contribute to the development and recognition of dance in all its forms.
Nabila Ghernati
Board member
Professional with over 15 years of experience in fields related to immigration, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Nabila advises and guides managers in implementing inclusive strategies and practices in their organizations to allow people from underrepresented groups to be recruited and access jobs and governance bodies. She has supported some 100 non-profit organizations in an inclusive governance program, enabling them to acquire tools and good practices so their organizations and boards of directors can be more representative of Montréal’s diversity and its talent. In previous positions, Nabila led workshops on managing cultural diversity in employment in Montréal businesses and coordinated a round table for employability organizations for three years.
Sophie Michaud
Board member
Sophie Michaud began her career in dance at the beginning of the 1980s. For over 30 years, through university studies (B.F.A and M.F.A. in dance, doctoral studies in artistic studies and practices) and a sustained practice, she has specialized in supporting choreographic projects. Rehearsal director and artistic and dramaturgical advisor, she works with many choreographers at different stages of creating their pieces, placing particular importance on the intricacy of artistic and interpersonal challenges and how they manifest themselves in studio. Informed by extensive experience of the creative process, Sophie M. also acts as a consultant, editor, trainer, and artistic mediator. Pursuing her own research, she is interested in the history of dance, ethics, and sociology of professions.
Isabelle Poirier
Board member
Isabelle was a performer with Compagnie Marie Chouinard for eight years and then rehearsal director. She continues to work freelance as a rehearsal director, remounting the company’s works for various companies and schools. In 2015-2016, she performed the solos Cartes postales de Chimère by Louise Bédard and Les Choses dernières by Lucie Grégoire, and helped write the Choreographic Toolkits of these same works for Espace Perreault (formerly Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault). A graduate of LADMMI with a major in art history, she now teaches dance at Concordia and is artistic advisor to EDCM, Rhodnie Désir, Ivanie Aubin-Malo and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine. She dances for Ariane Boulet and Lucie Grégoire, and is co-director of teaching at Corpuscule Danse.
Chloé Saintesprit
Board member
Chloé (they / zie / zim) is a professional who has been working in the arts and culture sector in Quebec for nine years. A former dance performer, they holds a degree in dance from UQAM, a DESS in management from HEC Montréal and a certificate in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) from Cambridge University. As an EDI consultant and speaker, Chloé works to improve the representation of diversity and inclusion processes within organizations in various sectors, particularly in decision-making spheres. As part of this same vision, Chloé is an ambassador for CMTL’s Groupe des Trente, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Centrale des Artistes in Laval, and is involved in numerous projects such as editorials and panels, in collaboration with various players across Canada.
Anne Thériault
Board member
As creator and performer, Anne Thériault has been weaving collaborations with artists from multiple backgrounds for fifteen years. She is a founding member of Lorganisme, a structure that reinforces the activity of choreographers, bringing them together and encouraging them to deepen their respective artistic approaches through sharing creative, human, and material resources. She has also been an associate artist at Usine C since 2018 and is invited as a « artiste-chercheure » by L’L- an experimental research structure for the living arts in Brussels, until 2023.
Lise Gagnon (she/her)
Executive Director
dg@espaceperreault.ca
Ariane Dessaulles (she/her)
Project Manager
info@espaceperreault.ca
Victoria Côté (she/her)
Communications and Philanthropy Manager
comm@espaceperreault.ca
Renée Hudon (she/her)
Accountant
Stéphanie Connors, teacher and researcher in school dance pedagogy
Lucy Fandel, dance artist and cultural mediator
Shérane Figaro, dancer and choreographer in the Haitian contemporary dance scene
Marie Claire Forté, dancer and composite artist in contemporary dance
Lise Gagnon, Espace Perreault Executive Director
Gabrielle Larocque, artist and researcher in arts and museum studies
Sophie Michaud, artistic consultant in contemporary dance
Katya Montaignac, performer, choreographer, dramaturg and critic
Nayla Naoufal, artistic director for the Festival Accès Asie, author, researcher, and teacher in environmental humanities
Josée Plamondon, data and information retrieval systems specialist, consultant and co-organizer of an annual semantic web meeting in Quebec
Yvon Soglo, alias Crazy Smooth, dancer, choreographer, founder and artistic director of Compagnie Bboyizm
Anne Thériault, creator, performer and founding member of Lorganisme.
In collaboration with the Espace Perreault team members:
Victoria Côté, cultural worker and Communications and Philanthropy Manager at Espace Perreault
Ariane Dessaulles, dancer, choreographer and Project Manager at Espace Perreault.
Public Partners
Sponsors
Other Partners
Donors
Espace Perreault gratefully thanks its 2023 and 2024 donors: Claire Adamczyk, Louise Bédard, Marie Béland, Anne Bénichou, Martin Boisjoly, Marc Boivin, Lise Brunet, Bertrand Chénier, Guy Cools, Victoria Côté, Florence Daniel, Luce Des Aulniers, Michèle Febvre, Sylvie Fortin, Patrick Gaboury, Lise Gagnon, Nabila Ghernati, Emmanuelle Goulet, Krystiane Hamel, Nicole Harbonnier, Laurier Lacroix, Jean-François L’Heureux, Nasim Lootij, Pierre MacDuff, Joanie Martin, Sylviane Martineau, Suzie McCarrey, Sophie Michaud, Robert Paquin, Caroline Paré, Josée Plamondon, Sophie Préfontaine, Theresa Rowat, Dominique Sicotte, Robert St-Amour, Karim Talaat, Anne Thériault , Sylvie Tourangeau, Lucie Vigneault and Anonymous.
Other partners
Espace Perreault expresses special thanks to Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, the Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal and the National Arts Centre for their participation in the protection and promotion of Jean-Pierre Perreault’s artistic legacy.