Dancing Together: Transatlantic Connections

Menka Nagrani and Jean Francois Hupé from Les Productions des pieds des mains

Monday 29 October 2018 11am-2pm (arrive from 10.30am, lunch provided from 1pm)Dance Workshop with Menka Nagrani and Les Productions des pieds des mains from Montréal. Ahead of the VIBE symposium on 1 December, visiting artists from Canada joined the Together! Dance Club at Vicarage Lane Community Centre Stratford to lead a workshop as part of the Transatlantic Vibrations project. (The project is being showcased at VIBE on 1 December 2018 and is supported by the British Council in Canada.) At the end of the workshop, they created this short video.

Founded by choreographer Menka Nagrani, Les Productions des pieds des mains is a socially committed company that features well-known actors and dancers alongside atypically cast artists, with a view to provoking thought on artistic and social issues. The interdisciplinary shows appeal to fans of both contemporary dance and experimental theatre. The shows and short films have been presented many times both on the Montréal scene (Tangente, La Chapelle Theater, Prospero, Maisons de la culture …) and elsewhere in Quebec and at international festivals in Canada, India, Belgium, France, England, the United States, Poland and Japan. The Globe and Mail rated Le Temps des Marguerites . . . à la folie ou pas du tout! the fourth best dance-theatre show in Canada in 2007. In 2010, the company won the Janine Sutto Award. In 2011, Pharmakon won a social commitment award and an honourable mention for most remarkable production at the Gala des Cochons d’or, Quebec awards for emerging theatre. In 2012, founder Menka Nagrani received an award for her artistic achievements from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec [Quebec arts and letters council].