From July 25 to August 5, the 25th Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur (FASS) will offer its audience a sophisticated, eclectic program featuring high-energy dance in shows, concerts, dance courses and master classes.

Under the artistic direction of star dancer Guillaume Côté, charged with FASS’s original programming for the past four years, the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur has taken its place as one of the country’s major events in the field of arts and culture.

Described as a “cultural magnetic pole” by The Ottawa Dance Blog and “Canada’s most visible summer choreographic festival” by Télé Québec, FASS is dedicated to the discovery of the best choreographers, dancers and musicians famous both nationally and internationally.

For a second consecutive year, the event, which broke attendance records in 2018, will reserve a very special place for future artists…and Mont-Tremblant’s dance studio Au pas de chat will be part of that program.

A step towards the future 

As it did last year, FASS has programmed a day entirely devoted to youth in order to promote the artistic up-and-comers in the Laurentians. On Sunday, July 28, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the day called A Step Towards the Future (Un pas vers le future) will invite dance schools of the Laurentians to participate in this major cultural festival.

The Dance-Study program of Augustin-Norbert Morin high school, Primadanse, Apexx and the Mont-Tremblant dance studio Au pas de chat have been selected to show off the range of their talent.

“The idea is to develop the dance community in the Laurentians,” explains Etienne Lavigne, general manager of FASS. “The first Un pas vers le futur was held last year and it was very successful. We had 140 young dancers onstage and it was really superb,” he says. “To the degree possible, we would like this day to be part of the Festival des arts year after year.”

Julie Thiffault, artistic director, choreographer and owner of the Au pas de chat studio, says that she was very excited to receive the invitation to participate, and that it was quite unexpected. “I was very surprised to be contacted, as well as very honoured,” she confides. “We’ll present a short, 18-minute, ballet program and another of contemporary dance with tap shoes,” the choreographer explains.

“Last year was an outstanding year,” Etienne Lavigne continues. “The festival is on an upward trajectory and reaching a completely new level. It’s one of the reasons we decided to involve young people. We feel that the festival will continue to grow, and we hope that the next generation of dancers will be able to take advantage of this,” he concludes.

Under the big top

On Thursday, July 25, at 8 p.m., the New York dance troupe Dorrance Dance will push the limits of tap dancing with SOUNDspace and All good Things Come to an End. “The movement becomes music. Utterly electrifying,” we are told.

Friday, July 26, marks the return, after a 20-year absence, of the Violons du Roy. The 115-musician chamber orchestra will present works by Mozart, Dvorak, Wolf, Puccini and Tchaikovsky.

On Saturday, July 27, Anne Plamondon, Gioconda Barbuto and Hanna Kiel – three choreographers who have followed very different paths – invite us to an “astonishing triple program having very different shades, or looks” called Danse a trois temps.

On Wednesday, July 31, Guillaume Côté will present a world premiere of Crypto, his new and most recent creation inspired by an original story by Royce Vavrek.

On Friday and Saturday, August 2 and 3, the American troupe Complexions Contemporary Ballet will be return to Saint-Sauveur with a “contrasty” musical program called From Bach to Bowie.

On Sunday, August 4, the Red Sky Performance company of Sandra Laronde, standard-bearer for Canadian First Nations’ arts and culture, will present Trace, inspired by cosmology and the starry sky.

Lastly, on Monday, August 5, the Orchestre Métropolitain will close the 2019 FASS on a high note under the direction of none other than its celebrated conductor Jannick Nézet-Séguin.

So that you don’t miss a thing: festivaldesarts.ca