Margie Gillis Celebrates 40th Anniversary with 2013-14 Canadian Tour, Beg. Today

The upcoming 2013-2014 season marks the 40th anniversary of the performance career of the legendary Canadian dancer Margie Gillis. In celebration, Montreal's Margie Gillis Dance Foundation launches a cross-Canada tour and premieres new works marking the illustrious four-decade career of the iconic dancer, one of the country's most honoured artists.

Various shows highlight this celebration, including a tour of two major new works beginning in September: the world premiere of Bulletins from ImmortalityŠ freeing Emily Dickinson in British Columbia and performances of The Light Between in Ontario.

Bulletins from Immortality, by Margie Gillis and director Paola Styron, is dance theatre at its best as it presents the poetry and inner world of Emily Dickinson in a bold new way. It is Emily Dickinson unbound performed by Gillis and American acting icon Elizabeth Parrish. Although a recluse, Dickinson's vivid imagination created insightful visions of things she never personally experienced. In this new work, Parrish embodies the intellect of the artist and the spirit of her writing while Gillis gives life to her body and soul.

The Light Between is comprised of a series of haunting solos, duets and trios choreographed by Margie Gillis with collaborators Holly Bright, Marc Daigle and Paola Styron. Performed by Gillis, Daigle and Styron, The Light Between ponders the fundamental nature of being, exploring the turbulent state of transition and transformation, where the visible and invisible meet. Evolving within renowned painter-sculptor Randal Newman's unforgettable set, composed of arms reaching into space, the piece reveals a strangely familiar and radiant world blending sculptural and pictorial elements evocative of the dancer's body.

The tour of these works is as follows:

Bulletins From Immortality - freeing Emily Dickinson

Special preview TODAY, September 28: Maison de la culture de Notre-Dame-De-Grâce, Montreal, QC.

Advance performance October 19: ArtSpring Theatre, Salt Spring Island, B.C.

World premiere October 23-26: The Cultch (Vancouver East Cultural Centre), Vancouver, B.C.

The Light Between

London premiere November 9: The Grand Theatre, London, ON.

Toronto premiere November 12-13: Harbourfront Centre's Fleck Dance Theatre, Toronto, ON.

Also, this season she performs:

On Fairness

In Vancouver, on September 17, Gillis gives a special public solo performance of the Fairness project with live musicians to original music created by Dr. Alfredo Santa Ana at Scientific and Academic Knowledge, the biannual University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS) conference at the University of British Columbia.

Cavatinas and Counterpoints, a new show inspired by the artist salons of the early 20th century which reunites Gillis with her friends: dancer and choreographer Tedd Robinson and pianist Jean Desmarais.

September 15: Festival Quartiers Danses, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal, QC.

March 14, 2014: L'Anglicane de Lévis, Lévis, QC.

March 21, 2014: Mont-Tremblant, QC.

and

Florilège, a retrospective program specially created for her 40th anniversary that will constitute some of Gillis' most significant works.

World Premiere February 25-March 1, 2014: Agora de la danse de Montréal. Montréal, QC.

Performance March 7, 2014: Centre culturel de Beloeil, Beloeil, QC.

Margie Gillis first danced professionally in 1973. She has earned critical acclaim for her performances around the world. A passionate and tireless creator, she has worked with some of the greatest dancers, choreographers and artists of her time and influenced generations of dancers. Conscious of sharing and assuring continuity in her art, Gillis has taught in various institutions, including the Juilliard School and Harvard University. Gillis has been a Member of the Order of Canada since 1988, becoming an Officer in 2013. In recognition of her exceptional contribution to national culture, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec awarded Gillis their Career Award in 2001; she was made a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec in 2009. In May 2011, Gillis received the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General's Performing Arts Award Foundation. She currently has two books coming out on her teaching in relationship to enlightened work on conflict resolution and fairness in financial markets. For more information, visit www.margiegillis.org.

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