LITTLE LADY Set for Kraine Theater Tonight

LITTLE LADY will perform at Horse Trade's Kraine Theater tonight, January 14th at 5:30 p.m. as part of the Encore Festival.

The transformation of Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion dancer to performer generated theater artist is mirrored in this dark, comic and at times grotesque fable about our modern day obsession with self- image. The exquisite movement skills of Lafond juxtaposed with the world of distortion and manipulation accentuates LITTLE LADY's tormented and blissful metamorphosis.

LITTLE LADY is a 50 min one-woman show, a comedy inspired by years living in Las Vegas. In 2012 it was performed extensively through out the United States and Canada. The show was awarded the "Favorite Festival Award" at the Frigid Festival in New York and the "Most Daring Show Award" at the Fringe Festival in London, Ont. The show got raving reviews, amazing feed back, sold out shows and was "Held over" in NY and "Best of Fest" in Ottawa.

CREATIVE TEAM
Creator/Interpret: SANDRINE LAFOND
Director: John Turner
Creative Consultant: MIRIAM CUSSON
Composer: YVES FRULLA
Video/ Photography: PAOLO A.SANTOS
Costume: MARIE-LAURE LARRIEU and NELLY ROGERSON
Make up: ELISABETH LEHOUX
Props: JEAN-SEBASTIEN GAGNON

SANDRINE was born in France where she started dancing at five years old. She attended the prestigious Rosella Hightower Dance School in Cannes. A gypsy at heart she traveled from one country to another to study new ways of interpreting her art. Then nineteen years ago she fell in love with Montreal and its cultural scene. From that point on; the North American continent became her home, and the rest of the word her playground. Sandrine has had the pleasure to work with Cirque du Soleil (Delirium, Kooza, Zarkana, special events), Celine Dion (A New Day), Marie Chouinard (Etude Poignante, The Right Of Spring, The cry of the world, Chopin) and Philippe Decoufle (1992 Olympic Games opening/closing ceremonies) and many other talented friends along the way. Her desire to break new ground brought her to Japan to study with Butoh master Min Tanaka and back home to Canada to study clown with John Turner, Francine Cote and bouffon with Karen Hines. Filled with that knowledge she felt the need to create her own work, which gave life to the character "Little ???- Attribution Lady". A personal reflection on ten years of her life in Las Vegas. Sandrine performed her show "Little Lady" 67 times in 2012 across the North American continent. A new piece will be created in 2013 along with touring "Little Lady".

John Turner is best known as the "Smoot" half of Mump & Smoot, along with Michael Kennard ("Mump"). This award winning Canadian clown duo has delighted audiences throughout North America for the past 24 years. In 2010 Mump & Smoot presented their newest show "Cracked" at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and as part of the Magnetic North Festival to outstanding audience response and critical acclaim. It has gone on to successful runs at Theatre Network in Edmonton and at Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary in April/May 2011. After three sold out Fringe Festival tours in 1989, 1990, and 1992, Mump & Smoot went on to play regional theatres across the continent with great success. These theatres include the Astor Place Theater (Off Broadway), Yale Repertory Theater, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Dallas Theater Center, the American Repertory Theater (Boston), Baltimore Center Stage, the Canadian Stage in Toronto, Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary, and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre to name but a few. John has been recognized for his work with a Dora award, a Canadian Comedy award, a Boston Theatre award and a Drama Logue award (California). John began teaching the Pochinko style of clown in 1991 at Equity Showcase in Toronto. He taught there for 7 years before opening his own studio, The SPACE, with Michael Kennard where he continued to teach, direct, and work on Mump & Smoot shows for the next 6 years. He currently teaches primarily at Laurentian University and throughout the summer on his farm, The Clown Farm, on Manitoulin Island. He also has had ongoing teaching gigs at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre (6 years) and the De-ba-jeh-mu-jig. Theatre Company (5 years). Other teaching stints have included the Yale School of Drama Graduate Program where he was an associate artist for seven years, the University of Calgary, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Workman Theatre Project), the University of Tel Aviv, Bishops University, the University of Guelph, California State University, Michigan Tech, the Humber Comedy Centre and the Stratford Festival. John's directing credits include Karen Hines' Citizen Pochsy (nominated for the Governor General's Award for Drama). Other directing credits include Michael Kennard's Puzzle Me Red, Miriam Cusson and Mélissa Rockburn's Stuff, Diana Kolpak's Lionheart, Emelia Symington Fedy's Patti Fedy in Lovers Rock. For the De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group, John directed the workshop and full production of The Gulch, created by the company, as well as Tomson Highway's A Trickster Tale. John also directed Clown & Such... at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre.

MIRIAM CUSSON has been working as an actor, writer, artistic director and costume designer for more than 10 years. Her first theatre role, Judith in Violette sur la terre written by Carole Fréchette and coproduced by le Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (Sudbruy ON), le Théâtre de la Tandem (Rouyn-Noranda QC) and le Théâtre en scène ( Roubaix, France), brought her to tour Ontario, Québec and Northern France. In 2003-2004, Miriam was resident artist at le Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario where she participated in several productions as director, writer, designer, actor or stage manager. In 2005, Miriam directed Sudbury Blues an homage to the city of Sudbury's ruggedness, poetry and litterature featured during the 11th Festival international de la littérature in Montréal and warmly received by spectators and critics alike. From 2006 to 2010, Miriam was Executive and artistic director of le Salon du livre du Grand Sudbury where she created several literary soirées and shows, notably le Parcours littéraire and Un pays qui pousse dans le Nord. In 2011, along with her colleague Mélissa Rockburn, Miriam founded les Productions Roches brûlées (Burnt Rock Productions) a company who specializes in project development as well as artistic direction and creation. Miriam is also literary consultant for the poetry collection at les Éditions Prise de Parole in Sudbury as well as lecturer for Laurentian University's Francophone theatre program. Recently Miriam accompanied the one woman show Little Lady by Sandrine Lafond which toured several cities in North America.

A versatile musician with a background in classical piano, YVES FRULLA quickly worked his way up in the music industry, establishing his reputation as a brilliant keyboard player. Today, his impressive experience reads like a "who's-who" of the pop/rock music scene, both in his native Canada and internationally. Indeed, over the years, he has toured and travelled extensively with a number of renowned Canadian artists, including Juno Award winner Sass Jordan, as well as Julie Masse, Sylvain Cossette, Laurence Jalbert and Claude Dubois. Since 1990, he has had the honor of being keyboard player for Celine Dion, touring with her worldwide, recording three live albums and appearing on numerous TV shows, including Jay Leno, David Letterman, Arsenio Hall, and Oprah Winfrey. He was part of Celine's "A New Day" Las Vegas show, hailed as a breakthrough in the entertainment world and is currently part of Celine's new Caesar's Palace Las Vegas show that premiered on March 15th 2011. Also an experienced composer and bandleader, Yves has produced, arranged and recorded television and film music for vocalists and dance groups, and has composed and arranged for both published and new songwriters. He currently owns a project studio in Las Vegas, and regularly commutes to Nashville and Los Angeles to collaborate on songwriting projects with established songwriters He plans to continue writing, producing, recording and touring with new and established artists, and pursuing television and film work.

PAOLO A.SANTOS is an independent filmmaker and professional photographer based in Montreal. His video and photographic work focuses on, but is not limited to, performers in dance and musical entertainment, as well as, projects with environmental and social consciousness. He produced video projection installations for Le Capitole de Quebec's production of "Man in Black"; an homage to the legendary music of Johnny Cash, Celine Dion and Rene Angelil's TourMotion Production for the show VERO for Veronique DiCaire and other artistic projects in the U.S., Canada, South America and Europe. Paolo also created and directed shows in Las Vegas, Pasadena and Malibu, California for the United Nation's official coral reef monitoring program called ReefCheck Foundation. These were shows that helped create marine ecosystem awareness through the use of artistic expression; through video projections, dance and music; utilizing world-class musicians and dancers from the "A New Day" show in Las Vegas and Nevada Ballet Theatre. The shows titled the Inhabitants Project garnered the support of influential people such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Daryl Hannah, Gale Anne Hurd, Carol Connors and Dr. Sylvia Earle.

MARIE-LAURE LARRIEU is all about passion ... A passion for fashion and design from an early age. She is a self-taught artist, who continues to evolve and push boundaries. Marie-Laure Larrieu is an inspiration ... Inspiration through travel. Her travels have allowed her to evolve in the world of creation and couture. Determination and persistence are the essence of her being and the support for her lifetime career in creativity. Her rich experience has allowed her to propel herself into designing at various levels of the clothing industry such as performance arts, dance, cinema and fashion. Marie-Laure always reaches above and beyond her client's expectations. Her artistic energy is always devoted in the delight of making each creation unique. Passion is the motivation for her constant evolution.

Born in Montreal, ELISABETH LEHOUX discovered the art of makeup while she was a student in Art and Visual Communication at the University of Quebec in Montreal. She had the chance to study with great masters, who taught her the essence of her art and has not stopped working for the past 15 years. Her passion and her talent bring her to create and give life to faces for many characters for the Special Events at Cirque du Soleil as well as for independent artists around the world.

NELLY ROGERSON'S career in costuming started during her college years when she did and internship at Western Costume Co in Hollywood. She graduated from the American College for the Applied Arts in Los Angeles with a B.A degree in Fashion Design. She headed the costume department at Six Flags Magic Mountain, where she built costumes for 5 years. After moving to Las Vegas, she worked with many different productions before joining Celine Dion's show A New Day at The Coliseum in Caesars Palace where she has worked for many different Productions such as Elton John's the Red Piano, Bette Middler's The Show Girl Must Go On, Rod Stewart, Cher, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and many others...

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