SF International Arts Festival Presents Compagnie Virginie Brunelle & the U.S. Premiere of COMPLEX DE GENRES

San Francisco International Arts Festival is very proud to present the U.S. debut of Compagnie Virginie Brunelle from Montreal Canada with the U.S. Premiere of Ms. Brunelle's signature work Complex des Genres.

As Virginie Brunelle becomes a rising star in both her own country and in Europe - receiving commissions to create new work in major houses; so her accomplishments have been overlooked in Canada's neighbor to the south. The Festival seeks to rectify this by sharing with an American audience one of Ms. Brunelle's early signature works that announced her intentions to the world.

Festival Director Andrew Wood said of the engagement, "Better late than never!"

Complex des Genres asks men and women, "How can they define themselves through the constraint of traditional gender concepts?" Overwhelmed by their fears, men and women collide in a forlorn attempt to validate their own existence. Their excesses lead them on the road to ruin, guided by their desperate desire to feel something, to feel alive. Doubt is looming and the cold, obsessive quest for perfection is pervasive, but still, there is hope. As righteous, thinking beings, men and women can experience growth, acceptance and love. A physical and acrobatic choreography imbued with remarkable visual poetry.

Compagnie Virginie Brunelle was founded in Montreal in 2009 and has since created five full-length works that have toured on four continents. Virginie Brunelle's work can be recognized by her sensitive but raw performances, the cinematic qualities of her compositions, and a vocabulary that seeks to deconstruct traditional codes - using staccato rhythms and coarse movement, constantly alternating between tension and release. Above all, she is interested in humans, their emotions, and the poetry of everyday existence.

Virginie Brunelle graduated from Dance Creation at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2007, and founded her eponymous company in 2009. Through a quest for humanity and authenticity both in terms of her subject matter and her choice of collaborators, Virginie seeks to forge an intimate connection with the audience by constructing unique shows that strike a powerful emotional chord. Her work features sensitive but challenging performances that combine cinematographic qualities with the deconstruction of classical codes through erratic rhythms and raw energy, constantly alternating between strength and release.

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