Kennedy Center presents Lemieux Pilon 4D Art: NORMAN

Lemieux Pilon 4D Art: Norman comes to the Kennedy Center for a limited engagement October 6 to 8, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. The Montreal-based company founded by directors Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon present their unique virtual reality visual-language tribute to pioneer filmmaker Norman McLaren. The production features film, dance, music, theater, and holograms, with performance by dancer and choreographer Peter Trosztmer. Press night will take place on Thursday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m.

The four-time Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Norman McLaren, is most celebrated for his technical contributions to the film industry. He was a pioneer in animation and filmmaking, and left a legacy in a number of areas including drawn on film animation, visual music, and graphical sound. His best known short film, Neighbours (1952), for which McLaren won an Oscar®, was developed using pixilation, a stop motion style of animation for which movement is captured frame-by-frame which gives the work a frantic, eerie effect.

Through the use of advance projection technology, the production journeys into McLaren's playful animated landscapes in the company of dancer/choreographer Peter Trosztmer. Lemieux Pilon 4D Art brings McLaren's iconic masterpieces to life, filling the stage with holographic characters interacting with live actors. The singular integration of film into the realm of the performing arts challenges the limits of both disciplines and immerses the audience in the movement, abstraction, and humanism that are characteristic of the filmmaker's oeuvre; the effect is a dramatic homage to the modernity, humanism, and genius of Norman McLaren.

Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, masters of multimedia performances, are the driving artistic force of Lemieux Pilon 4D Art. In their creations, storytelling integrates theater, film, dance, poetry, visual arts, music, and sound, resulting in rich immersive performances for the delight and amazement of audiences. In the last 25 years, they have created and directed more than 30 original productions presented around the world. Recent productions include the acclaimed Norman and La Tempête. They have also created Free Fall, Grand Hôtel des Étrangers, Pôles, Orféo and Anima. The Company has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America, Australia, and Asia.

Their latest work, La Belle et la Bête, a contemporary version of the fairy tale The Beauty and the Beast, delighted audiences and critiques alike at Montreal's Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in 2011. They played for a full house for more than 30 shows and they won three Gascon-Roux Awards presented by the theater's subscribers.

Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon have also created other multiple media productions with other partners including: Starmania, the Opera, with the Montréal and the Quebec Opera companies; DELIRIUM, with the Cirque du Soleil; Soleil de Minuit, for the 20th and 25th anniversaries of Cirque du Soleil and the Montreal International Jazz Festival; This is a Sphere, an outdoor multimedia extravaganza presented at the Montreal High Lights Festival.

Peter Trosztmer has choreographed and performed work that has been seen around the world. After receiving his B.A. in Classics, Peter studied at the Concordia University Dance Dept. before moving to Toronto to complete the STDT training program in 1997. He has trained intensively with Edward Hillyer. He has worked and collaborated with many local Canadian and international choreographers and directors including: Martin F Bélanger, Elizabeth Langley, Margie Gillis, Carre Des Lombes, Compagnie Flak, James Kudelka, Marie Chouinard, Catherine Tardif, Victor Quijada, Jacob Wren, Louise Bedard, Katie Ward, Sharon Moore, Thea Patterson, Allen Francour and Jean Grand-Maitre, Philip Szporer and Marlene Millar, Lois Brown, Montreal Danse: Estelle Clareton, Ahh Soon Ahn, and Karen Ponties. Peter is now pursuing his own solo work, and other projects that inspire him including his new site specific solo performance/installation Machines and his work with the Montreal collective "The Choreographers".

Founded in 1983, Montreal-based Lemieux Pilon 4D Art is a multi-disciplinary company with more than 30 original productions to its credit. Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, the driving artistic forces of the company, masterfully integrate theater, film, dance, poetry, visual arts, music, and sound into their productions, resulting in rich, immersive storytelling that both delight and amaze audiences. The company last appeared at the Kennedy Center in 2007 with its production of The Tempest/La Tempête.

More Articles by This Author...