Le Grand Continental

Une gigantesque danse en ligne contemporaine qui met en scène des danseurs amateurs de tous âges et de tous horizons.Depuis sa création, ce concept populaire connaît un succès fulgurant à travers le monde.

Renowned for his refined style and precise movement, Montreal-based choreographer Sylvain Émard must have surprised some when he presented Le Grand Continental at the Festival TransAmériques in 2009. This unique show, a 30 minutes hybrid of contemporary dance and line dancing, included some sixty amateur dancers of varying ages and backgrounds. To the rhythms of country, techno, disco, waltzes and R&B music, they danced as one and had the entire Montreal downtown neighborhood rocking to their dynamic vibes. Back by popular demand, the cast doubled in 2010 for Le Très Grand Continental at the FTA, which proved as popular as the original, as was El Gran Continental, the version presented at the Festival de México in March 2011 and based on Latin social dancing.In 2011, the concept further expanded by featuring 200 non-professional dancers in a whole new piece : Le Continental XL, and kicked off the 5th Festival TransAmériques, at Place des Festivals in the heart of Montreal. For this occasion, Sylvain Émard was named Personality of the Week by La Presse/Radio-Canada.In 2014, Le Grand Continental closed the 75th season of the Celebrity Series of Boston and received the People’s Choice Award in the Best Nonprofit Event Concept category at the 2014 BizBash National Event Style Awards in New York. The annual American rendezvous of event professionals, BizBash honoured the best event-related ideas, strategies, products and venues across North America.Since the first presentation of Le Grand Continental, the concept has gone on to tour extensively, from Mexico to South Korea, the U.S. and New Zealand. Almost 2000 dancers participated in one or more of those 13 editions, which attracted close to 85,000 spectators.An unexpected blendMix popular tradition and contemporary art. Combine highly festive line dancing with the fluidity and expressiveness of contemporary dance. Who would have believed that Sylvain Émard would rely on the authenticity and brio of amateur dancers to galvanize audiences? Yet his fascination for line dancing goes back a long way. It is rooted in his childhood, in the basement of his parish church where he discovered the pleasures of social dancing. He was soon captivated by the concentration required, by the trance-like state it provoked among the dancers and by their enthusiasm for the form. Many years later it coloured some of his pieces: one can find implied references to it in Mensonge Variations (1998), Scènes d’intérieur (2001) or Wave (2008). With Le Grand Continental, Sylvain Émard is returning to his first love in strikingly original fashion.Source: Sylvain Émard Danse

Video CreditsLe Continental XL at the Festival TransAmériques 2011A Sylvain Émard Danse and Festival TransAmériques co-production, co-presented by Quartier des spectacles of MontrealCHOREOGRAPH Sylvain ÉmardPROFESSIONAL DANCERS Nathalie Blanchet, Maryse Carrier, Mark Eden-Towle, Geneviève Gauvreau, Jean-François Légaré, Alexandre Parenteau, Julie Siméon, Catherine Viau MUSIC Martin Tétreault, Dj Mini, El Instituto Mexicano del SonidoLIVE MUSIC Dj MiniLIGHTING DESIGN Bruno RafieMore informationshttp://www.sylvainemard.com/en/creations/le-grand-continental/