World Dance and Theatre Stars headline 2016 Festival TransAmériques

The 10th edition of Montréal’s famed Festival TransAmériques will present 25 dance and theatre productions from Canada and around the world from May 26 to June 8. There will also be parties, film screenings, panels and workshops in various venues around Montréal. Here are some highlights:

There is a lot of buzz for the hotly-anticipated North American premiere of Quebec dance icon Louise Lecavalier’s Mille batailles at the Monument-National from May 31 to June 2.

Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure), by American choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell at the Monument-National on May 29 and 30, is about an imagined 1963 meeting of the Harlem voguing and Judson Dance Theater movements.

Playwright Étienne Lepage and star choreographer Frédérick Gravel – two of Quebec’s rising talents – join forces to create the raw and comic piece (in French with English surtitles) Logique du pire about desperate 30-somethings, playing in the intimate the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts.

Let’s Not Beat Each Other to Death is an English-language theatre piece being presented at Théatre Espace Go, inspired by the 2012 killing of a Halifax gay activist.

A collaboration with Quebec writer Martine Delvaux, Manon Oligny choreographs Fin de série, her new dance piece at the Agora de la danse (June 4 to 6), about the emancipation of women in which “mass-produced girls struggle against their standardization and planned obsolescence.”

Canadian multidisciplinary artist 2Fik’s photography integrates performance art and video, and his new project 2Fik court la chasse-galerie takes place over three days (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, from May 28 to 30) when he will reconstruct the legendary Chasse-galerie (The Flying Canoe) at his huge pop-up outdoor photo studio in Place des Festivals. On Day 1, 2Fik will assemble his set and costumes, and prepare for the photo session while answering questions from spectators. On Day 2, he will take pictures and, on Day 3, will edit the artwork. Free admission.

Legendary Italian avant-garde theatre director Romeo Castellucci presents his much-anticipated piece Go Down, Moses (in Italian with English and French surtitles) which questions God through art, at the Théatre Denise-Pelletier, from June 2 to 4. Castellucci will also take part in the free-admission Meet Romeo Castellucci public QA at the QG du Festival on June 4 at 12:30 p.m.

There is also a series of QG By Night parties beginning at 10:30 p.m. nightly at the QG du Festival (175 avenue du Président-Kennedy at UQAM), notably The Total Space Party (May 30) where a dozen artists – along with renowned dancer and DJ Andrew Tay – will attempt to choreograph partygoers; and Bowie au QG (May 31) which will celebrate the work of two icons, David Bowie and Louise Lecavalier, who worked together in the 1980s. Free admission.

The FTA also presents a series of films about art, dance, theatre and activism, being screened mainly at the Cinématheque Québécoise until June 7.

The Festival TransAmériques runs from May 26 to June 8. For more info and tickets, visit fta.ca.

Up next: Blockbuster spring and summer 2016 Montréal Museum exhibitions