Charmaine LeBlanc & Marlene Millar
Mediating Intimacy

Mediating Intimacy What is it that makes us stop in our steps to look and see something or hear something that really moves us? We live in a world that is unbelievably complex and all of our senses are challenged. As artists we have a unique platform wherein we can explore all of these many faceted layers; with all that we have technologically at arm’s length. What is it we want to say? How do we want to convey our intentions? What images would best influence our objectives, what sounds and words and movements… Mediating intimacy is a Coaching Project centred on finding new points of departure for developing movement. Its areas of research include creating a vocal language for each performer as well as exploring spatial disposition and its emotional impact through the use of video en direct. Video and voice are two strong forms to work with when creating a movement piece and both can serve to focus on and highlight intimate details that one is looking to convey. Charmaine and Marlene will discuss their approach and process though the different stages of their collaborative work as seen in "Quarantaine 4 x 4"- from idea, development in studio, production, editing, and integration into live performance. Excerpts from their work will be viewed and discussed as well. Working from an exploratory foundation grounded in experimental and documentary methods, participants will work in small teams using basic tools - small video cameras, microphones, and simple lighting and editing to explore multiple ways of integrating voice, video and performance. Exercises and work in progress created throughout the workshop will be presented for discussion amongst the participants throughout the week. A final project will be presented on the last day. Voice will be taught throughout the process and participants will be asked to use voice as a narrative, live or recorded for their sound base. We look forward to this meeting; Charmaine and Marlene. Charmaine LeBlanc Charmaine is a vocalist/ composer/ percussionist who has had the opportunity of crossing over into several artistic fields. She has written scores and performed for dance, theatre, film and television. Charmaine has had the privilege of working alongside some of the worlds most renowned voice teachers and has worked with some of the most internationally acclaimed directors and choreographerssuch as: Margie Gillis, Gerald Casel, Risa Steinberg, Angélique Willkie, Luc Tremblay und Les Gens d’R. Also she is accompyning for many institutions and teachers a.o. at LADMMI Montréal, José Limón Institute, Concorde University, New School for the Arts Amsterdam. She has started her own company The Red Rabbit Project. Charmaine continues to coach at the Cirque du Soleil and Franco Dragone’s company in Las Vegas. Marlene Millar With a background in contemporary dance and design, Montreal filmmaker Marlene Millar created her first award winning dance film "The Woman and the Sink" in 1989. Marlene received her BFA in Film Production from Concordia University, Montreal, studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1999 she received a Pew Dance-Media Fellowship at UCLA. Marlene also has an established career as a documentary film editor. In 2001 Marlene and Philip Szporer co-founded the arts film production company Mouvement Perpétuel. Recepients of numerous nominations and awards, their films have been featured on television, in festivals and at world events such as the 2010 Cultural Olympics, the World Exhibition in Shanghai, a UNESCO tour of Latin America and recently in retrospective at the Festival Quartiers Danses in Montreal. Ongoing projects include "Moments in Motion 2", a multi-platform documentary series and "Lost Action: Trace", a stereoscopic (3D) live action/animated film with co-director and choreographer Crystal Pite, animator Theodore Ushev and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Marlene also creates integrated film installations for performance, including "Quarantaine 4x4" and an upcoming new work with Charmaine LeBlanc for a 360 immersive dome. She has directed videos for dancer Louise Lecavalier, choreographer Lynda Gaudreau, spoken-word artist Ian Ferrier, and visual artist Sui Yee Wong among others. Millar has been mentoring emerging filmmakers since 1994 and has taught filmmaking workshops across Canada and the U.S., at the Centre Imagine in Burkino Faso, at ImpulzTanz in Vienna, recently in Nunavut and Helsinki, Finland.