RUBBERBAND

Reckless Underdog (2023)

(Green Fund Fee Support Available)
Running Time: 60 minutes, no intermission
Choreographer: Victor Quijada (pronounced: kee-hah-dah)
Dramaturgy: Mathieu Leroux
Costume Design: Cloé Alain-Gendreau
Lighting Design: Jon Cleveland
Scenography: Pierre-Étienne Locas
Musical Director & Co-Composer: Jasper Gahunia
Composers: Chilly Gonzales, Kid Koala, Vlooper of Alaclair Ensemble

RUBBERBAND’s new creation, Reckless Underdog, propels the company’s achievements of the last twenty years to new heights. In a work larger than nature, twelve dancers come together in a choreography of three acts. Each part, a piece in itself, draws spectators into a unique, complex world through its distinctive scenography, music, and movement aesthetic.

The first, inspired by classical ballet, redefines the rules of the pas de deux in a bright, mechanical environment. The second deconstructs the break cypher in a sombre, oppressive atmosphere. The third, boldly experimental, distorts theatrical codes, confronting them head-on in an abstract, minimal, highly-coloured approach.

For artistic director and choreographer Victor Quijada, this new chapter in the company’s history is the culmination of the RUBBERBAND Method and its capacity to overturn the traditional conventions of dance genres. Reckless Underdog is guaranteed to transport us through a lyrical, figurative dissection of pedestrian movement that defies the limits of time and space.

Reckless Underdog is a coproduction of RUBBERBAND and Danse Danse. With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

Ever So Slightly (2018)

(Green Fund Fee Support Available)
Running Time: 70 minutes, no intermission (Option for live or recorded music.)
Choreographer: Victor Quijada
Dramaturgy: Mathieu Leroux
Musical Director: Jasper Gahunia
Original Music: Jasper Gahunia, William Lamoureaux
Lighting Design: Yan Lee Chan
Costume Design: Cloé Alain-Gendreau

Ever So Slightly explores the behavioral mechanisms and reflexes we develop against the ceaseless flow of irritants that bombard us in our daily lives. Most of us long for calm and resilience, but how do we get to a zone where noise and aggressiveness no longer have a place? Simultaneously delivering delicacy, brutality, finesse, and high-voltage action, the choreographer conveys all the energy contained in urgency, revolt, chaos, and flight.

Victor Quijada continues with his extraordinary dance works, this time with 10 irrepressible dancers, a DJ, a musician and a wide-open venue. The vast performance space, the distorted bodies, and the live music result in a production on steroids. Sound-wise, Jasper Gahunia, one of Quijada’s longtime partner, is pushing RBDG’s musical signature by creating a bold and original soundscape to be performed live.

Co-commissioned by Global Arts Live, Cambridge, MA. Ever So Slightly premiered at the Place des Artes in Montreal, Canada on December 5, 2018.

Second Chances: Trenzado (2024) & Commissions Suite (2023)

(Green Fund Fee Support Available)
Mixed Repertory Program featuring Trenzado: 45 minutes and Commissions Suite: 20 minutes.
Total Running Time: 65 minutes
Choreography: Victor Quijada
Music Director: Jasper Gahunia
Lighting Design: Jon Cleveland
Dramaturgy: Mathieu Leroux
Scenography: Sylvain Baumann

Victor Quijada’s new, deeply personal work draws its inspiration from his experience growing up in Los Angeles first-generation Mexican American. Coming out of retirement and returning to the stage, Victor explores themes of identity, home and motherland. Trenzado features a soundscore by composer and DJ Jasper Gahunia who samples traditional Mexican genre of Norteño (Corridos and Ranchera).  This new work challenges Victor and the audience to reckon with their own ideas of origin, belonging and displacement.

In addition to Trenzado, the mixed repertory program also includes Commissions Suite, a reconstruction of two works originally made by Quijada for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (Physikal Linguistiks) and Scottish Dance Theater (Second Coming). A soundtrack by Jasper Gahunia provides the landscape while seven performers flirt with chaos.

Trenzado is co-commissioned by NextMove Dance, Randy Swartz and received funding support from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Empirical Quotient premiered at the Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts, in Montreal and was produced by RUBBERBAND, the CanDance Creation Fund, Danse Danse, Grand Theatre Kingston, Guelph Dance, Théâtre Hector-Charland and Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal, and the Segal Performing Arts Centre. 

Vic’s Mix (2016)

(Green Fund Fee Support Available)
Running time: 70 minutes
Choreography: Victor Quijada
Lighting Design: Yan Lee Chan
Original music: Jasper Gahunia
Music: Various composers
Costume Design: Camille Thibault-Bédard

Vic’s Mix is the first phase of a long project that choreographer Victor Quijada began at the dawn of the company’s 15th anniversary in 2017. This creation is intended to highlight the essential innovations of Quijada’s choreography, synthesizing the fruitful results of his experiments in dance.

Through the prism of Victor’s influences, stretching from hip-hop in his first forays to his mastery of contemporary tendencies, Vic’s Mix is a watershed moment, a bridge connecting the works realized until now, a look back at pieces that established the company’s choreographic identity.

Vic’s Mix showcases excerpts from previous RUBBERBAND pieces, notably, Elastic Perspective. The music for the production is based on original works created by Jasper Gahunia and those of classical composers (Prokofiev, Verdi, Bach, Vivaldi, among others).

City Thread (2017)

(Green Fund Fee Support Available)
Running Time: 30 minutes
Choreography: Victor Quijada
Music: Jasper Gahunia with the collaboration of William Lamoureux
Costume Design: Cloé Alain-Gendreau
App Development: ANAGRAPH

Dance maverick Victor Quijada reimagines the city as stage in this new and innovative contemporary dance experience. Featuring a cast of 30+ dancers composed of company members and dancers/dance students from the local community, City Thread taps into the vibrant energy of public spaces and our culture of smartphone technology to create a unique, shared experience between audience, performers and the environment. Participants download a smartphone app specifically designed for the piece, and embark on a sensorial experience – activating different music compositions based on their movement throughout the performance site. Audience members are free to create their own adventure by choosing one or more of the dancers to follow along various designated paths.

City Thread pays tribute to the effervescence of metropolitan environments while celebrating the unpredictable exhilaration of live performance. BYOEB (Bring Your Own Ear Buds) and let your dance adventure begin.

City Thread premiered on August 28, 2017 in a celebration of the city of Montreal’s 375th anniversary with support from Place des Arts de Montreal. Local dancers included students from Montreal’s École Supérieure de Ballet and École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal.

City Thread requires a 2 minimum week dance residency + advanced site visit with Victor.

Week 1 – Victor Quijada and a RUBBERBAND dancer to set the work on local dancers.

Week 2 – Full company arrives for on-site rehearsals with local dancers.

About the App: Audience members download the performance smartphone app with active GPS that holds a music playlist activated when they move through the designated public space. With the event’s soundtrack in the spectator’s hands, the performance begins in one central meeting point. Eventually, the dancers separate into smaller groups, moving throughout the area, and the sound score changes as audience members hit various hotspots designated throughout the site.

City Thread was made possible thanks to the participation of ANAGRAPH, Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal, TechnoMontréal, l’École supérieure de ballet du Québec, and l’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, and the support of Valérie Truong Acupuncture Sportive, Kinatex Rockland, Luis Aledo, Azzuan, HOTEL10, GURU, and Blue Spike.