LES CHANTEUSES DU RIEN  -  THE TRICKSTER QUARTET 

 

is Sara Zalek (movement), Elaine Lemieux (voice), and Hanna Brock (instrumentalist). We explore the dynamics of resonance in relation to space using classical scores, experimental opera, improvised sound, expanded cinema, and Butoh dance. Our gestures come from strong desire to communicate intimately, to seek an opening to our fears in an embrace. Ultimately, we want to surprise, disarm, and uplift the spirit, to continue weaving the long tail of our evolutionary story. We have been making in this collective for two years, in all sort of venues in Chicago, including Chicago Cultural Center, Edgar Miller Legacy Studio, Silent Funny, Ragdale Foundation and the Hungry Brain, and are looking to tour in 2018. We have been supported by Chicago Dancemakers Forum, Cheney Foundation, the City of Chicago, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation.

 

 

The origin of “LES CHANTEUSES DU RIEN” . . .

 

Back in Montreal in October 1994, I (Elaine Lemieux)

was participating in an actor experimental gathering. 

At one point during the workshop we had to improvise individually one after another.  

It was my turn.

I found myself lost and unable to move. I was face to face with my emptiness. 

The word “rien”/”nothing” came into my mind. 

First as a mantra in my head, I grabbed the word. 

“Rien”/”Nothing” became my buoy.

Eventually, I released the tension by whispering the word repeatedly. 

My voice became more audible and increased gradually. 

The word became lyrical, changing into elongated vowels. 

I expressed the word freely in all direction and my voice became a free operatic exaltation.  

My fear transformed into a gift of freedom. 

I was allowed to exist.  

At the end, the director called me, “La Chanteuse du Rien”, “The Singer of Nothing”. 

 

For many years I dreamed of it.

 

Now, it is becoming 'Les Chanteuses du Rien".