Sex (a bit), rock, beer, and chips: 'Gravel Works', in its current – or ‘provisionally finished’ – form, as Gravel would say, is a sort of display case for moods, humour, bodily states, musical colours, condensed choreography, pop songs, personalities and pleasant irrelevances. A concert form of the ‘best of’ this oeuvre, with an elastic temporality, which has begun in 2006 and has had a number of variation depending on the number of available artists and the organisation of autonomous units gradually created. In short or long form – à la carte or set menu – it has gained traction at such venues as Studio 303, Performance Mix in Soho, the event The Art (prononcez dehors) at the first OFF.T.A, Tangente, FuseBox Festival in Austin, TransAmériques Festival, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales in Seine-Saint-Denis, Festival Nouvelles in Strasbourg and, now, the Maison de la Danse in Lyon. A Möbius Strip of a piece that allows the viewer to travel between the inside and outside of the show or, as Gravel himself suggests, between the head, the heart and the genitals – in whatever order suits you!

Frédérick Gravel graduated in 2009 from UQAM’s (Université du Québec à Montréal) dance faculty with a thesis on “The role of the dance artist in a democratic society’’. The choreographer, dancer, musician and lighting designer Frédérick Gravel has been active on the Montreal scene for the past ten years. He turns the structures of choreography upside down, merging into his work various elements from rock and performance art. Advocating the intermingling of cultures and disciplines, he won over FTA (Festival TransAmériques) audiences in 2009 with Gravel Works, which was then invited to the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, in France. In 2010 he returned to the FTA with Tout se pète la gueule, chérie. Always present where least expected, he collaborated with Pierre Lapointe on Mutantès (2008).
 

Usually Beauty Fails, was presented in 2012 and it has been on tour since then. In February 2015, he revisited the cabaret style at Usine C, presenting Cabaret Gravel with 20 guest artists, including Dear Criminals and the Molinari Quartet. In November 2015 he created the intimate duo This Duet That We’ve Already Done (so many times). He co-created with the author Étienne Lepage Ainsi parlait… (2013) and Logique du pire (2016).
 

The works of Frédérick Gravel have received great national and international reviews. They are created in close collaboration with all members of Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup/GAG, a shifting collective of dancers and musicians actively involved in the creation process.
 

More and more active as a teacher, Frédérick Gravel regularly gives creative workshops as well as teaching at CÉGEP Saint-Hyacinthe’s theater department, at Université du Québec à Montréal and at l’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.

Source: The company Daniel Leveillé Danse  's website

En savoir plus : danielleveilledanse.org