La Danza Poetica #48 Travelling Light
This month, we travel light. Returning to Canada—because of course, at this moment in time, we had to. It might be time for quiet and for reflection, a little window of peace to contemplate how we got here and where we might be going. So I have mixed some tracks from a lovely album by François Couture and Denis Veilleux—Carousel XXI does this contemplative work through storytelling.
Beats and melodies from Rise Ashen, Flying Down Thunder, and Cris Derksen, intelligent weavings of language from Gaël Faye and Kaie Kellough and Naila Keleta-Mae, and long-life-earned wisdom from Leonard Cohen, our very honoured ghost.
Travel well, travel light.
Tracklist
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Le roi couronné (Conte) (feat. Michel Cervant)
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Le roi couronné (feat. Michel Cervant)
Cris Derksen - Improvisations On the Sunset (feat. Jennifer_Kreisberg)
LAL - Background (Rise Ashen remix)
Leonard Cohen - Traveling Light
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Où est la tendresse (Conte) (feat. Gabrielle Lapointe & Louis-Pier Soucy)
Gaël Faye - Président
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Qui sommes-nous (Conte) (feat. Keven Landry)
Naila Keleta-Mae - A gap?
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Les âges de la vie (Conte) (feat. Michel Cervant)
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - L'amitié. Bon! (Conte) (feat. Keven Landry)
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - L'amitié. Bon! (feat. Keven Landry)
Flying Down Thunder, Rise Ashen - Roots Music (feat. Dawn Maria)
LAL - Background (Rise Ashen remix)
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Les ogres de barbaries (Conte) (feat. La Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs de Québec)
Leonard Cohen - It Seemed the Better Way
Cris Derksen - I See/Icy Water (feat. Kinnie Starr)
kaie kellough - d-o-y-o-u-r-e-a-d-m-e
Francois Couture & Denis Veilleux - Les brises de la danse (Conte) (feat. Katee Julien & La Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs de Québec)
Monsieur Camembert - Dance Me To The End Of Love
Notes on the show
Carrousel XXI is a collaboration between Canadian composer Francois Couture and Denis Veilleux. A musical drama, after a story by Veilleux. Denis writes that Carrousel XXI has been inspired by the difficult context of today’s world. A man and woman are the eyes and ears of what has been happening in the 21st century, searching for meaning in the face of terror and terrible acts like the events at the Bataclan on 13th November 2015. Trying to understand why people can do the things they do. The story brings forth various characters, like Uncle Hervé, looking for peace in his heart, spiritual research, he can comfort the man and woman sometimes with kindness, humanity, life experience. Louis-Philippe, the vagabond, and Roseanne the maid. These characters in Veilleux’s story, are all riding on the turning carousel of the world. A carousel we are all on, ultimately, together.
Through the stories weaves the chorus; the chorus is the people, the echo heard from the crowds, from the streets, from the crowded boats, from the empty churches.
Hope comes from story, in both the telling and the listening and the making, and the beautiful things they see, the beautiful minds they meet—like the man who shows them that hope is a choice.
Perhaps that man, for us—at least, OK, for me (I shan't try to speak for you)—was / is Leonard Cohen. There is probably nothing I can say about him that hasn't already been said. During a month where it felt like all hope might, after all, be lost, Leonard Cohen's death had a strangely calming effect on me. He left us with a reminder, perhaps, of the nature of the journey we are all on. So it felt OK. Our teachers all have to leave us some time. We need to be sure we learn their lessons.
This is a bit of a meandering, wandering set. (I've been dreaming of Greece all month; it probably shows.) It feels right at a time of sharp confusion, to allow softness and rough edges, to be open to chance and understanding.
Below, Denis' background on the stories in Carrousel XXI, in French and with English translation (with thanks to Elsa Klockenbring):
On Carrousel XXI:
1. Carrousel XXI est né dans le contexte difficile du monde présent. J’ai imaginé Elle et Lui, masculin et féminin, qui seraient les yeux de ce qui se passe et que leur histoire, un peu fantastique, n’éviterait pas les évènements tragiques : par exemple celui du Bataclan le 13 novembre 2015 à Paris.
2. Une quête de sens devant la perte de sensibilité humaine qui nous guette. D’autres personnages viennent compléter leurs regards.
3. L’Oncle Hervé est un homme qui a vécu. Son expérience est encore celle de la recherche pour lui aussi. Il cherche la paix du cœur dans les mouvements du monde. Cette paix se trouve au plus profond de lui. Une recherche spirituelle de descente et de montée. Il saura les réconforter (Elle et Lui) parfois par sa bonté, son humanité, et l’expérience de la vie : Les âges de la vie se tiennent par la main. On le retrouve aussi avec des questions sur les origines du monde et la manière dont il réfléchit devant ces interrogations. Toi qui inventes le bruit, dis-moi le jour, la nuit, comment ce grand silence des étoiles n’est-il pas une source d’un Inventeur à trouver.
4. Les autres personnages comme Louis-Philippe le vagabond et Rosianne la servante font parties du Carrousel qui tourne. Louis-Philippe le vagabond cherche l’Humanité perdue mais la trouve dans les tissus du monde. Il cherche aussi l’amour, l’amitié et n’écarte pas les déceptions. Enfin il voit le drame de la guerre en morceaux qui se déroulent sous nos yeux.
Rosianne est simple, humaine. Elle a eu des échecs dans la vie mais son chemin s’est affermi dans la connaissance qu’elle a d’elle-même : la petite valise c’est qui souvent fut oubliée des autres, du monde. Elle n’est pas irritée elle vit dans l’acceptation de sa condition et cela nous la rend belle : elle sait prier dans la pauvreté : la prière des petits pas.
5. Le choeur est synonyme des Gens, de l’écho que l’on entend aussi de la part des foules, de la masse. Ils sont présents ces Gens autant dans la migration des bateaux que dans le vide de nos églises en Amériques du Nord et Occident. Nous les entendons dans le vibrant hymne a capella Les ogres de barbaries qui non seulement décrit les puissants du monde qui font leur rondes mais également des terreurs qui accablent l’humanité par les destructions ou attentats : des villes sont touchées, des monuments du patrimoine sont détruits.
6. L’espoir nous est donné par Elle et Lui et les beautés qu’ils rencontrent. Ils sont aidés par des enfants, l’homme en blanc, son sourire. On assiste à la naissance d’un être humain qui ne fait que montrer ce qu’il y a de beau dans l’humain. Un humanité retrouvée et que la peur dépassée ne peut refouler aux portes du désespoir. Elles et Lui font une expérience déterminante d’espoir.
7. Carrousel XXI est une fresque peinte avec les couleurs d’aujourd’hui. Les personnages sont dessinés et le conte parlé nous en donne la trame.
Denis Veilleux
1. Carousel XXI was born in the difficult context of today’s world. I imagined Her and Him, masculine and feminine, who would be the eyes of what is happening, and their story, a bit imaginary/fantastic, wouldn’t avoid the tragic events; for example those of the Bataclan on the 13th November 2015 in Paris.
2. A search/quest for meaning in face of the loss of human sensitivity that threatens us. Other people come to add to their perspectives.
3. Uncle Hervé is a man who has life experience. His experience is bonded to a quest of his own. He’s looking for peace in his heart amongst the movement of the world. This peace is deep inside himself. A spiritual research of descent and ascension/rising. He will know how to comfort them, sometimes with his kindness, his humanity, his life experience. Ages of life hold each other’s hands. We find him again posing questions about the origin of the world, and his reflections on these questions. You who invents the noise, tell the day, the night, how this big silence of the stars is, not for an Inventor to find.
4. The other characters like Louis-Philippe the vagabond, and Rosianne the maid, are part of the turning Carousel. Louis-Philippe the vagabond looks for a lost Humanity, and finds it in the fabric of the world. He is also looking for love, friendship and doesn’t try to avoid disillusion/disappointment. Finally, he sees the tragedy of the war unfolding in front of our own eyes.
Rosianne is simple, human. She encountered failures in her life but her path strengthened as she got to know herself better; the little suitcase that often was forgotten by others, by the world. She is not irritated; she lives in the acceptance of her condition and this makes her beautiful to us; she knows how to pray in her poverty; the payer of little steps.
5. The choir is a synonym for the People, the echo that we also hear from the crowds, from the mass. These People are present as much in the migration of boats as in the emptiness of our churches in North America and in the Western world. We hear them in the acapella vibrant hymn Les ogres de barbaries, that not only describes the powerful people of this world that keep a close eye on us but also the terrors that oppress humanity, such as destructions or terror attacks: cities are targeted, historical monuments are destroyed.
6. Hope is given by Her and Him and by the beauties they find. They are helped by children, the man in white; his smile. We assist in the birth of a human being who shows only the beauty of being a human. Finding humanity again, a humanity that threats cannot control, and we push back to the doors of despair. Her and Him have a decisive experience of hope.
7. Carousel XXI is a painted fresco with today’s colours. The thread is given to us by the way the characters are drawn and the tale narrated.
Denis Veilleux
