Scuse

Having studied film production at the École nationale de cirque and Concordia University, Frédérique Cournoyer Lessard seeks to develop a dramatic writing style that integrates the abstraction of circus gesture with realistic and engaged narratives, both on stage and on screen. Often feminist, in scope and intention, their works focus on the lived realities of the sociopolitical—the body politic as it were. Their most recent films as a director, Pas (dance-fiction, 15 min), Rue de la victoire (circus-documentary, 65 min) and Coconut (circus-documentary, 15 min) have been selected and awarded in more than eighty-five festivals around the world, such as Hot Docs (Canada), Dance on Camera (NY, USA), Clermont-Ferrand (France), Cinedans (Netherlands), Shorts Shorts (Japan), Festival Nouveau Cinéma (Canada), Festival Regard (Canada), Mecal Film Festival (Spain) or San Francisco Dance Festival (USA). Alongside their career as a filmmaker, they have worked as a performer specializing in contortion and aerial hoop. Thanks to their experiences within well-established companies, such as La Soirée (Australia), Palazzo (Germany), 7 Doigts de la main or Cirque Éloize (Canada), they have been able to enrich their acrobatic skills and their vision of circus gesture. Today, Frédérique combines the dramaturgical approach they developed as a director with their physical abilities to create Scuse, their first live work. During and since its creation, Scuse has received numerous accolades, such as the IMPACT grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and a nomination for the Prix Propulsion d’En Piste. Scuse has also been supported by several international creative centres, including La Grainerie in Toulouse, Espace Périphérique de la Villette in Paris, Latitude 50 in Marchin, and UP—Circus et Performing Arts in Brussels.