CHRYSALIS OF CONNECTION. In 1999, Laurentio, a hunter from the Igloolik region in Nunavut who is also a storyteller, actor and Inuit dancer, met the dancer, improviser and performer Geneviève, who wished to build bridges and stage art forms that unite northern theatrical practice with her own. Uqquaq, L’Abri (The Shelter) is the tale of a cultural and personal encounter. While a documentary video is being projected, they begin to build a tent that will provide them with shelter. Like two caterpillars spinning a cocoon, Geneviève and Laurentio are themselves strands of cotton, bits of sealskin and wool, creating their own chrysalis. Their shelter is the site of their coming together, a place marked by cohabitating codes and legends. It combines an encounter with modern dance, a story told in Inuktitut and a drum dance sequence, with moments where she covers a structure made of ropes with skeins of wool as he prepares a sealskin rope that serves as the basis of their shelter. An impure, hybrid presentation that mixes and intertwines cultures, practices and sensibilities, Uqquaq, L’Abri is an incredible antidote to trepidation and selfishness.

Created, conceived and performed by Geneviève pepin, Laurentio q. Arnatsiaq