Sylvain Lafortune
Born in Montreal, Sylvain Lafortune began dancing professionally with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (GBC) in 1979, after training at the school of the same name. This initial experience enabled him to dance a repertoire that was both classical and modern (including works by Nault, Kudelka, Taylor, Limon, MacDonald and Lubovitch).
In 1984, a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize enabled him to undertake a major recharging trip to Europe and New York. He remained in New York until 1990, working mainly with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, but also with Susan Marshall & Co. and Martha Clarke in her Off-Broadway production of The Garden of Earthly Delights.
Sylvain Lafortune and Mia Babalis in Lar Lubovitch's Fandango (1989) - photo by Jack Mitchel
Back in Montreal, he returned to GBC as a principal dancer, performing works by Joss, Tudor, Balanchine, Kudelka, Duato, Kylian and Godden, among others. In 1995, he became a member of O Vertigo Danse, directed by choreographer Ginette Laurin, then of Montréal Danse in 1998, where he danced works by Navas and De Vasconcelos.
Sylvain Lafortune also appeared in Norman McLaren's Narcissus, Barbarra Sweete's Fandango and Romeos and Juliets, Bernar Hébert's La nuit du déluge and Raymond St-Jean's Le violon magique.
A freelancer since 1999, he has worked on several independent dance projects, including Benoît Lachambre's Prisme, Marie Béland's Beside and Peter Qanz's Instant Community with Montréal Danse, Monsieur and S'envoler with Création Estelle Clareton and Pierre-Paul Savoie's Les chaises, an adaptation of Ionesco's play for young audiences. In 2018, he created and danced with Esther Rousseau-Morin L'un l'autre, a duo show in which their shared passion for partnering is expressed with mastery and sensitivity.
Sylvain Lafortune and Esther Rousseau-Morin in their choreography L'un l'autre (2018) - photo by David Wong
He divides his time between working as a performer, dance teacher and artistic advisor in the circus world. For the National Circus School of Montreal, where he teaches, he has directed several shows, including Faërie for the 2006 annual show at La Tohu. With his colleague Marie-Josée Gauthier, he created the shows Tourbillon (2015) and Dreambox (2017) for Circus Monti in Switzerland. For Circus Stella in Canada, he directed and choreographed Horizon Vertical in 2018, a show on stilts that presents this discipline in an unprecedented way in a contemporary theatrical context.
His keen interest in partner work and his analytical mind led him to want to push his understanding of the subject even further. Studies at master's level (La classification des portés en danse) and doctoral level (L'apprentissage du duo chez les danseurs experts), greatly refined his conception of partnerwork, adding a theoretical aspect to his know-how as a dancer and teacher.
The publication in 2021 of his book, Art et technique du travail de partenaires, marks an important event in the history of this practice. Until then, no book had described and explained in such detail, rigor and relevance the mechanical, technical, relational and artistic issues involved in partner work. Now considered an authority on the subject, Sylvain Lafortune's expertise is called upon in dance, circus and figure skating circles, as well as in the accompaniment of people with reduced mobility.