Dance House presents Les jolies choses. The power of endurance and exhaustion, of bodies sodden with effort, but somehow continuing is the raw material of Montreal choreographer Catherine Gaudet. Synchronized, metronomic rhythms offer no means of respite, but inside these mechanistic rituals something else begins to emerge.

Gaudet’s work presents the body as a contested site, a place of divergent, often contradictory demands. In Les jolies choses (The Pretty Things), this fascination with extremity evolves into choreographic work that operates on a visceral level. Within the broader context of performance, both dancers and audience are active participants, as the body itself becomes the spectacle.

As the rigorous repetition of Gaudet’s choreographic language draws forth a state of shared empathy and catharsis, the mandatory conformity and cohesion of the machine are challenged. The gaudy stuff of cheap entertainment falls away, and what is left is the broken poetry of human struggle. Fragile, desperate, and achingly beautiful.