Simoneau in her Flight Distance III: Chain Suite
It’s almost as if Helen Simoneau is living two lives. A French-speaking Québécoise, she arrived at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts at 17 to study dance, and her now-flawless English even has a slight Southern twang. Her six-year-old company splits its time between Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and New York City. Even her choreography includes duality: Simoneau is just as at ease crafting limb-flung, space-eating group work (Paper Wings, originally for 19 dancers) as she is when creating introspective, compact solos (her award-winning the gentleness was in her hands). Her most recent work, which premieres March 3–5 in Winston-Salem, had its first life as a solo for Simoneau herself. Now she’s translated that solo, Caribou, about her Canadian heritage and American assimilation, into a dance for eight.
On repeating herself, choreographically “A lot of the pieces I make are informed by what I made right before. Sometimes the catalyst to create a new work comes from having more to say. There is a spark from the previous piece that continues into the new work. I’ve done this before, with a piece I made for our first season. It was called Flight Distance. And then I just wasn’t done with that idea, so I made Flight Distance II and III. Caribou was similar. I made a solo, and I wasn’t done with this idea. I was interested to see how this movement material and these ideas would translate to a larger group.”
Making it work in NC and NY “Winston-Salem offers us a stable place to create work. The residency model, for me, is really beneficial for the incubation of the work. We’re trying ideas, but it also provides an opportunity for the company to bond. That’s been something that’s rooted us in the past five years. And it’s really important to me to continue to be in New York, seeing all the dances being created and having the opportunity when I’m creating to have mentors and peers come and see the work and give me feedback.”
Her dream dancer “I’m really looking for collaborators: a dancer who is able to take on a task; who is curious; who is interested in researching the movement and the ideas; who can speak about the work while we’re creating it. All of that is important to me. Yes, there’s a base of skill and training that is necessary for the work to be fully realized, but beyond that I’m looking for partners who are really interested in the process. Because that is so much of the time we spend together.” DT
Training: BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts; MFA, Hollins University
Choreography: founded Helen Simoneau Danse in 2010; has been commissioned by The Juilliard School, the American Dance Festival and Springboard Danse Montréal
Teaching: adjunct at UNCSA; The Juilliard School: Summer Dance Intensive; ADF
Photo by Steve Davis, courtesy of Helen Simoneau Danse
