Roxane Duchesne-Roy
A series to introduce those who work on PPS Danse productions.
Roxane Duchesne-Roy / dancer for Attractions
Your place of birth?
Greenfield Park.
At what age did you start dancing?
As soon as I came out of my mother’s womb.
Do you still enjoy your discipline? Do you train every day?
I carry dance deep in my heart. It was always clear to me that I was going to dance. Sometimes it’s a love-hate relationship. It’s a very difficult discipline, very demanding, which confronts us, questions us, challenges us on the very essence of life! Body, soul and dance are closely linked and difficult to dissociate for me. But I need it to live and I wish to open different ways to allow it to exist in spite of everything.
And to the second question, quite honestly, no! I have had periods in my life where yes, I trained quite a bit every day.
Is music important in your life?
Music has a very precious place in my life. It accompanies me every day. My father is a musician and a drum and percussion teacher, he passed on his passion to me. I sometimes perform as a percussionist and singer in certain productions.
Was it necessary to perform Attractions?
SO MUCH. It’s the very encounter between dance and music.
Did you have a starting point for Attractions?
At the very beginning, no. We first met, the two musicians and the two dancers, doing structured improvisations in order to discover each other. To question oneself about this “attraction”, this meeting: can the dancers interpret music? Can the musicians dance?
Did the initial proposal evolve a lot in the process?
Oh yes! It was a long process and there were also different phases, with a first dancer, another cellist. To get to the first one, yes, we’ve had a big journey 🙂
Is it a demanding performance for you?
Very demanding, because we are there from beginning to end, we dance, sing, use musical instruments.
Was it easy to integrate musical instruments in your choreographic scores?
It’s always a challenge and a lot of work. So no, I couldn’t say “easy”, but since I have a little bit of experience in music it made it a little easier…
Do you like to integrate your voice into dance?
I LOVE to sing! I would love to sing more!
Is it an extra challenge?
Yes, it is! Especially for breathing. Singing and dancing at the same time becomes quite a challenge. In the beginning, we had difficulty singing, quickly getting out of breath!