Speed Glue

Stage performance for 2 performers - 30 minutes - 30 - 300 spectators

_ Try to keep the ball going as long as possible.
_ Modulate speed in order to make the exchange sustainable.
_ Stay interested.
_ If you miss the ball, it’s okay, just keep going.

Speed Glue is a choreographic score for two professional table tennis players. Rather than playing to win points and end the game as quickly as possible, the players work together to keep the ball going for as long as they can. Setting aside the competitive structure of the game, these athletes meet in an improvisatory exchange: a febrile, intricate and rhythmically virtuosic dance.

“… a crash course on the topic of skill—not just the on players’ own virtuosity, which in its precision, focus and risk of failure matched the daring of classical ballet, but on an audience’s own ability to watch.” – Joseph Henry (Canadian Art)

Credits

Concept and Direction | Simon Grenier-Poirier and Dorian Nuskind-Oder
Players | Antoine Bernadet, Edward Ly, Miikka O’Connor, Jeff Sylvestre-Décary, Otto Tenilla, Pierre-Luc Thériault
Rehearsal Director | Pierre-Luc Thériault
Production | Le Radeau
Co-production | Festival TransAmériques
Residencies | fabrik Potsdam (CALQ Studio Residency), Centre Chorégraphique O Vertigo

Past Presentations

2023 | Festival FURIES, Marsoui, QC
2023 | Maison de la culture Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie, Montréal, QC
2023 | Maison de la culture Janine Sutto, Montréal, QC
2023 | Maison de la culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montréal, QC
2023 | Centre Culturel Georges Vanier, Montréal, QC
2022 | Série B, Conservatoire de musique, Montréal, QC
2022 | Atelier de Paris, France
2020 | Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting, Yokohama, Japon
2019 | Festival TransAmeriques, Montreal, QC
2019 | Musée national de tennis de table de Chine, Shanghaï
2018 | Experimentica, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Royaume-Uni
2018 | Série B, La chapelle scènes contemporains, Montreal, QC
2017 | The current sessions, Vol VII: On Resistance, New York, USA
2017 | Galerie UQO, Trilogie Electoral 1, Gatineau, QC
2017 | Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides, Trilogie Electoral 2, St-Jérôme, QC

Publications

2017 | Henry, Joseph. “Set and Match.” Canadian Art, November 14,
2017 | Grenier-Poirier, Simon and Dorian Nuskind-Oder. “Neither bigger balls, nor slower glues.” Le Merle 5, no.1 : 77-82.

financial support

Canada Council for the Arts
Conseil de arts et des lettres du Québec