The Christmas spirit is truly in the air at another big fair, Le Marché Casse Noisette, known in English as the Nutcracker Market. More Montreal and Quebec creations are around every corner at this fair, where gourmet food, jewelry, clothing, bath and beauty products and much more abound among the Christmas trees and tinsel, November 29-December 9 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.

Hip, cutting-edge design is what the annual souk @ sat is all about, with over 100 professional artists and designers selling unique, often made-in-Montreal clothing, jewellery, handbags, furniture, home accessories, toys, art and more. The sale happens November 30 to December 2 at the Société des Arts Technologiques (1201 St-Laurent), a high-tech education centre, music and entertainment venue, and also home to the inventive FoodLab restaurant.

With a pro style similar to souk’s, Smart Design Mart lets vendors set up approachable mini-boutiques in a huge industrial loft space, where everything from locally designed clothing to home decor to food can be found in a range of prices. The Mart is open on the evening of December 7 and during the day December 8-9 at 5505 Casgrain, in the bagels-and-coffee-and-cool neighbourhood of Mile End.

Also in Mile End is the holiday version of Pop Montreal’s Puces Pop Craft & DIY Fair, an always-lively mix of hip, quality hand-made items for winter and beyond, all infused with plenty of love and care – happening the evening of December 14 and during the day December 15-16 at Saint-Enfant-Jesus Church (5035 Ste-Dominique). For those looking for more traditional craft-fair fare, stop by the Old Skool Crafts Holiday Fair, December 8-9 and 15-16 at L’Église St.Michel (105 St-Viateur W.). And if you’re in town November 17-18, check out the creative goods at Expozine, one of the largest small press fairs in North America, where authors, artists and zine makers impress live and on paper – also held at the Saint-Enfant-Jesus Church.

Explore more of the city by heading south-east to the Haut & Fort Noël Market, dedicated to Quebecois designers and creators of “ideas, objects and furniture made here”– happening December 6-9 and 13-16 at Marché St-Jacques (2nd floor, 1125 Ontario E.). As with all the craft fairs in Montreal, the artists are right there to talk about their work and answer any questions – there’s something special about this kind of face-to-face meeting, and so often we get a good story to go with our purchase, not to mention a warm, fuzzy holiday feeling.

The post MONTREAL BUZZ GUIDE TO HOLIDAY CRAFT & ARTISANAL FAIRS appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

Choreographer Jiří Kilián is a world-famous master for a reason: the Prague-born former artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater is incredibly prolific, and produced over a hundred choreographies throughout his career. He displays a singularly humanistic sensitivity in his work, making poetry out of human emotions. The Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal has already put quite a few of his works to the stage, to great public acclaim. The latest is Kaguyahime: The Moon Princess.
The story, based on a late 9^th century Japanese tale, is simple: A moon princess, the most beautiful creature you’ve ever seen, descends to earth to spread peace and love. She is too beautiful for this place, though, and drives men wild with desire: soon they fight over her. War ensues, and eventually, an emperor gets involved; he tries to capture her to keep her for himself. She is imprisoned, until the moonlight blinds the emperor’s troops – in that moment, she is freed and re-ascends to the moon.
Kilián tells this story with lots of quiet, extended moments of subtle movement backed by eerie flute music, giving the entire things an appropriately lunar feel. The music is key in this show: the flutes are played by three Japanese musicians whose heads stick up from the orchestral pit in the front of the stage. In the second half, huge kodo drums figure as part of the stage design, and drummers run up from the pit onto stage to play them and other percussive instruments, mixing with the dancers. Those are some of the most exciting moments.

The stage design is spare and simple, keeping the focus on the dancers. While the battle scenes provide the most expressive and explosive physical moments, this is really a one-woman show: the quiet, controlled beauty of the princess’s movements is truly and appropriately beguiling. The central role was danced by Eva Kolarova for the premiere performance (the role alternates between her and Sarah Kingston), and, well, she’s a star!

The Details

Kaguyahime: The Moon Princess, October 11-27, 2012

The post OUT OF THIS WORLD BALLET AT PLACE DES ARTS appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

In keeping with its mandate to involve artists in every way possible, the MMFA decided to involve Montreal collectives En Masse, Paprika and Rita to liven up their 16,000 square-foot art and education studios, where countless classes are given to kids of all ages.

En Masse is an intrepid fraternity of 30-plus boundary-breaking Montreal artists that has communal creativity as its very raison d’être. Mostly makers of street art, the collective first got involved with the museum last year with the super popular exhibition Big Bang. Their room in that show, painted, drawn and collaged from floor to ceiling in a black-and-white fairytale universe, was an absolute crowd favourite. Managed by the trio of Jason Botkin, Rupert Bottenberg and Fred Caron, En Masse makes murals where every participant – whether culled from a background in comic art, commercial illustration, graffiti or design – retains the freedom to create what they want. The result is ever-changing and fantastical.

“We’ve become big fans of En Masse,” says Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator of the MMFA. “After the scheduled disappearance of the impressive fresco they executed last year for our exhibition Big Bang, I wanted to give them another opportunity to exercise their creativity. As a link between the museum and the street, they are standard-bearers for the freedom of artistic expression for everyone, without barriers or discrimination.”

In addition to the mural work by En Masse, the new learning environment boasts multicoloured mobiles by Paprika and wacky furniture by Rita. There are also plush rainbows by Montreal artist Claude Cormier – because everybody needs a plush rainbow or two in life, right?

THE DETAILS

Michel de la Chenelière Art & Education Studios, 1380 Crescent Street, (514) 285-1600

The post EN MASSE REDESIGNS THE MMFA appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.