Not your usual Facebook LIVE event: Three cameras brought three different views of this site-specific online performance in early 2021. “MIX” took place over 4 nights and featured a different 5-min live-online experience combining a concert, a dance performance and a site-specific multi-perspective journey, each night. Sing-a-long to classics which were chosen to reflect our community and what we are facing collectively, during this pandemic.

Toronto-based dance theatre company CORPUS, well known for its world travelling creation Les moutons (more than 1000 performances in 38 countries on 5 continents), presents a live Zoom performance for strange times. Our sheep performers stuck at home, following cancellations of international tours due to Covid-19.

Hannah Jocelyn writes:
If your attention span has been waning and your urge for comforting content waxing, might I suggest an absolute delight that is as brief as it is bright: “Sheep in Quarantine,” available on YouTube from Toronto-based dance-theatre company CORPUS. Since 2003, their signature piece “Les moutons” has been performed over four hundred times in more than twenty-five countries, and like many previously in-person performances has now been reimagined for an online adaptation in support of out-of-work artists. The wonderfully strange, speech-free eleven-minute video opens to a now-familiar Zoom screen; a group of dressed-down dancers are awaiting a meeting from their homes (in Vienna, Ottawa, Montreal, London, Toronto, and Bournazel). We watch as the dancers wiggle into lumpy mutton uniforms, complete with clanging neck bells, while a French folk song plays lambently in the background. They drop into character in time for their shepherd to appear in his Zoom square, wearing a surgical mask and carrying a staff. Embodying a flock, their eyes slide gently out of focus, ears twitch, and nostrils flare, as they bleat and work their imaginary cud and wander their limited spaces. Sometimes a sheep ambles out of frame, or climbs atop her bed. When the shepherd dozes off, we enter his dream. Accompanied by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers,” the woolly beasts launch into a balletic romp among their own furniture: one uses her kitchen counter as a balance, another his window sill. It’s as graceful as can be when adorned with what must be several pounds of stuffing. I won’t ruin the surprise of what comes next; I’ll just say that the absurdity only adds to the fun. In a time when nothing is as it was, the purposeful playfulness of people pretending to be sheep pretending to be ballerinas is simply a joy to behold.

In December 2020, during the challenging times of COVID-19, CORPUS brought a very special version of “Les moutons” to households around the city. “Les moutons Holiday-Gram,” a funny, heart-warming project with our shepherd and three of his most talented sheep singing Christmas carols right on people’s front porches. We sang on 40 porches, for 40 families, for around 160 people. 

In the following year, in 2021, we were very excited to be part of The Junction’s Window Wonderland, a free immersive urban art walk, with an interactive, outdoor gallery. We piloted our collaboration by having our caroling sheep sing Christmas carols in front of every of the 21 unique augmented reality (AR) installations designed by 40 local and international artists.  

Now a holiday favorite in Toronto, the Alpine Merry sheep Choir will be at the Winter Market at St-Lawrence Market and the Upper Canada Mall in December 2025!

The Arts play a key role in the education of all children, supporting their social and intellectual development, stimulating their imagination and giving them new tools to analyze the world around them. 

CORPUS has a long-standing relationship with Prologue to the Performing Arts, MASC and ArtStarts, three Canadian arts education organizations committed to bringing diverse performing arts experiences to schools. In collaboration with these organizations, CORPUS has presented over 300 performances in elementary and secondary schools across Ontario and British Columbia. 

CORPUS’ performances in schools challenge and broaden the views of students on the definition of contemporary dance, and the arts in general. During question and answer periods, which always follow a school performance, students are introduced to the concept of creation in the context of the performing arts. 

CORPUS’ outreach to young people is not limited to schools: for the past years, CORPUS initiated and took part in unique projects for young people:

• In 2006, CORPUS was commissioned by the Canada Dance Festival to form a large flock of human sheep with dance students from École de la Salle in Ottawa. The dance students were trained and later paired with CORPUS’ professional performers. Together, they performed an extended version of  Les moutons at The Experimental Farm in the nation’s capital.
• Since 2006, many presenters of children’s festivals have programmed CORPUS including the Kijimuna Festa in Okinawa JAPAN, the International Children’s Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., and the Awesome Festival in Perth, Australia, to name a few.
• Finally, CORPUS participates on a regular basis in school showcases and conferences such as the Penticton Children Showcase in BC, and the CODE Conference in Toronto.

From a whimsical story told through the innocence of the clown and the grace of dance, to the hilarity of an expertly choreographed squadron of flyers training on an imaginary air field, CORPUS has entertained, educated, and enriched the lives of young people everywhere, to rave reviews.

In the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010, in partnership with local arts presenters and cultural centres, CORPUS traveled to 10 cities across the province of Ontario to bring arts at the core of the community, in its local shopping mall. This innovative arts outreach project included workshops with local theatre/dance groups, 6 performance in each shopping mall, showcase of at least 1 local artist, and an online platform to share videos and pictures.

Whether it is for a morning walk in winter, for a chat with colleagues in the food court, or for shopping with friends, the mall is the main gathering place for members of small communities throughout Ontario. By presenting free performances in this lively environment, we offered an original twist on the shopping experience. Arts outreach starts with an invitation. This project offered such an invitation and we hope that it left the audience with lasting memories, and the desire to seek more arts presentations.

The company traveled to Peterborough, Cornwall, Pembroke, North Bay, Sault Sainte Marie, Timmins, Orillia, Kapuskasing, Chapleau and Sudbury.

We would like to thank the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Without the support of these institutions, this project would not have been possible.

A workshop is offered on the performance technique of Les moutons, CORPUS’ international phenomena. Is it dance, performance art, method acting? Discover for yourself.

More than just an animal study exploring every facet of sheep behaviour, this all-encompassing workshop zeroes in on the fundamentals of performance, including the integration of voice and movement, improvisation, comic timing and precision. The workshop includes an extensive warm-up designed specifically for Les moutons. 

Taught by CORPUS’ artistic director, David Danzon.

In a country where schooling is a luxury, playing and artistic activities are a rarity. Against all odds, in 2002, Phymean Noun founded the NGO People Improvement Organization (PIO) to bring education and training to the most impoverished communities in Cambodia, with a specific attention paid to girls, orphans and street kids. PIO specifically directs its efforts towards public garbage dump areas where the government has been relocating hundreds of families with no public structure. In the past eight years, PIO has built three schools and serves over 800 kids. The organization is working with the Cambodian Ministries of Education and Women Affairs and offers, in addition to general education, specific training in cooking, hairdressing, dressmaking and beauty care. PIO is committed to comply with United Nations’ goal to reduce poverty. Phymean Noun was a 2010 CNN heroes. Touched by her work, CORPUS initiated and produced “From Slums to Stage” to facilitate PIO’s students access to arts education.

In February 2010, CORPUS performed Les moutons at Toronto Sick Kids Hospital.

Watching an arts performance relaxes and entertains kids and their visiting families. Not only is it a new opportunity to get exposure to the arts but it also contributes to a positive transformation of their hospital experience.

We hope to renew our visit to Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and extend to other Children’s Hospitals in a near future.