Ex Machina & Côté Danse (Quebec City & Toronto)

Côté Danse

Côté Danse burst onto the Canadian dance scene in 2021, thanks to the collaboration between Choreographer Guillaume Côté and Producers Etienne Lavigne and Anisa Tejpar. Since then, they have been actively presenting a range of original works and immersive dance experiences.

Under the artistic direction of Guillaume Côté, Côté Danse establishes a unique vision, combining classical dance knowledge with captivating geometries and intense human connections. Their style is characterized by contemporary lines, sleek contours, and refined athleticism, creating a distinct and dynamic aesthetic.

Through collaborations with a diverse group of designers, artists, and partners such as Robert Lepage, Mirari Studios, and Son Lux, Côté Danse has successfully produced four full-length productions. The company attracted significant attention since its very beginning, with 140 performances in 23 cities in its first four years of existence.

Ex Machina

Led by artistic director Robert Lepage, Ex Machina creates, produces and disseminates multidisciplinary artistic works, most often theatrical. 

The company brings together creators from several fields of activity and offers a broad range of artistic productions: original plays written and performed solo or collectively, plays based on existing texts, productions in which various disciplines (dance, music, museology) mingle with theater, operas and multimedia productions featuring a predominantly technological dimension. Ex Machina develops the majority of its shows in Quebec City, then presents them abundantly in Quebec, Canada and elsewhere in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Beyond their diversity, the company’s projects have some features in common. Anecdotes lead to the exploration of ideas such as the revelation of identity through exposure to the other. Cultural intersections, the nature of the creative act, interrupted communication and states of dependence are recurring themes. Several dramatic situations oppose the quotidian to the extraordinary, the naturalism to the metaphor, and somehow diffident characters to historical figures. The multilingualism, the massive use of images, the reversal of perspective, the variations in scale, the use of narrative codes borrowed from cinema and the use of technological tools aim to spark meaning and emotion, reflecting a desire to poeticize theatrical expression.

Guillaume Côté, Choreographer

Guillaume Côté, a native of Québec, is a renowned Principal Dancer with The National Ballet of Canada. He has performed major classical roles and worked with the world’s most esteemed choreographers. As a guest artist, he has danced with prestigious companies worldwide, including The Royal Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, English National Ballet, the Mikhailosky Theater of St-Petersburg, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Berlin’s Staatsoper, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Stuttgart Ballet, Hamburg Ballett, Verona Opera and the South African Ballet Theater. In 2012, he co-founded Anymotion Productions to produce high-quality independent dance works. Côté also serves as a Choreographic Associate with The National Ballet of Canada, with eight of his works in the company’s repertoire. His ballets have received critical acclaim, including Enkeli, which won the Audience Choice Award for Best Choreography in 2012. He collaborated with director Robert Lepage to create Frame by Frame in 2018. In 2021, he founded his own company, Côté Danse, and premiered innovative works such as Burn Baby, Burn; X (Dix); Cyrpto and Touch. Côté has received numerous awards and was named Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 2021.

Robert Lepage, Director

Robert Lepage is a renowned multidisciplinary artist, celebrated as an actor, director, playwright, and stage director. Known for his original, contemporary works that blend history with cutting-edge technologies, he began his career after enrolling at the Conservatoire dʼart dramatique de Québec in 1975. In 1994, Lepage founded Ex Machina, a multidisciplinary creation company, and later established La Caserne and the venue Le Diamant in Quebec City. His most significant works include The Seven Streams of the River Ota, The Dragonsʼ Trilogy, The Far Side of the Moon, The Image Mill, and his collaborations with Cirque du Soleil, KÀ and TOTEM.