Letter from Montreal.

Much has changed on the Montreal dance scene since I began writing about it twenty-five years ago. In those days, on the eve of what would become a dance explosion, just two experimental dance groups jealously competed for a tiny audience. Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal and two ballet companies (of which only Les Grands Ballets Canadiens survives) represented mainstream dance.

Today there are dozens of companies and dozens more independent dancers and choreographers. Dance is the province's major arts export and Montreal's dancers perform on stages around the world, particularly in Europe and Asia. La La La Human Steps, for example, regularly tours a production around the world nonstop for two or three years.

Montreal dance has an unfettered spirit. A little studying here and there and a lot of experimentation has bred a freedom-loving contemporary dance community of essentially autodidactic artists, with daring, personal styles, who are focused on their creative processes. Only Montreal Danse considers itself a repertory company, although Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault has revived its hit, Joe (1984), a couple of times for extended periods, and last year Marie Chouinard produced a retrospective of two decades with Les Solos 1978-1998.

Funding from the federal and provincial governments, the formation of an organization representing dancers, choreographers, and teachers, and increased exposure to local and foreign audiences have certainly aided the development of dance in Montreal.

Since its establishment in 1985, the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse (FIND) has lured international producers, critics, and the public to a biennial glut of premieres. The festival promotes Montreal dance at home and abroad by showcasing it with a mix of other world-class companies, hand-picked by director Chantale Pontbriand and associate director Diane Boucher. By and large, this duo shares a Eurocentric viewpoint, particularly favoring France and Belgium. Initially this was practical, giving the Quebecers a standard by which to measure themselves--they were raw and raging compared with the French and not quite so outlandish beside the Belgians, who similarly flirt with harsh, risky physicality.

In the process, FIND has helped to launch at least three generations of Montreal companies on world stages. The first generation includes O Vertigo, La La La Human Steps, Perreault, Chouinard, and Paui-Andre Forlier. The second is comprised of choreographers Helene Blackburn, Daniele Desnoyers, and Louise Bedard, while Irene Stamou, Lynda Gaudreau, and Jocelyne Montpetit are among the third.

All of these choreographers now spend many months each year touring overseas. Many groups share the same versatile dancers, who are accustomed to tight schedules and to traveling light. Shared linguistic and cultural links make it easier for Montrealers to establish themselves abroad. Some, like Gaudreau, divide their creative time between bases in Montreal and Europe.

Each FIND is built around a theme country or continent--France, England, Spain, and Portugal have been featured. This year it's Africa's turn. Cross-cultural currents that emphasize African dance take pride of place in Africa: In & Out, which gets underway with forty-six performances of twenty-three programs, September 28 to October 9. The festival lives up to its name with six world, ten North American, and three Canadian premieres.

Apart from the work of Congolese-born Zab Maboungou, a Montrealer working in tribal ritual, Montreal has seen little new African dance. So Pontbriand and Boucher have invited three emerging groups: Compagnie Salia ni Seydou from Burkina-Faso, Vincent Mantsoe from South Africa, and Compagnie Sylvain Zabli and Tchetche from the Ivory Coast along with European, Japanese, and Canadian choreographers. Some works are meant to show African influences on Western dance: France's Mathilde Monnier opens the festival with Pour Antigone, the result of an encounter with dancers from Burkina-Faso; Portugal's Clare Andermatt uses dancers and musicians from Cape Verde; and Germany's Susanne Linke draws on experience in Senegal for a work that features eight Africans.

Aside from the presence of Maboungou, none of the other programs reflect the African theme. The lineup includes Montreal's Perreault, Gaudreau, Stamou, Blackburn, Harold Rheaume, and Dominique Porte, as well as fellow Canadians Peter Chin and Ruth Cansfield, Belgium's Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Japan's Saburo Teshigawara. Brazilian-born Guilherme Botelho's Swiss company, Alias, makes its North American debut at the festival, as does Dutch choreographer Mirjam Bos. Concerning the lack of African-American representation, Pontbriand said she did not find any American choreographers to suit her purpose.

FIND also generally includes a program of new ballet or contemporary dance icons such as Karole Armitage, William Forsythe, and Merce Cunningham. This year the Lyon Opera Ballet brings Mats Ek's revolutionary Carmen.

Montreal's ballet company, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, has never been represented at FIND, probably because while it commissions many new works, it is careful to consider its audience's taste. The company learned this the hard way twelve years ago when angry patrons walked out of a season of commissioned new dance works and did not renew their subscriptions.

These days, Les Grands is preparing for the millennium with a glance at dance history, starting with a new Giselle by Ib Andersen, which runs September 9 to 18, and continuing throughout the year with Jardin aux Lilas, Valse Fantaisie, The Moor's Pavane, and The Green Table. This retrospective follows several seasons of contemporary ballets from choreographers such as Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Ohad Naharin, and Septime Webre.

Artistic director Lawrence Rhodes, who strengthened Les Grands' connections with established European choreographers and introduced some emerging Americans, left the company in June after directing it for a decade. At press time, while the dancers are feeling jittery about going rudderless into the company's summer season, his successor has yet to be announced. The only sure thing is that big changes are inevitable. Which is what Montreal dance has always been about anyway.