Marie Chouinard--myth and celebration.

It's a sultry Montreal afternoon and, in spite of the heat, Marie Chouinard can't keep still. With a twinkle in her eye, she maneuvers around her studio in an office chair, elegantly extending her spider-like limbs. Chouinard is explaining why she used stools on wheels, crutches, and pointe shoes for her latest work, Body Remix/Goldberg Variations, which premiered in Venice in June and will be seen this fall in Canada and the U.S.

How would such extensions change the way the body moves, she wondered. Bach's music resembles a series of puzzles, she points out, and that reminded her how much the creation could be no matter how many variables are thrown into the mix. With mock tears, she exclaims, "It's not, 'Oh, no, I have to move from here to there--what a problem! Why the crutch?' No, no, no it's positive: Just find a solution! I love this mental state of mind where you tune in to solving as a creative process."

For over 27 years, Choninard has done nothing less. Beginning her career as Montreal's enfant terrible who urinated in a pot onstage, she has become one of Canada's best choreographers, renowned for her highly crafted work. This fall, Compagnie Marie Chouinard makes a return visit to Portland, OR, and New York City, while Los Angeles and San Francisco will get their first chance to experience the idiosyncratic, almost mythic, world she creates.

Chouinard came to dance late (at 23), studying briefly in Montreal with Michel Gonte and former New York City Ballet dancer Tom Scott. By 1978, she was her own artist. Still, Chouinard went ahead and tried The Big Apple and found it wonderful for training. For creation, however, she says, "I didn't need to be in New York to be in the avant-garde." Along with choreographers like Edouard Lock and Ginette Laurin, Chouinard is still pushing dance to new frontiers. "What I have got to do is so much bigger in front of me than what I have done. It's so immense that I can't stop."

She started her company in 1990. Still magnetic at 50, Chouinard relishes nurturing the talents of her 11 dancers, urging them to "develop their true personality not only in doing the gesture of the choreography but approaching the gesture from the standpoint of artists." One of Chouinard's accomplishments is creating works, such as Chorale and 24 Preludes by Chopin, in which her dancers, though similarly costumed, shine through as individuals.

In Chorale, despite the Egyptian-flavored wigs and Grecian urn poses, Chouinard takes her audiences not to a forgotten past, but "deeper into the here and now," physically and psychologically. Ask her about the inspiration of the piece, and she responds by expelling from her diaphragm a deep, rhythmic "Huh! Huh!" that fills the studio. Similar vocalizations, produced by the dancers, make up much of the piece's music and propel their bodies.

As for Preludes, nothing more than "letting the music print itself on the body" was Chouinard's intention. There's not a shred of the softness or lyricism one might expect with Chopin's music, but instead, an array of angular and undulating bodies dispatching their moves with a dash of humor.

Chouinard simply can't help having fun. While life "can be on the anguished, the darker side," she says that" 'celebration' is a word I like to use a lot." Chouinard wants to offer audiences "a marvel of light, life-force, something very small that you can swallow, absorb, and then forget about ... I hope it is a gift." See www.naariechouinard.com.