Meet The Artists
![Noam Gagnon and Dana Gingras in “Circa” [Steven R. Gilmore (2000)]](/upload/dan/holybodytattoo_portrait_full.jpg)
Biography
Dana Gingras
The Holy Body Tattoo
(1966- )
Dana Gingras is co-founder with Noam Gagnon of The Holy Body Tattoo, a Vancouver-based company that has re-energized contemporary dance in Canada since 1993. The two artists met while working for EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music) in Vancouver and continued together at Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa before returning to the West Coast.
Gagnon and Gingras' work presents a juxtaposition of the frenetic pace and violence of urban existence with the eternal human longing for intimacy and meaning in life. Their choreography often pursues themes of human endurance and fragility. The movement can be physically punishing to the point of exhaustion, but also machine-like in its precision. Their productions often include multimedia elements. Gagnon and Gingras have collaborated with filmmaker William Morrison on many projects, and their work Circa (2000) was made into a film featuring the band Tiger Lillies.
Other productions have included, Poetry and Apocalypse (1994), our brief eternity (1996), and Running Wild (2004). The Holy Body Tattoo's largest group piece, monumental (2005), was commissioned by the National Arts Centre–CGI's Youth Commission for Dance, a partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts.
Gingras and Gagnon's dance and film works have toured internationally and received many awards including, in 2000, the inaugural Alcan Performing Arts Award – Dance, administered by the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.
Websites:
Learn more:
Miller, Robin J. “The Holy Body Tattoo’s monumental Development.” The Dance Current 7.8 (March 2005): 18-22.
