All Pawtucket All The Time

Born in Montreal, Pierre Chartrand is a dance historian-ethnologist, a choregrapher, a master step dancer and an artfull dance caller. Dancing for more than 35 years, he teach and performed regularly in Quebec, Canada, United States, and Europe. After his Dance Master in La Sorbonne (Paris – France, 1991), he found the Centre Mnémo, an archive center on traditional french-canadian dance and music. He published folk music and dance’s books for Mnémo, and wrote many articles for magazines, and frequently spoke at folk music programs and for conferences. He also won some awards (international dance medal in Madagascar, august 1997, and Price of the best choreography by the Independent Reviewers Of New England, 2005). He has teach teach at the dance program of the Université du Québec à Montréal and at the folk music program of Joliette College. In 2000, he start his company Dance Cadence and produce shows : Rapetipetam, Chasse-Galerie, Le Bal des Ménestriers. etc

 ANDRÉ BRUNET, an entrancing French-Canadian fiddler, plays a vast repertoire of French-Canadian jigs and reels.  As part of Les Frères Brunet, he and his brother, Réjean toured across the globe. His exuberant style and refined playing have served him well as fiddler for the legendary La Bottine Souriante. His adventure with the band has ended recently but André is ever-present on the folk circuit as part of the trio, De Temps Antan.  Since 2004, André has played with Celtic Fiddle Festival beside the great Irish fiddler,Kevin Burke. A warm, dynamic performer, his infectious fiddling will make us dance and swing over the years.

MARTINE BILLETTE, one of the most respected professional Quebecois stepdancers, she has been dancing since the age of 4. Born into a family of musicians, Martine also possesses great credentials as a piano player and excels as much as a musician as she does dancing. Martine has toured the USA, England, Japan and France with such groups as Ménages à Trois, Manigance and The Pierre Schryer Band and Rapetipetam, all representing the rich folklore that Canada has to offer. Martine’s talent is in high demand for both recording and performing. Effortless, energetic, evidently ecstatic!

Admission $12: High School and Elementary Students Free