Amour / ouessant. Explore memory, loss and love of dance with ballerina Larissa Belova

10/09/2022. [MUSIC-VIDEO] by Jean-Michel Blais
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

Canadian composer and pianist Jean-Michel Blais's latest visual piece focuses on Soviet ballerina Larissa Belova in a suggestive and inspiring dance performed by this middle-aged woman grand empty Théâtre Outremont in Montréal.

When Jean-Michel Blais approached Larissa Belova to do the filming, he proposed to do it with an amour dance approach. The response was so mesmerizing and suggestive with "ouessant" that the filming ended up including the two songs, "amour" and "ouessant", for his aubades album.

In docufilm style, the piece intersperses VHS footage of Larissa's past performances as a young dancer, behind-the-scenes footage, and her choreographed performance of her today, exploring memory, loss, and love of dance.

amour / ouessant by Jean-Michel Blais.

"When approached to dance for "amour", Larissa responded with an additional choreography for "ouessant" ! This only merely shows that woman's singularity. We then had no choice but to write this docu-fiction, interpolating her glorious past as a Soviet ballerina with her current grace as a woman, a loving mother, a generous, sensitive and explosive artist. "amour / ouessant" is therefore both a process and a product, a testimony and a continuity, a creation and an inspiration for those who forgot their dreams along the way…"

Jean-Michel Blais

Jean-Michel Blais. Our Saturday music video. (Official Music Video). METALOCUS MUSIC PROJECT.