Scars are All the Rage

"hers is an audience that looks for more than the sensory pleasure of beautiful bodies moving to lyrical music. They want real meat — and Forcier has plenty to throw their way."
~ Michael Crabb, Toronto Star

“A bit hard to watch sometimes, but good art should be because it reaches at the depths of those places we like to hide away, and shakes the truth in front of our faces until we acknowledge its existence.”
~ examiner.com

“Maybe it looks like it’s about evil, but it’s actually about humans. I expect audiences will be as rapt as I have been watching the run-throughs, but they probably won’t relish the reminder that abuse courses through our species and we just hate to think about it. It’s hard to negotiate with all the feelings this show awakens.”
~ Mark Mann, forciernorman.wordpress.com

“it's a powerful dance that has you spellbound and stuck in your seat.”
~ examiner.com

“It's only recently that we've begun assigning names to traumatic conditions, and Forcier's dance makes us feel as though we're the sufferers.”
~ examiner.com

Lab Rats

“Choreographer Marie France Forcier transforms Hub 14 into a laboratory, where she explores within a small confined space the coping mechanisms of dancers, both in isolation and in contact with others. We take on the roles of scientists or psychology students observing their behaviour.

“James Brunton‘s palette of repetitive creepy steely sounds fades up and down, creating a disturbingly hypnotic synthesized tension.

“Overall this compelling production made me think of all those living isolated anonymous lives in the tiny living quarters of condo box towers. In an urban wilderness where surveillance cameras are everywhere watching.

“Forcier has created a compelling, dream-like microcosm of the world, inside and out.”
~ Ted Fox, Evidanceradio.com, 2013

Forcier and
Forcier Stage Works

“Combining intellect with athleticism, Marie France Forcier is the kind of choreographer who generates thoughtful reflection in audiences.”
~ Paula Citron, Toronto Life, 2008`

“She is a generous, focused, inspired and versatile collaborator and performer. In my choreography she has fluidly worked in diverse genres ranging from aerial and martial arts, theatrical and dramaturgical approaches to creation and process, Indian dance forms and contemporary dancetheatre paradigms.”
~ Brandy Leary, anandamdance.wordpress.com, 2013

“Through an exhausting, tear-jerking and undoubtedly prepossessing performance, Marie France Forcier’s dark humor explored how trauma builds identity, in Forcier’s contemporary choreography, “Little Guidebook for Using your Suffering Wisely.” 
~ Pavan Kabar Ubhi, Excalibur,  2013

“Dance extravaganza hits the mark.”
~ Eric Morse, The VOICE, 2010

“Forcier Stage Works, the artistic brain child of Marie France Forcier, acts as a project based company which works consistently with the same core group of individuals. This format provides the flexibility for company members to maintain successful independent careers and simultaneously provides the familiarity of a full-time company. This manifests most strongly in the relationships between the performers – it is evident onstage that the dancers have performed together consistently for some length of time. The trust that comes from this sort of relationship helps the dancers take greater risks, and in the mid April Danceworks Co-production of Facts of Influence, risk is high and the dancers are pushed, physically and mentally to extreme levels.”
~ Amelia Ehrhardt, Merge’zine, 2010

“It is said that it takes 10 years to become a fully formed choreographer. That being the case, either Marie France Forcier began making dances when she was very young or she is defying convention.”
~ Susan Walker, Toronto Star, 2007

“ Forcier is a name to watch. She tackled deep subjects with vigorous attack and bold, original athletic movement…Forcier’s dancers are sharp, and her energetic choreography, even sharper.”
~ Paula Citron, Classical 96.3, 2007

“With her own works I have witnessed Marie develop a distinct choreographic voice that evolves from instinct but values specificity, nuance, delicate emotional textures and athletic virtuosity. When experiencing her works I feel physically shifted, rearranged with no easy answers, body buzzing, mind alert. She seeks out creative partnerships that evolve over long periods of time and has created a body of work that is sensitive and compelling.”  
~ Brandy Leary, anandamdance.wordpress.com, 2013

” Marie‘s process always begins with a definite relationship of choreographer to dancer. Once some material has been established, there is room to experiment within it. Marie is taking a more theatrical approach this time with Gold and I am excited to see what it becomes!”
~ Kate Stashko quoting Heather Berry, The Dance Current, 2010

“Top artistic talent”
~ Eric Morse, The VOICE, May 2010

“A testament to the power of dancers: the demands placed on the performers were high and this gifted group of performers stood up to the challenge with strength and grace, devouring every challenge thrown at them and taking risks wherever possible. Forcier’s strength as a performer extends into her capacity as a choreographer, creating work with the same voracity as she performs it. It was exciting and indeed refreshing to watch dancers this skilled.”
~ Amelia Erhrardt, Merge’zine, 2010

“A choreographer without question, Forcier also dances with assurance and originality and finds the same qualities in the dancers she hires.”
~ Susan Walker, Toronto Star, 2007

“Marie France Forcier has started making a name for herself as a choreographer of polished, substantial works.”
~ Paula Citron, Toronto Life, 2007

“J’ai été particulièrement marquée par le duo Shaded, de la chorégraphe d’origine Montréalaise Marie France Forcier. Carrément à surveiller, Marie France Forcier est vraiment une chorégraphe prometteuse.”
~ Naiza Rippon, Les Arts et les Autres, Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada, 2008

“…go to see Marie France Forcier, who’s an emerging artist and full of beans… ”
~ Susan Walker quoting Mimi Beck, Toronto Star, 2006

“Chan wisely gives Marie France Forcier and Anthony Prime-Guerra, both extremely powerful dancers, the strongest roles. Forcier, rape victim, beautifully performs quivering, staccato movements that close in on themselves as her body reacts to the outrage.”
~ Paula Citron, Globe and Mail, 2005

Facts of Influence

“As an audience member I was left in appreciation of the performers for rising to the many challenges placed on them by the choreographers. Furthermore I was impressed with the choreographers for rising to the challenge of the performers: capable of communicating anything and everything.”
~ Amelia Erhrardt, Merge’zine, 2010

“A significant event in Canadian Dance”
~ Eric Morse, The VOICE, May 2010

“Both works were ripe and plenty with movement invention and imagery, as well as both being born of ideas strong enough to stand alone.”
~ Amelia Erhrardt, Merge’zine, 2010

“All [dancers] display great technical skills and fluidity in the interpretation of two thematically hard-to-access pieces”
~ Eric Mose, The VOICE, May 2010

(BLISS)

“Bliss was a highly theatrical work, featuring a large amount of text delivery by the dancers, most prominently from three-year-long company member Molly Johnson, whose command of theatricality and projection left the impression that she had studied theatre in addition to dance.”
~ Amelia Ehrhardt, Merge’zine, 2010

“Physical and visual imagery was extremely strong, with moments of spectacular lifts and complicated choreographic sequences left seared in my mind. Moore has a wonderful ability to space dancers in relationship to one another. In particular several sequences involving layering cathedral window frames against one another created a beautiful sense of scale and three-dimensionality in the work. I was in awe of the athletic capacity of the dancers, and by Moore’s propensity for movement invention. Never failing to challenge the dancers, the high physicality helped the development of the characters within the work, bringing the performers closer to the personalities as they became more entrenched in the 40-minute long work.”
~ Amelia Ehrhardt, Merge’zine, 2010

(GOLD)

“the work was highly visual in nature and made excellent use of imagery and physicality. It was interesting (and telling) to see a work by the choreographer immediately following her performance in Bliss. It became especially clear what Foricer’s own movement quality was and how that language would translate onto another body. Strength, sensuality and an extreme technical capacity were apparent in her performance in Bliss, and these qualities were especially prevalent in Gold”
~ Amelia Ehrhardt, Merge’zine, 2010

“the movement was frequently inventive and invariably beautiful”
~ Amelia Ehrhardt, Merge’zine, 2010 

In Complete Cycles

“Like Vivaldi’s four seasons, these cycles could also represent stages of life… The workings of memories, nostalgia and longing are at play, overlapping like the lines the dancers weave onstage. James Bunton’s original score, with his contrasting textures, form an electronic wall of sound to steady drumming, to lyrical guitar and violin passages, illuminates the dance.”
~ Susan Walker, Toronto Star, 2007

One Too

“Marie France Forcier’s enigmatic One Too, performed by Nicole Rush and Danielle O’Reilly was a fascinating look at alter egos.”
~ Paula Citron, Classical 96.3, 2008

Nucleus

“Nucleus leads one to metaphysical musings about recurrent patterns in life and that is always just out of reach”
~ Susan Walker, Toronto Star, 2007

Passageways to Diluted Happiness

“As a choreographer, Forcier deals with topics of substance. Her five dancers explore states of bliss, or more specifically, the moments of loss that make the times of bliss more exquisite. I found the work to have a melancholy air, aided by composer James Bunton’s score that moved between electronica drone and gentle melody.

“Forcier’s elegiac choreography for the piece is one of physical manipulation, one or more dancers on another. Her signature is arm and hand gestures that propel movement, and she has a deft hand at meaningful repetition. One can certainly read images into the stage pictures presented by her fine dancers.”
~ Paula Citron, Classical 96.3 fm, 2007

Variations on a 4/4 for Two

“[On the program...] Old pros Karen Kaeja, Marie France Forcier and Yves Candeau demonstrated their finesse. Forcier’s gorgeous duet Variations on a 4/4 for two experimented with setting music after the dance creation to fit like a glove.”
~ Paula Citron, Classical 96.3fm, 2009