Page 3 — MAI | Montréal, arts interculturels

xilopango

Carried by breath, ritual, and grounded choreography, Xilopango is a contemporary dance production that reflects the artist’s maternal lineage. It traverses the lives of Villafuerte’s great-grandmother, an Indigenous seamstress who raised fourteen children; her grandmother, a nurse who was forcibly disappeared during the Salvadorian civil war; her mother, a political activist who fled military persecution and resettled in Canada; and the artist herself, a daughter of diaspora who bears the weight of their stories in her body. But this is not just personal history. It speaks to a broader, embodied experience shared by many Salvadorians. The work transforms grief into connection and invites the audience to witness a return—not only to place, but to self, to memory, and to love. Told through the voice of the Land itself, it is a tender excavation of the quiet strength that endures from one generation to the next.

Talkback with the artist following the February 13th performance
Hosted by Sundus Abdul-Hadi

Content warning : nudity

as i must live it

As I Must Live It is a humorous and heartfelt performance from award-winning spoken word artist Luke Reece. Through poetic storytelling touching on everything from antagonistic squirrels to Chris Pratt’s abs, it traces one man’s experience growing up in a mixed-race family with a mentally ill father. Get ready for deft wordplay as Reece brings the page to the stage for an intimate, pun-filled event. With sharp wit and tender reflection, this show navigates memory, masculinity, and the everyday absurdities that shape us.

The February 27th performance will be followed by a talkback with the artist hosted by Adjani Poirier.

All performances of As I Must Live It are presented in a relaxed environment. To download the Show Guide, click here.

Co-produced by Theatre Passe Muraille and Modern Times Stage Company

Produced by permission of the playwright and Marquis Literary (Colin Rivers) www.MQlit.ca
Luke Reece is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada

The show was translated in French thanks to the generous contribution of the Cole Foundation.
Translation to French by: Sunny Doyle

beat matched

The evolution of the Catch Step universe continues with Beat Matched, a new chapter in their ongoing creative union. RISE, Djüngle, and VicVersa deepen their exploration of the art of remixing, where ideas and material are transformed without ever being lost. Past processes produce the materials that inspire, inform, and shape the new process. RISE and Djüngle delve into their own fields of interest as individual artists, as well as a collective. In this new iteration, the two artists find themselves propelled into the role of creative directors within a continuum composed of movement, sound, visuals, math, and (as always)… chairs.

wayfinders : au gré des sens

Opening: April 2nd, 2026 at 5pm

How do we locate ourselves in our bodies, within the universe, and among others? Wayfinders : Au gré des sens features ten contemporary artists—both with and without disabilities—who chart paths of connection through alternate modes of sensing. Born from a desire to overcome the divide between disabled and non-disabled fields of cultural practice, this exhibition explores new sensory languages with which to bring people together. It becomes a space for artists of various abilities, backgrounds, and geographic locations to connect in new, unexpected ways. Curated by a mixed-abilities team, this exhibition seeks to unite diverse communities and experiment with new ways of creating shared meaning and direction.

Artists : Piet Devos, Raphaëlle de Groot, Véro Leduc, Mareike Yin-Yee Lee + Marc Sabat, Salima Punjani + Greer Pester, Rolande Souliere, Collin van Uchelen with Carmen Papalia

Guided visit with the co-curators → April 30th 2026 from 5:30pm – 6:30pm

Free entry, no reservation required.

fish spit feast

Fish Spit Feast is a corporeal song of imagined creatures, where hybrid identities give rise to fiction. Undulating in and out of kaleidoscopic symmetry, impulses ripple from one body to the next, birthing a morphing creature both tender and electric. The performers inhabit the shadows of a diasporic playground, moving through veils of darkness, light, and sound. They dance a guttural trance, unveiling an urge for transformation through mixed media and the visceral body. More than a weary search for belonging, the work conjures chimeric figures to explore anonymity, (in)visibility, and kinship.

Talkback with the artist following the April 24th performance
Hosted by Hanako Hoshimi-Caines

carbon movements

In Carbon Movements, everything shakes: the stage, the air, your preconceptions. This groundbreaking performance blurs the distinctions between theatre, dance, poetry, and vibrotactile technology. But with its unique tactile and visual score, it is as much an interactive experience as a multidisciplinary work. The audience is immersed in a visceral wash of feeling, which questions whether it is possible to exist in an environment without disturbing it. Wrapped in a cascade of sensations, perhaps we will find ourselves in a world that is just a little more tender and harmonious than before. One that challenges us to reflect on control, connection, and the quiet knowledge that waits just beneath the surface.

Talkback with the artists following the May 15th, 2026 performance

Produced by: The Invisible Practice

entre-deux

Entre-Deux is a journey-inward and a vibrant testimony to belonging, the complexity of roots, and the beauty of identity in movement. Through a danced cartography of her quest for self, Meihan, a young woman of Chinese origin who was adopted internationally, oscillates between two cultures, two realities that she learns to navigate through a series of duets. Six dancers join her and inspire her to bring out a forgotten or hidden part of herself by sharing the stage and their own experiences. The body then becomes a territory of reminiscence, exploration, and transformation, a vehicle for probing roots and unraveling the successive layers that make up identity. Driven by a quest for authenticity and sisterly complicity, this story of adoption becomes a space for reappropriation, connection, and dialogue.

Delegated production: Lorganisme

the lost paintings: a prelude to return

This travelling exhibition extends across two venues – MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and articule.

Curated by Rula Khoury, Joëlle Tomb and Haidi Motola, this exhibition gathers 53 artists from Palestine and its diaspora across time and borders to reimagine the missing works of Maroun Tomb, a Palestinian-Lebanese artist, whose 1947 exhibition in Haifa was lost amid the mass displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians during the Nakba. The works resurrect a moment that was nearly erased until it was discovered in archival documents.

Drawing from the minimal information of Tomb’s last exhibition in Palestine before his forced exile, the contemporary artists’ responses navigate across painting, photography, multi-media, sculpture and video to move between what was and what could be. They do not reconstruct the past, but reclaim it—through fragments, gestures, and stories passed across generations. Bringing together today’s rising artists alongside the trailblazers of Palestinian modern art, this exhibition is a collective act of resistance paired with interrogation of colonial violence and its consequences on multiple generations.

From Haifa to Gaza, landscapes are revisited not as backgrounds, but as living witnesses; still life is rendered unstable, objects and places teetering between presence and disappearance. Archival fragments reemerge as portals, where loss is neither resolved nor concealed but held, examined, and reimagined. Rather than reconstruct the past, the exhibition inhabits the void—where what is absent does not vanish, but stands determined. In this space, memory becomes an act of return, not to what was, but to what still calls.

Guided Tour of the Exhibition With Curator Joëlle Tomb →

articule — September 6th, 1pm to 2pm (English)
Free entry, no reservation required. Doors open at noon.

MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) — September 6th, 3pm to 4pm (French)
Free entry, no reservation required. Doors open at 2pm.

Consult the Arabic version of the artist statement here.

those roots within

© David Wong — avec/with : Alida Esmail + Hodan Youssouf

LSQ + ASL promo video

What happens when Deaf and hearing cultures encounter one another in performance?

Those Roots Within is a contemporary dance duet created by Alida Esmail, Sophia Wright, and Hodan Youssouf. Themes of minority identities and immigration come alive through movement, signed music, vibrations, and lighting while Esmail and Youssouf transform the stage into a world map, retracing their ancestors’ steps. Their paths come in and out of sync, offering a reflection on intersection, disconnection, and family history. Esmail and Youssouf exist in their respective realities as they negotiate with the world around them. Every time their trajectories cross, it allows for a reflection on allyship and the effort necessary to bring such diverse experiences into communication.

LSQ and ASL interpreters are on hand 1h before and 1h after each performance.

Content warning
High volume + Sustained low frequency vibrations

PUBLIC+

→ Talkback with the artists hosted by Jo-Anne Bryan
Friday, February 28th — Following the 7:30 p.m. performance

→ Childcare during the performance
Saturday, March 1st — 2 p.m.
During childcare, Marie-Pierre Petit will offer a co-creative workshop combining theatrical games, body expression and facial expression, with an art-clownesque approach. The exercises are above all interactive and inclusive, guaranteeing fun and creativity!
Free
For Deaf and hearing children aged 3 to 10 with ticket-holding parents.

→ After Party + Happy Birthday Hodan !
Saturday, March 1st — Following the 7:30 p.m. performance
The show is followed by a party for the Deaf and hearing communities with surprise performances & Indian food.

anxiety

Anxiety delves into the history, personal stories, and current realities of Indigenous and racialized communities. Led by Simik Komaksiutiksak, artists Cheyenne LeGrande, Courtney Taticek, Chrystal Tam, and Katie Couchie use dance to draw attention to the transformative power of collaboration— its capacity for healing through trust and creativity. In doing so, this performance becomes a safe space for reflection and dialogue, ultimately employing improvisational movement as a vehicle to explore intergenerational trauma. Because the body holds onto memory, anxiety can manifest as unique mannerisms. To address it is to forge new paths, offering an opportunity to question, reflect, and engage with important sociological issues.

Talkback following the January 31st performance moderated by Camille Larivée

box office

Content warning
Colonial violence + High volume

PUBLIC+

→ Audiodescription for visually impaired and semi-vision-impaired spectators
Friday, January 31st — 7:30 p.m.
Audiodescription involves orally and live describing of the visual and sensory elements of a choreographic work, so that it can be transmitted, shared and experienced.

→ Pre-show get-togethers in ASL and LSQ
Friday, January 31st — 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Pre-show get-togethers are offered in ASL and LSQ with MAI’s Deaf cultural mediators, Dominique Ireland and Caroline Hould. The meeting provides an opportunity to discuss the show’s themes, the artists’ backgrounds and the performance’s soundtrack.

→ Anxiety After Party
Saturday, February 1st — Following the 7:30 p.m. performance
Anxiety’s team warmly invites spectators, friends, family and other members of their communities to join in this evening of celebration with DJ Pøptrt!

→ Mumiq:Indigenous Artisans’ Market
Friday, January 31st + Saturday, February 1st — 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
MAI gallery
Come and meet Indigenous artisans before attending Anxiety’s performances on Friday and Saturday!
*Free admission, artwork for sale on site.