Edouard Lock

2010 Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Dance)

Choreographer

A brilliant innovator whose originality and daring have transformed contemporary dance, Edouard Lock has reinvented the art form, bridging contemporary dance and classical ballet to create a unique choreographic language. His influence over the past 30 years has been phenomenal: he has built his company, La La La Human Steps, into one of the world's most exciting and original dance troupes, and has put Quebec and Canada firmly on the international cultural map.

Mr. Lock was born in Morocco in 1954 and immigrated to Montreal in 1957. He came to dance by way of literature studies at Sir George Williams University.

He formed La La La Human Steps in 1980 and began choreographing full-length works whose boldly challenging style soon attracted international attention. Choreographic complexity, the alteration of balletic structures, and the intertwining of choreographic, musical and cinematic strands were among the elements that created a sense of perceptual distortion and renewal that became part of the company's signature.

Since 1985, each work for La La La has toured internationally for up to two years, spreading its influence to artists and audiences everywhere.

He has also created works for some of the world's foremost dance companies, including the Paris Opera and the Netherlands Dance Theater, and collaborated with other leading artists (notably David Bowie and Frank Zappa) on numerous productions, films and projects.

Edouard Lock is an Officer of the Order of Canada (2001), Member of the Royal Society of Canada (2006), and Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec (2002). For the film version (2003) of his ballet Amelia (which he directed and which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival) he received two Geminis along with awards from the Chicago International Film Festival and the Prague International Film Festival. Other awards include Prix Benois de la Danse (Moscow, 2003); Prix Denise-Pelletier (2002); National Arts Centre Award/Governor General's Performing Arts Award (2001, for Exaucé/Salt); two Jean A. Chalmers Choreographic Awards (2001 and 1981).