On February 28, 1948, a few months after the appearance of the Refus global, Françoise Sullivan created Danse dans la neige, which set down an entirely new path for modern dance. The project was captured on 16 mm film but never edited or released, as the reels were unfortunately lost. From the original choreography performed by Sullivan, all that remains are some twenty photographs taken by Maurice Perron, a member of the Automatists. These images bear witness to a seminal event, a singular approach to dance that opened up new avenues for several generations of performing artists. Sixty years later, Françoise Sullivan has recast Danse dans la neige in a four-season configuration.
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"Sixty years after the fact, four dancers—Andrée-Maude Côté (spring), Annick Hamel (summer), Louise Bédard (fall) and Ginette Boutin (Danse dans la neige)—agreed to test themselves against the elements and the choreography of Françoise Sullivan, lifting the veil on a little piece of Quebec’s artistic history. The costumes, sites and movements were respected as faithfully as possible. ‘With the photographs, I tried to arrive at the same quality. This wasn’t entirely possible, but some of the movements can be seen’, relates Sullivan, who sought to recover more an energy than a precise form of movement. ‘What I wanted was this confrontation with the elements. That’s the difference between them and a piece that uses nature as decor and has no true relationship with it.’"
DOYON, Frédérique. «Les quatre saisons de Françoise Sullivan», Le Devoir, 1st March 2007, [http://www.ledevoir.com/culture/arts-visuels/133011/les-quatre-saisons-de-francoise-sullivan] (page consulted on January 24, 2011)
