Lepage choreographs canoe performance

Writer, actor and director Robert Lepage is now turning his hand to choreographing a performance by canoes.

He is teaming up with the Festival de canotgraphie in a Quebec City suburb to put on a multimedia dance and freestyle canoe show Saturday night.

Now in its second year, the festival showcases the unique discipline of artistic canoeing.

The wide pool of flat, calm water where the canoeists perform is next to a former water treatment site called the Chateau d'Eau on the St. Charles River in Loretteville, a suburb of Quebec City.

The site is perfect for this type of canoeing, said the festival's founder, Jean Légaré.

He coined the term "canotgraphie," also known as flat-water freestyle canoeing.

But no matter the name, Légaré said, U.S. paddler Karen Knight is the queen of the discipline.

"Karen is the best in the world. It's a big chance for us to have her [to perform] here," he said.

Knight said: "It's technical paddling, but it's also art. You're doing these beautiful moves, and you can move your body in such way as a dancer, in a way that complements the moves that the boat's making."

Lepage attended the festival last year and was captivated by the beauty of the setting.

"The Chateau d'Eau, that piece of architecture, it's a beautiful little Chateau Frontenac. A miniature Chateau Frontenac," Lepage said.

Lepage said his show will integrate the stories of the three peoples who settled around the site: the French, the Irish and the Huron-Wendat Nation.

The show will be presented to a limited audience of just 720 people, Lepage said. To avoid disturbing the surrounding environment, speakers won't be used to amplify music during the show. Instead, spectators will be given headphones.