Jo Lechay facts for kids

Jo Lechay is a Canadian artist who paints. Before she became a painter, she was a professional dancer and created many dance shows. Her dance company, Danse Jo Lechay, was very well-known in Montreal, and her performances were popular around the world.

Early Life and Dance Beginnings

Jo Lechay was born in the United States into a family of artists. Her father, James Lechay, was a painter. She grew up in Iowa. At age seventeen, she started dancing, after being interested in sports and swimming. She finished her studies at the State University of Iowa in 1957.

After college, she moved to New York City to train more in dance, especially with Allan Wayne. Two years later, she married Eugene Lion, a writer, director, and designer. He worked with her often on her projects until he passed away in 2013. They had two children, Jenny Lion and Angel Lion.

In 1960, Lechay joined Merle Marsicano's dance company. She was an important part of the New York dance scene for many years. After living in Hawaii for four years in the late 1970s, she moved to Montreal in 1980.

Starting Her Own Dance Company

Jo Lechay started her own group, the Jo Lechay Dance Company, in 1975. It was later renamed Danse Jo Lechay. Over time, many talented dancers joined her company, including Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood, Sylvain Émard, her daughter Jenny Lion, and Motaz Kabbani.

Her company became known for being very creative and trying new things in Quebec. In 1995, she said, "We really have been pushing the boundaries." She explained that her company was among the first to have women lift men in dance. They also started singing and speaking on stage during performances.

A newspaper review in 1983 described Lechay's dance style as unique. The reviewer said she used dance as a strong and powerful art form. Her goal was to mix fast, energetic movements with deep focus. She wanted to look free and easy, but actually be very precise. One of her shows from this time, called Ice, received good reviews.

New Artistic Directions

In the late 1980s, Jo Lechay and her partner, Eugene Lion, started putting more social messages into their dance works. In 1989, they began creating special one-woman shows. Eugene Lion would write, direct, and design the shows, and Jo Lechay would perform.

Their first show in this new style was Goya - The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters. It mixed dance with storytelling and singing. This piece explored how hard it can be to share political ideas through art. Later, this show changed into Affamée, which means "starved." A few years later, they presented Lion's work called Absolute Zero. This show had music by Connie Kaldor. It was about an old, disappointed showgirl 50 years in the future, when the world is running out of water and other resources.

In 1995, Lechay presented a new work called Augusta. She named it after her grandmother, who was an activist. Her grandmother was even put in jail for protesting against the Czar in Russia before moving to America in 1905. The show Augusta combined dance with painting. A video about this work, À la recherche d'Augusta, was released in 1998 at a festival in Montreal.

In 1997, Lechay and Paul-André Fortier performed "Out of the Blue." Eugene Lion wrote and directed this show, and François Barbeau designed the costumes. A reviewer from the Montreal Gazette called it "high-risk musical theatre." She said the two dancers moved, spoke, sang, and changed costumes for two hours straight. The reviewer thought it was one of the best English-language theatre shows she had seen in Montreal in years.

Today, Jo Lechay lives part-time in Montreal and part-time on Hornby Island, British Columbia. She is no longer a professional dancer, but she still uses her dance movements in her painting. In 2013, she said, "I draw and paint best when improvising with my entire body, using my left or right hand, and sometimes both at once."

Activism and Community Work

Jo Lechay has always cared a lot about the environment. In the early 1990s, she was a member of groups like Action Montréal Vert and Écologie St-Henri. These groups worked to protect the environment in Montreal.

She also ran for a political position in the 1998 Montreal municipal election. She was a candidate for a small party called the Democratic Coalition.