compagnie intangible | artist collective

About

About Us

Compagnie Intangible was founded in 2021 by Sallynee Amawat, violonist specialized in period music, and Benjamin Tardif, dancer specialized in Khon also known as Thai classical masked dance. They both share a vision to create performances that push the boundaries of their respective artistic expression, inspired to explore the intersection of dance & music, traditional & contemporary, East & West and to creating performances that are both innovative and accessible.

Music

Sallynee Amawat

A native of Chicago, violinist Sallynee Amawat has enjoyed a career as performer and teacher in both Asia and North America. While living in Bangkok, Sallynee performed, toured and recorded with many ensembles, including the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. Based in Montreal, she enjoys collaborating with North American ensembles such as Arion Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Caprice, Les Boréades des Montréal, and Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. She holds a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Hartt School, and both a Master and Doctor of Music in Early Music Performance from McGill University. Passionate about chamber music, she is also a founding member of ensemble Infusion Baroque, Grand Prize and Audience Prize winners of the Early Music America Baroque Performance Competition in 2014.

DANCe

Benjamin Tardif

Originally from Canada, Benjamin Tardif has been in Bangkok, Thailand to pursue his training in khon while completing a Master of Arts in classical Thai dance at Bunditpatanasilpa Institute. He was assigned the monkey role, notably Hanuman, which he learned with the national artist, Prasit Pinkaew. Also, he is a member of the khon dance troupe of the Royal Sala Chalermkrung Theater, gives khon workshops and performances in many countries. Since 2015, he also participated in various contemporary dance projects with Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, 18Monkeys Dance Theater, Compagnie Kham and Fanglao Dance Company. Since 2019, Benjamin has been working on his own creations, where he is interested in bridging the West and the East through dance and music through symbols, mythology and narratives, reflecting on his inner dualities, questions of identities, transformation and survival.

Features

Our Approach

"A Senegalese poet said:

'In the end,
we will conserve only what we love.
We love only what we understand,
and we will understand only what we are taught.'

We must learn about other cultures in order to understand,
in order to love, and in order to preserve
our common world heritage."

YO-YO MA

Projects

Our Projects

MATCHANU un théâtre dansé baroque siamois [ 2022 ]

Combining music from the French Baroque period and classical masked Thai dance (khon), “MATCHANU” is a multidisciplinary performance inspired by ancient and modern connections. Through a collaborative partnership between Canadian Khon dancer Benjamin Tardif and Thai-Canadian baroque violinist Sallynee Amawat, the performance reflects the artists’ personal and creative journeys. Traditional and contemporary Khon dance, with choreography and dramaturgy by Benjamin Tardif, are inspired by the story and characters of the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The titular character, Matchanu, is a half monkey/fish being and symbol of our own dualities. While set in a fantastical world, the story touches on universal themes such as globalization, modernization, preservation and loss of tradition. Inspired by historical events between France and Siam (now known as Thailand) in the 17th century, music in the French Baroque style provides the backdrop for the story, uniting these two art forms that have existed in parallel for more than 400 years. Starring Benjamin Tardif and dancers from the National Theater of Thailand. Music by composers such as Rameau, Lully, Rebel, Couperin, and Marias, performed on period and traditional instruments by an ensemble of Montreal-based musicians under the direction of Sallynee Amawat.

TRAVERSE | les fils du temps [ in progress ... 2024 ]

The collective ongoing project, "Traverse: les fils du temps", is a multidisciplinary performance inspired by the ancient culture of the Lanna and Lanxang region, today Laos and northern Thailand. For this project, Sallynee and Benjamin are joined by Canadian cellist Andrea Stewart and Franco-Laotian contemporary and hip hop choreographer-performer, Olé Kamchanla. “Traverse” fuses Eastern and Western cultures with ancient and modern artistic expressions to reflect the cultural diversity of a modern society. Traditional folk dance from northern Thailand and Laos is combined with contemporary dance and hip hop, accompanied by live music performed on period instruments and electronic devices that fuse Western Renaissance, Baroque, contemporary music and traditional music and soundscapes of Southeast Asia.