Performer holding a cardboard box above their butt during a dance performance

Projects

Role Project Artist Location Year
Tour Management Dog Rising Clara Furey/Bent Hollow Hong Kong 2026
Production You Cannot Can Dana Michel/Scorp Corps Montréal 2026
Residency Studies in Virtuality Simon Portigal Montréal: Studio 303 2025
Interpretation Laundry of Legends II Jassem Hindi Montréal 2025
Residency Studies in Virtuality Simon Portigal Montréal: Parbleux 2025
Tour Management Dog Rising + Unarmoured Clara Furey/Bent Hollow Sofia + Vienna 2024
Rehearsal Direction Unarmoured Clara Furey/Bent Hollow Montréal 2024
Interpretation Laundry of Legends II Jassem Hindi Montréal 2023
Tour Management Dog Rising Clara Furey/Bent Hollow Québec 2023
Interpretation Miracleing Sasha Kleinplatz Montréal 2022
Consultation Leaky Immediations Lara Oundjian Montréal 2022
Consultation grindruberairbnb.exposed Jonathan Chomko Montréal 2022
Interpretation Two Planets Have Been Colliding for Thousands of Years Dora Garcia Montréal 2021
Consultation Ugly Feelings Caroline Gravel Montréal 2021
Research Creation/Destruction Dana Gingras Montréal 2020
Consultation SOFTLAMP.autonomies Ellen Furey + Malik Nashad-Sharpe Montréal 2019
Research Suite Canadienne, a demonstration Adam Kinner Montréal 2018
Research Fluid Grounds Benoit Lachambre Montréal 2018
Interpretation Cosmic Love Clara Furey Montréal 2017
Interpretation Make Banana Cry Andrew Tay + Stephen Thompson Montréal 2017
Interpretation Holding Still, Holding Together Annie Macdonell Toronto 2017
Interpretation Out of Season Ame Henderson/Public Recordings + Matija Ferlin Montréal 2017
Interpretation Lift That Up Dana Michel + Dancemakers Toronto 2016
Choreography Mourning Dance Simon Portigal Montréal 2016
Choreography Public Studies Leading Elsewhere Simon Portigal Toronto 2016
Interpretation Taking It To The Grave Eroca Nicols Winnipeg 2016
Interpretation Traditional Dance Amelia Ehrhardt Montréal 2016
Collaboration + Interpretation Performance with Jersusalem in my Heart Radwan Moumneh/Jerusalem in my Heart Montréal 2016
Choreography USER|FRIENDLY Simon Portigal Toronto 2015
Research What It's Like Heidi Strauss/Adelheid Montréal 2015
Interpretation Truthteller Eroca Nicols Toronto 2015
Interpretation An Occasion hosted by Isabel Lewis Toronto 2015
Interpretation M/Other + Dark Meaningless Touch Banjamin Kamino Montréal 2015
Interpretation 1976, Have Several Dana Michel + Dancemakers Toronto 2015
Interpretation Recent Future Zoja Smutny + Dancemakers Toronto 2015
Interpretation rehearsal/performance Ame Henderson/Public Recordings Toronto 2014
Interpretation Monster, Angels, and Aliens are not a Substitute for Spirituality Andrew Tay Montréal 2014
Interpretation The Weather in Times Square, Today Adam Kinner Montréal 2014
Interpretation Around Michael Trent + Dancemakers Toronto 2014
Collaboration What Is This Heart? How to Dress Well + Simon Portigal + Brendan Fernandes Berlin 2014
Choreography ernsinpattersinpat, etc. Simon Portigal Montréal 2013
Collaboration + Interpretation Dancemakers rumschspringe Toronto 2013
Interpretation Night Shift Michael Trent + Brendan Fernandes + Dancemakers Toronto 2013
Interpretation The Nature: Redux Mårten Spångberg Montréal 2013
Interpretation Loveloss Michael Trent + Dancemakers Toronto 2013
Choreography Landscape Dance: Homage to the Three Orders Simon Portigal Toronto 2013
Collaboration Future Standards of Living Simon Portigal + Védis Kjartansdóttir + Inga Huld Hàkonardòttir Reykjavík 2013
Choreography Sondage Générale 2011/General Survey 2011 Simon Portigal Montréal 2011

Info

I'm Simon Portigal, a Montréal-based contemporary dance artist with a research-based choreographic practice. My work adopts a dense, multifaceted structure shaped by my lived experience as a queer, first-generation child of the internet and "third culture kid" raised overseas, as well as my academic training in post-modern Western concert dance. Through these lenses, I investigate the body's entanglement with identity, borders, thresholds, movement, and digitality, drawing on references that range across 2SLGBTQIA+ and popular cultures, post-internet aesthetics, animation, reality television, cinema, and video games. I situate these influences within the broader choreographic histories and theoretical frameworks that shape my practice, asking how the body negotiates conflict, contradiction, and multiplicity — and how to move through the world at the intersection of cultural displacement, digital technology, and queerness.

I have a concurrent web and graphic design practice under the name of arthr.ca

Contact

Support

Support my ongoing projects, my choreographic practice, and help me to attain my financial goals as an artist here.

fragile & useless

(2022)

fragile & useless imagines a contemporary folk dance made in and of the era of hyperdigitization.

Direction, Choreography, Sound Design: Simon Portigal

Performance: Justin de Luna, Emile Pineault, Louise-Michel Jackson

Light Design: Nien-Tzu Weng

Digital Animation: Timothy Thomasson

Outside-eye/Rehearsal Direction: Sasha Kleinplatz

Stage Management: Michael Martini

Choreographic Research: Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Nathan Yaffe, Winnie Ho, Scott McCabe, Zoe Vos, Paige Culley, Justin de Luna, Sovann Prom Tep, Louise-Michel Jackson, Emile Pineault

Thanks to Lara Oundjian, Sebastian Kann, Dana Gingras / The Stable, and LA SERRE - art vivants.

Created with the support of Montréal, arts interculturels and La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines

Made possible by funds from the Canada Council for the Arts and le Conseil des Art et Lettres du Québec

limbic cum rag

(2015-2019)

An iterative solo performance, limbic cum rag uses the green-screen as a conceptual framework to explore a performer's body as a site of projection - both literally and figuratively.

Direction, Choreography, Performance, Video, Sound Design: Simon Portigal

Light Design: Tim Rodrigues, Hugo Dalphond

Thanks to Ellen Furey, Dana Michel, Andrew Tay, Christopher Willes, Dancemakers, and the Third Floor Residency

Created with the support of Montréal, arts interculturels