APRIL 9 & 10, 7:30pm at The Cherry (102 Cherry St. Ithaca) $20

Dance of the Shadows -In this unique performance, guest artist Catherine Gignac from Quebec, Canada, draws intricate pictures in the sand which are projected in real time. With a soundtrack blending classical music, tango, and opera, the images of people, birds, and objects dance and transform. See a puppet freeing itself from it’s strings, then the strings turn into birds…one picture flows into another like in a dream. A poetic and beautiful performance with sand! 45 minutes, no words, this show is intended for adults but is appropriate for kids.

BUY TICKETS HERE

Catherine is an artist of light and sensitivity. She seeks poetry in both shadow and light, in silence as in music. Through the movement of sand, she explores inner transformations and buried dreams. Her art, fragile and powerful at once, touches the universal, the intimate, and the mysterious. Her gesture is a form of meditation, a search for raw beauty.

BIOGRAPHY

Catherine Gignac is a sand artist from Quebec, Canada. Since 2019, she has been creating sand art performances — a rare and poetic form of expression where she draws live with sand on a light table, guided by music. Her drawings come to life and transform before the audience’s eyes, projected on a large screen in a fascinating, wordless visual language.

She studied Fine Arts at the School of Fine Arts of Montreal and in Florence, Italy, and holds an honours degree in French literature from McGill University.

Catherine seeks beauty and poetry in all things. She loves to escape far, far away — carried by imagination and the sound of music, with sand as her only baggage… telling stories that fade away.

Her latest creation, Dance of the Shadows (2025), is her first full-length solo show. She previously created Rêves de sable (2024), a short sand piece, and participated in Frétillant et agile (2023), illustrating the story live. Alongside her stage work, Catherine also produces sand art videos and permanent sand drawings. In 2023, she was a finalist for the ForCGal Grants, which recognize innovation in the visual arts, for her video piece Carnival.