Jean-Pierre Perreault, 55; Choreographer Known for ‘Joe’

Jean-Pierre Perreault, 55, an award-winning Canadian choreographer who once described his approach to creating dances as that of “a drowning man who fights for survival,” died Tuesday of cancer at Notre Dame Hospital in Montreal.

Perreault is best-known for his 65-minute, unaccompanied 1983 modern dance spectacle “Joe,” which reached Los Angeles in 1996. Jennifer Fisher described it that year in The Times as involving “32 dancers of all sizes, dressed in ditch-colored overcoats, fedora hats and black army boots, marching, massing, and crashing stylishly and relentlessly.”

Perreault was born in Montreal in 1947, and started dance training at 16. In 1967, he joined La Groupe de la Place Royale, one of the city’s first permanent contemporary dance companies. By 1971, he had become the company’s co-artistic director.

In 1976, the company moved to Ottawa, and Perreault stopped dancing.

He formed his own company in 1984 and also freelanced for Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet and National Ballet of Canada.

He also earned a reputation as a powerful painter and graphic artist.

James Kudelka, artistic director of National Ballet of Canada, called Perreault “a cultural icon” and said his death “represents a huge loss for the Canadian dance community.”