Suzanne Verdal

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Suzanne Verdal (* 1944), at times also Suzanne Vaillancourt , is a Canadian dancer and choreographer who achieved regional fame in her home country in the 1960s. She is considered the muse of the singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen , who portrayed her in his song Suzanne and described his relationship with her.

biography

Suzanne Verdal completed her education in a boarding school in Ontario . After finishing school, she worked in Montreal . With the proceeds she financed dance lessons and finally a short course at the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York . At the age of 18 she became a professional dancer and shortly afterwards formed a modern dance ensemble with others in Montréal. Verdal worked with music by John Cage and Edgar Varèse , among others . She combined classical, modern and ethnic dance. Verdal, described as exceptionally beautiful, was soon considered an "icon" of the New Age . She was mostly seen in clubs, but also had television appearances. Notwithstanding its regional prominence in the circles of the bohemians had at this time only small returns. Verdal's peculiarities included her self-sewn garments, for which she often used materials from the Salvation Army 's collection of old clothes .

In the early 1960s she married the French-Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt , who was also her dance partner at times. The couple have a daughter. Verdal and Vaillancourt separated in 1965; later the marriage ended in divorce.

After the separation, Verdal and her daughter settled in a dilapidated building at the port of Montréal near the Saint Lawrence River . At this time she developed a friendship with Leonard Cohen that was short-lived.

Verdal led an eventful life in the following decades. She lived in France and Texas , among others . She has lived in Santa Monica , California since the 1990s . There she worked as a dancer and choreographer before she was unable to work due to an accident in 1999. With no more income, she lost her home and lived in a mobile home for a few years. She later recovered. Since 2007 she has been working as a choreographer and masseuse again.

Suzanne Verdal and Leonard Cohen

Through her husband, Verdal met Leonard Cohen, ten years her senior, who had been friends with Vaillancourt for a long time in the early 1960s. After separating from her husband, in the summer of 1965, Verdal met repeatedly in her house with Cohen, who had since gained a reputation as an author and poet and at that time had a relationship with Marianne Ihlen . Both of them took long walks along the St. Lawrence River, which took them to the port and the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours maritime church , and watched the ships entering and leaving. In her home, Verdal held tea ceremonies for Cohen, where she served Chinese tea with orange peel. Both she and Cohen retrospectively described their relationship as purely platonic . Verdal believed that there was a "spiritual connection" between them. Cohen later claimed that out of consideration for his friend Armand Vaillancourt, he did not want an intimate relationship with Verdal. Verdal countered this several times; she had repeatedly rejected Cohen's advances. Verdal's relationship with Cohen ended when she moved to the United States in 1966 . After that, they only saw each other twice: in the 1970s after a Cohen concert in Minneapolis and in the 1980s at a Verdal event in the USA.

Suzanne Verdal and "Suzanne"

Suzanne by Leonard Cohen

Cohen took on the impressions of the time together with Verdal and processed them first in a poem, which he published in 1966 as Suzanne Brings You Down in the poetry book Parasites of Heaven . This finally became the song Suzanne , which was set to music first by Judy Collins and then in 1967 by Cohen himself. In an interview conducted three decades later, Cohen stated that his description of Verdal was very authentic: the text was pure journalism. Both the St. Lawrence River and the Old Port of Montréals and the "Seafarers Church" are described in the poem - albeit without naming them. Verdal's tea ceremony can be found in Cohen's text ("And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China") as well as her inclination to get her clothes from the Salvation Army. Finally, Cohen also confirms the purely platonic quality of his relationship with "Suzanne" in his poem by describing that he only touched her body in his mind ("you've touched her perfect body with your mind") .

Cohen did not let Verdal know that he had portrayed her in a poem and a song. Verdal only became aware of the song through an acquaintance who she recognized immediately. For Cohen, the song meant his breakthrough as a musician. It is still considered to be one of his most famous songs and, along with Hallelujah, is the most frequently covered Cohen song.

Documentation

  • In 1998 Kate Saunders interviewed Suzanne Verdal for BBC Radio 4 . Saunders told Verdal's story as part of a series about people who inspired pop songs. The program first aired on June 23, 1998.
  • In 2011, Joerg Daibler produced the documentary "Girls in Popsongs" for the television station Arte . In it, the author Markus Heidingsfelder interviewed Suzanne Verdal, among others.

literature

  • Michael Heatley, Frank Hopkinson: The Girl in the Song: The Real Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics , Pavilion Books, 2014, ISBN 9781909396883 .
  • Sylvie Simmons: I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen. btb, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-442-74289-9 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Suzanne first appeared in the 1966 album In My Life by Judy Collins, her fifth long-playing record. A year later it was part of Leonard Cohen's debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen , which was released in December 1967.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arno Frank: Leonard Cohen - The prophet, who was allowed to experience his premonitions - in bad as in good. musikexpress.de, November 11, 2016, accessed on August 4, 2018 .
  2. ^ Sylvie Simmons: I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen. btb, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-442-74289-9 , p. 173.
  3. ^ A b Sylvie Simmons: I'm Your Man: The life of Leonard Cohen. btb, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-442-74289-9 , p. 174.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Transcript of a BBC interview with Suzanne Verdal from June 1998 , accessed on August 4, 2018.
  5. ↑ David Freeland: Behind the Song: "Suzanne". americansongwriter.com, January 25, 2010, accessed August 4, 2018 .
  6. ^ Ian Bussières: Armand Vaillancourt salue son ami Leonard Cohen. soleil.com, November 12, 2016, accessed August 4, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b Michael Heatley, Frank Hopkinson: The Girl in the Song: The Real Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics , Pavilion Books, 2014, ISBN 9781909396883 , p. 116.
  8. ↑ Axel Du Bus, La Boîte à Pandore: 100 classiques rock et leur sens caché: Anthologie musicale , Primento, 2014, ISBN 9782390090144 .
  9. ↑ Werner Köhler: Hits & Stories: The greatest hits and their stories , Heel Verlag 2017, ISBN 9783958436190 .
  10. ↑ Program list of the broadcaster BBC Radio 4 from June 23, 1998 (accessed August 5, 2018).
personal data
SURNAME Verdal, Suzanne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vaillancourt, Suzanne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian dancer and muse of the singer Leonard Cohen
DATE OF BIRTH 1944