the company
Compagnie Catherine Gaudet in on elusive reality, pursuing an interest in the imperceptible, presenting the body as a place of resonance for contradictory sensations percolating beneath the surface. She creates a universe of endlessly fluctuating metamorphoses where characters, doomed to perpetual mutation, make visible a dizzying descent deep into the self. Ever emerging and evolving, they embrace and meld together only to then break apart, disturbing the very space they are shaping and escaping from. Under the spectator’s gaze identity becomes multi-layered as it proliferates, dissipates and reappears. Strange yet familiar, these ambiguous bodies evoke the sinuous trajectory of being in the world.
Onstage, the performers rise to the challenge of incessantly reconstructing a finely crafted choreographic composition. Combining raw movement with extreme control over form, they present a performative dance where the body is both receiver and transmitter of subconscious, invisible forces. Plunged into infinite variations of muscular tensions that reveal a jumble of interconnected impulses and urges, moods and ideas, the dancers portray a transformed and expanded reality that offers multiple ways of perceiving life and the living.
© Julie Artacho
© Julie Artacho
vision
The vision of Catherine Gaudet, Artistic Director and choreographer of the eponymous company, gives rise to the emergence of propositions that unsettle, provoke shock, surprise, and question through their aesthetics, all guided by rigor and a pursuit of excellence.
The Company positions itself as a place of convergence for remarkable and free artists, dedicated to the insatiable exploration of the complex ramifications of the body and the psyche. Together, they draw inspiration for their creations from the astonishing fact of being alive.
mission
Our mission aims to:
Develop fundamental research in choreographic art, create stage and off-site works intended for a curious audience, shine on national and international stages, and firmly anchor the company within its community through activities of sharing and transmission.
history
Compagnie Catherine Gaudet was founded in Montreal in August 2019 with Catherine Gaudet as the general and artistic director. Its repertoire consists of several short pieces as well as six longer dance works: L’invasion du vide (2009), Je suis un autre (2012), Au sein des plus raides vertus (2014), La très excellente et lamentable tragédie de Roméo et Juliettee (2016), Tout ce qui va revient (2018) and L’affadissement du merveilleux (2018). Produced in Montreal, they have been presented locally and internationally, notably in Denmark, France, Belgium, Germany and the U.S., and also at prestigious festivals such as Festival TransAmériques – FTA (Montreal), the Lyon Biennial, the Tanz im August Festival (Berlin) and Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris).
biography | catherine gaudet
Winner of the 2022 Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal
Winner of the 2023 International Touring Award – CINARS
Catherine Gaudet completed a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree at the Department of Dance at Université du Québec à Montréal. She began her career as a performer with various choreographers before committing to a personal choreographic research practice in 2004. In the following years, she gained recognition with Grosse fatigue – awarded at the Arhus International Choreography Competition (Denmark) – and L’arnaque.
In 2009, she explored the effects of lack in her first full-length work, L’invasion du vide. In Je suis un autre (2012), she scraped away the varnish of social façades to reveal the ambiguity of beings grappling with their contradictions, an intention she pursued with Au sein des plus raides vertus in 2014.
In 2016, she co-signed with stage director Jérémie Niel La très excellente et lamentable tragédie de Roméo et Juliette, a piece that transposes the Shakespearean legend into a melancholic closed setting. In 2018, she created Tout ce qui va revient, combining three female solos, as well as L’affadissement du merveilleux, a piece for five dancers based on the hypnotic insistence of cyclical repetition.
In 2021, she created the solo Se dissoudre, which addresses the perception of time as an illusory phenomenon, and presented Les jolies choses (The pretty things) at FTA 2022, a creation for five performers. In 2023, she successively created Parallel Worlds, performed by Louise Bédard and Sarah Williams, as well as Clammy Hands, a solo for Francis Ducharme co-created with stage director Brigitte Haentjens. In 2024, she completed her first large-scale work, danced by 11 performers, ODE, produced by CCOV – Centre de création O Vertigo and presented at FTA.
In recent years, the international touring of Catherine Gaudet’s works has grown significantly. Her works have notably been presented in Lyon (Biennale de la danse), Paris (Chaillot), Barcelona (Mercat de les Flors), Porto (DDD Festival), Madrid (Festival Otoño), Dublin (Dance Festival), among others. Catherine received the Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal in 2022 and the International Touring Award in 2023 from CINARS. She is currently Artistic and General Director of Compagnie Catherine Gaudet, a member of Circuit-Est Centre chorégraphique, the Regroupement québécois de la danse, an associate artist at Agora de la danse, and receives development services from DLD.
© Julie Artacho
Compagnie Catherine Gaudet collaborates with DLD on the touring activities of its repertoire works in order to expand their reach. DLD ensures the logistical management of touring projects, as well as follow-ups related to market development.
team
GENERAL AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Catherine Gaudet
catherinegaudet@catherinegaudet.com
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
DLD-Daniel Léveillé Danse
Marie-Andrée Gougeon
dev@dldanse.com
001-514-504-8712
–
Marta Oliveres
martamom@icloud.com
+34 610 802 931
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT
Brenda Recinos-Ramirez
administration@catherinegaudet.com
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
Mégane Trudeau
production@catherinegaudet.com
COORDINATION
Sylviane Martineau
coordination@catherinegaudet.com
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Dgeyne Dantiste
communications@catherinegaudet.com
board of directors
Brigitte Haentjens – President
General and Artistic Director, Sybillines
Catherine Gaudet – Administrator
General and Artistic Director, Compagnie Catherine Gaudet
Judith Lessard-Bérubé– Treasurer
Promotion and Management of Artistic Projects, NFB
Laurent Vernet – Secretary
Project Manager, art collection, Lune Rouge
Hélène Duval – Administrator
Associate Professor, Dance Department – UQAM