about

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

mission

Compagnie Catherine Gaudet creates and presents contemporary dance. It supports research and the production and presentation of works by its artistic director, as well as their promotion and presentation nationally and internationally. The company is a point of convergence for remarkable, free-thinking artists dedicated to an insatiable search for shifting perceptions of reality, exploring the resultant complex ramifications on the body and the psyche while revelling in the astonishing fact of living, of being in the world yet creating something new.

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

Catherine Gaudet completed Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in contemporary dance at UQAM. She presented her first choreography in 2004, making her mark over the next two years with Grosse fatigue –acclaimed at the Arhus International Choreography Competition in Denmark – and L’arnaque. In 2009 she delved into the effects of loss in her first long piece, L’invasion du vide. In Je suis un autre (2012) she scratched beneath the surface of social façade to portray the ambiguity of characters grappling with their contradictions, an approach she pursued again in 2014 with Au sein des plus raides vertus. There she explored the concept of morality. In 2016 she co-created with the director Jérémie Niel La très excellente et lamentable tragédie de Roméo et Juliette, a piece that placed Shakespeare’s classic in an enclosed space rife with sensuality and melancholy. In 2018 she created Tout ce qui va revient, which combined three solos for female dancers from her repertoire, along with L’affadissement du merveilleux, a piece for five dancers that is based on the figure of the circle and the hypnotic insistence of the cycle. In 2021, she created and performed the solo Se dissoudre, which explores the illusory nature of our perception of time. From 2010 to 2019 she was a founding member of the company Lorganisme as well as an innovative force in the new Centre de création O Vertigo, working alongside Mélanie Demers, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage and Ginette Laurin. Catherine is now the general and artistic director of Compagnie Catherine Gaudet and is also a member of the Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique, an associate artist at Daniel Léveillé Danse and an associate artist at Agora de la danse. When not working as a dance artist, she focuses on passing on her approach to and vision of choreography and to directing performers. She was a guest professor in the dance department at UQÀM (2018-2019) and continues to work as a lecturer and instructor. She gives workshops on performance and dance creation to emerging and veteran dance professionals at institutions such as the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal (EDCM) and Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique.

© Julie Artacho

Compagnie Catherine Gaudet works closely with DLD (Daniel Léveillé Danse) to promote the presentation of works from its repertoire so as to reach an extensive, diverse audience. As executive producer, DLD ensures the logistical and administrative management of touring and bookings, as well as follow-up on developing new markets.

In addition, Compagnie Catherine Gaudet has given DLD a mandate to organize the administrative structure of the company and to oversee its daily management.

team

GENERAL AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Catherine Gaudet
catherinegaudet@catherinegaudet.com

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
DLD-Daniel Léveillé Danse
Marie-Andrée Gougeon
dg@danielleveilledanse.org
001-514-504-8712

Marta Oliveres
martamom@icloud.com
+34 610 802 931

GENERAL INFORMATION
info@catherinegaudet.com

board of directors

Brigitte Haentjens – President
General and Artistic Director, Sybillines

Catherine Gaudet – Vice-president
General and Artistic Director, Compagnie Catherine Gaudet

Brigitte Langevin – Treasurer
Financial and Administrative Direction, Brio Conseils

Laurent Vernet – Secretary
Project Manager, art collection, Lune Rouge

Judith Lessard-Bérubé – Administrator
Promotion and Management of Artistic Projects, NFB