artists & collaborators

dany desjardins

Dany Desjardins plunged in the arts at a young age, exploring drawing and theatre. After studies in visual arts in Alma, he pursued his interest in dance at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. Since 2007 Dany has worked for the Compagnie Marie Chouinard, PPS Danse, Daniel Léveillé Danse, Dave St-Pierre inc., Danse K par K and Maribé – sors de ce corps, in addition to collaborating with the choreographers Catherine Gaudet, Frédérick Gravel, David Pressault, George Stamos and Kathy Ward. As a choreographer he created Shitoi & Dordur (2007), All villains have a broken heart (2008), On Air (2010), POW WOW (2011) and Winnin’ (2014). In 2018 he presented Sang Bleu, co-created with the circus contortionist Andréane Leclerc. Dany has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2008.

francis ducharme

A graduate of the theatre program at Collège Lionel Groulx in St. Thérèse, Francis Ducharme has embarked on a threefold career in theatre, cinema and dance. He has performed in some twenty theatre productions, working with directors like Claude Poissant, Florent Siaud, Lorraine Pintal, Brigitte Haentjens, Serge Denoncourt, Catherine Vidal and Catherine Bourgeois. In cinema, he has acted in the films Chasse Galerie (Jean-Philippe Duval), Corbo (Mathieu Denis), Les Signes Vitaux (Sophie Deraspe), La Capture (Carole Laure) and C.R.A.Z.Y. (Jean-Marc Vallée). An iconoclastic artist, he is a strong presence in contemporary Quebec dance, as seen in the Dave St-Pierre works Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde, La pornographie des âmes and Le no man’s land show. He has worked with the Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and toured with Babel, directed by Damien Jalet. He has also danced for Frédérick Gravel’s Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup, and for Catherine Gaudet, Clara Furey and Mélanie Demers. Francis has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2013.

caroline gravel

Caroline Gravel is a dance artist based in Montreal. For close to 20 years she has been involved in creating, performing and touring internationally, both as a solo artist and in works by established choreographers such as Daniel Léveillé, Catherine Gaudet and Dana Gingras. She performs and explores the art form as a teacher and artistic consultant. She is interested in altered states and moods as expressions of sensation, and in inner impulse as the leitmotif of creation. She probes the effect of sensations on the malleability of the body, how they resonate in emotions and perception. She is fascinated by the capacity of aesthetics to act through the flesh, and aims to integrate art into life through the notion of transmutation of the work. She creates performative works that have been presented in Russia, the U.S and Canada. Caroline has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2008.

leïla mailly

Leïla Mailly studied performance at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, and graduated in 2016. She then participated in Fly, the school’s professional placement program, initially working with the choreographer Victoria Mackenzie and later with Catherine Gaudet. In 2018 she made her professional début in L’affadissement du merveilleux, which was presented at Agora de la danse in Montreal. She has performed numerous roles, dancing in Catherine Gaudet’s Au sein des plus raides vertus, Alexandre Morin’s BREACH, the Daniel Léveillé Danse piece Solitude Duo and in Projet 12 and Prendre le Nord by the company Fleuve-Espace-Danse. Leïla has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2016.

james phillips

A native of Victoria, B.C., James Phillips studied dance at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and also at Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dancers. He began his professional career in Ottawa in 2005 with the Groupe Lab de Danse, directed by Peter Boneham. He then performed with O Vertigo from 2009 to 2015. That same year he presented his first solo choreography Cyclical Return at the Quartiers Danse festival. From 2015 to 2017, James worked with the Toronto Dance Theater in pieces by Christopher House, Alyssa Martin, Alex Napier, Andrew Tay and Ame Henderson, and was also part of the Singular Bodies project. He recently collaborated in research and creative projects by Freya Bjorg Olafson (Collective Corps) and Emmanuel Jouthe. He has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2017.

sophie michaud

Sophie Michaud began her dance career in the early 1980s. After exploring movement in performance and choreography, she focused her efforts on supporting the creative process. With a B.A. and a Master’s in dance and doctoral studies in Études et Pratiques des arts at UQAM, she has worked over the past three decades as a rehearsal director and dramaturgical consultant. As a researcher and practitioner, she has developed a mastery of communication methods and ethics, and since the early 2000s has been working to promote the profession of dance rehearsal director in Quebec. She works with independent and emerging artists and has collaborated with several companies such as Cas Public, Bouge de là, Manon fait de la danse, Sinha Danse, Corpuscule Danse, Lucie Grégoire Danse, Lorganisme (Amélie Rajotte, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage), Fleuve Espace Danse, BBOYIZM and Human Playground. An editorial consultant and artistic mediator, she works as a trainer with the Regroupement Québécois de la danse (RQD), helping to draft training programs for emerging young artists. Sophie has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2009.

alexandre pilon-guay

Ever since Alexandre Pilon-Guay has graduated from theater school in 2003, he has closely work with the dance community. He worked with the choregraphers : Virginie Brunelle, Mélanie Demers, Frédéric Gravel, Antonija Livingstone, Frédéric Tavernini, Nicolas Cantin, Lynda Gaudreau, Clara Furey, Jacques Poulin-Denis, Catherine Gaudet, Dave St-Pierre and Pierre-Paul Savoie. . In theatre, Alexandre worked with Alice Ronfard, Jérémie Niel, Claude Poissant, Catherine Vidal, Patrice Dubois, Sylvain Bélanger, Martin Faucher, Emmanuel Schwartz, Olivier Choinière et Brigitte Haentjens. In 2017, moving toward the museum practice, he worked on a piece with Clara Furey for Leonard Cohen A Crack in Everything / Une brêche en toute chose presented at the MAC in Montreal. Alexandre has been working with Catherine Gaudet since 2014.