A choreographer with a strong and unique signature
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.
