Mélanie Demers

A multidisciplinary artist, Mélanie Demers founded in Montreal her own dance company, MAYDAY, in 2007. Her work has charmed by its originality, intensity and its complexity, exploring the darker zones of the human condition. Socially engaged as an artist, Mélanie Demers travelled to teach dance in Kenya, Niger, Brazil and Haiti, amongst other destinations. The harsh reality of the developing countries challenged her understanding of the role of art in society. Addressing political issues in a poetic form, Les Angles Morts (2006), Sense of Self (2008), Junkyard/Paradise (2010), Goodbye (2012) and MAYDAY remix (2014) have all been created from this perspective. And lately, WOULD (2015) won the CALQ Prize for best choreography, highlighting the artistic excellence of a work presented in Québec. In 2016, Mélanie Demers began a new creation cycle with Animal Triste and Icône Pop; both works are touring internationally. In August 2017, Icône Pop was awarded the Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation by Toronto’s SummerWorks Performance Festival. Recently, Mélanie Demers was invited to work as a guest choreographer at the Skånes Dansteater in Malmö (Sweden) for the creation of Something About Wilderness, and at Operaestate Festival in Bassano. To date, she choreographed twenty works and was presented in some thirty cities across Europe, America, Africa and Asia.