Mélanie Demers
Mélanie Demers © Julie Artacho
A multidisciplinary artist, Mélanie Demers founded in Montreal her dance company, MAYDAY, in 2007, exploring the powerful link between the poetical and the political. Her body of works have all been created from this perspective. With each new creation, she deepened her engagement with cross-genre works and hybrid forms. Her fascination with the interplay between word and gesture crystallized with WOULD (2015), which won the CALQ Prize for best choreography. In 2016, Mélanie Demers began a new creation cycle with Animal Triste and Icône Pop; both works toured internationally. In 2017, Mélanie Demers was invited alongside Laïla Diallo to work as a guest choreographer at the Skånes Dansteater in Malmö (Sweden) for the creation of Something About Wilderness.
After the ambitious and international project Danse Mutante hit the stage, La Goddam Voie Lactée (2021), Confession Publique (2021) and Cabaret Noir (2022) are entering in the spotlight in various prestigious venues and festivals. In 2021, Mélanie Demers received the GRAND PRIX de la danse de Montréal which recognizes the unique mark she left on her era. The next year, she was awarded the CALQ Prize for best choreography for Confession Publique and Angélique Willkie received the best performance Prize for the same work at the ceremony of Les Prix de la danse de Montréal 2022.
Lastly, she turned towards theatre and directed the piece Déclarations by acclaimed author Jordan Tannahill. She teaches in the greatest theatre schools in Canada and is a regular contributor on radio and television shows.To date, she choreographed thirty works and was presented in some forty cities across Europe, America, Africa and Asia.