Louise LeCavalier

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Louise LeCavalier, (1958-), a Canadian dancer, is known as one of the icons of Canadian contemporary dance.

Lecavalier was born and raised in Montréal, Canada. She began her professional dance career at the age of eighteen when she joined Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire. It was there that she met Édouard Lock.

Lecavalier became Lock's muse in his company La La La Human Steps. With her mane of platinum dreadlocks, her physical power and her mastery of the full-body barrel jump, which looks like a horizontal pirouette, her image was a signature for the company. She was the perfect embodiment of Lock's frenetic and technically punishing androgynous aesthetic in works such as Human Sex (1985) and Infante, c'est destroy (1991).

She joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 for its production of Oranges and went on to perform in each of the company’s productions up until Salt in 1998.

In 1985, Louise Lecavalier became the first Canadian to win a Bessie Award in New York for her performance in Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel (1983).

She danced in Human Sex (1985), New Demons (1987), Infante, c'est destroy (1991) and finally, 2 (1995) and Salt (1998), where she achieved a rare maturity as a dancer. As the company’s symbol and luminary for nearly two decades, she gave heart and soul to her art. She embodied dance on the outer edge, performing with passion and generosity, dazzling audiences worldwide.

Lecavalier also participated in each of La La La’s major collaborations, including David Bowie’s Sound and Vision tour in 1990, The Yellow Shark concert, performed by Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern of Germany in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Vienna in 1992, and the film Inspirations from director Michael Apted in 1996.

In May of 1999, Louise Lecavalier received the Jean A. Chalmers National Award, Canada’s most distinguished dance prize.

In 2003, she appeared with Tedd Robinson in Lula and the Sailor as part of a concert of duets choreographed by Robinson. In the winter of 2005, she co-produced Cobalt Rouge with the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Biennale di Venizia and Théâtre de la ville in Paris. The work features Lecavalier with dancers Marc Boivin, Masaharu Imazu, and Tedd Robinson, and musician/composer Yannick Rieu.

Lecavalier has been a guest teacher at New York University on several occasions and continues to perform as an independent artist.