Personne Danse
Personne Danse (PD), a contemporary dance company founded by self-taught artist Charles-Alexis Desgagnés in 2022, is headquartered in Montreal. The organization's mission is to create and produce choreographic works that contribute to the democratization of contemporary dance as a socio-political art, at the equilateral intersection of somatic intelligence, emotional affect, and physical engagement. The current choreographic approach of the artistic director can be described as animalistic, vulnerable, and virtuosic, constantly navigating between fluid aquatic movements and volcanic intensity.
The non-profit organization is dedicated to celebrating atypical dance careers, highlighting performers-choreographers and representing the stories and bodies of people from sexual diversity and queer communities. The company wishes to express the choreographic language in different forms, including scenic, in situ, cinematographic and through cultural mediation.
Mission
Create and produce choreographic works allowing a democratization of the discipline as a political and social art.
Mandate
- Promote atypical artistic paths and equal opportunities through activities.
- Represent, in form or theme, the stories and bodies of people from sexually diverse and queer communities.
- Put forward uplifting and benevolent values within collaborations.
- Express the choreographic language in different forms, including scenic, in situ, cinematographic and through cultural mediation.
- Valuing processes at the intersection between physical engagement, somatic intelligence and emotional affects.
- Promote the works on different scales, from local to international.
See our profile on the different dance platforms in Quebec
Consulting
directors
President
Gabrielle is a lawyer and artist guided by her human and inclusive values. Co-founder of the firm CME Avocates, she wishes to contribute to promoting access to justice for all, and to create an inclusive and safe space. Taking the rights of LGBTQIA+ people to heart in her practice and wishing to establish a climate of trust and listening, Gabrielle offers her clients advice adapted to their needs and which takes into account their challenges and life projects. Placing people at the center of her practice, sensitivity and empathy characterize her client relationship.
Of Canadian-Lebanese origin and having studied in Quebec, France and Australia, Gabrielle Morneau El-Hajal was able to draw inspiration from various environments, encounters and experiences to forge her practice of law as well as that of dance. Human values, authenticity and openness are for her essential to the development of the latter. Practicing dance for several years, this art allows her to expose her emotions and her vulnerability, and to cultivate the authenticity that inhabits her. Dance allows her to express herself through movement, rather than words, and thus to discover what inhabits and characterizes her, whether in contemporary, classical or social dance. In 2018, Gabrielle took part in Mue érable, the first work by Charles-Alexis Desgagnés for 28 performers.
Photo credit: Hannah Covey
Vice President
Anne-Marie Duchene, (Certified Hellerwork Practitioner and Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Professional level) is a recognized and certified Hellerwork Structural Integration practitioner and somatic coach with over 30 years of experience in healing modalities, humanistic leadership and mindfulness.
Raised in an esoteric community, she developed a relationship with spirituality, meditation and mind-body alignment early on. Anne-Marie's work focuses on an integrative holistic model designed to address the complexity of each individual. Selected in 2016 for Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield's exclusive mindfulness meditation teacher training program, Anne-Marie trains with Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and other mindfulness experts.
Anne-Marie specializes in the exploration of facial and integral anatomy with advanced training in neuropathy, biomechanics, osteopathy, psychosomatic therapy and the technique of “Voice dialogue”. She has more than ten years of dissection research in the human anatomy laboratory to her credit, notably with Gil Hedley. Her approach is recognized and uniquely effective. Oracle University and Microsoft turned to Anne-Marie's strategic intervention and leadership coaching program.
In 2022, Anne-Marie launched The Duchêne Method, a creative leadership coaching program based on an immersive 3-steps proprietary system ; 1) Acknowledge, 2) Engage, 3) Support. Informed by her own training as a dancer and athlete, she empowers her clients to make profound and lasting life-transforming decisions through careful examination of personal habits and belief systems.
Anne-Marie was Cirque du Soleil's first Dance Specialist/artistic talent scout where she auditioned thousands of athletes and artists worldwide.
Photo credit: Maria Panina
Secretary
Not liking the easy paths, it is late and not without having first explored Latin, cabaret and Bollywood dances that Hélène Bélanger begins contemporary dance. If her professional work as a professor-researcher in urban studies at UQAM (Doctorate in urban studies, Ph.D.) leads her to take an interest in the daily "choreography" of the social life of public spaces, dance allows him to explore the possibilities of his own corporeality.
Endowed with an unparalleled sense of organization, empathetic wisdom and endless curiosity, Hélène is a faithful follower of dance classes of all kinds. In 2018, she participated in Mue érable, the first work by Charles-Alexis Desgagnés for 28 performers, then in J'ai pleuré ce matin dans le métroin 2022. With enthusiasm and excitement, she joins the board of directors of Personne Danse as general secretary.
Photo credit: Marie-Eve Dion
Treasurer
Calm and observant, Denis began his career as a supply chain in the recreational transportation industry, then jumped into the Cirque du Soleil family and its costumes as a buyer-researcher, driven by a taste for change. He is currently pursuing his career in the aviation industry as a senior analyst and project manager at Bombardier Business Aircraft.
Denis is in osmosis between the Cartesian and the artistic living inside him. This mixture and the desire to go beyond led her to meet contemporary dance and Charles-Alexis in 2018, appreciating his immense talent and his ethics. It is a great honor for him to be part of this board of directors and to be able to contribute to the success of the company Personne Danse.
Photo credit: Denis Tremblay
Administrator
The collaborations and creations of contemporary dance artist Geneviève Duong reflect one of her deepest concerns, namely the development of an engaged, conscious and compassionate body language through a process of multidisciplinary spontaneous composition. She experiments with the multiple ways of engaging the body and the voice in dialogue with music (Banff Center for the Arts, 2017) and, more recently, in dialogue with digital bodies (Interferences, arts and technologies, 2020). She is interested in updating and enhancing works of music, visual arts, comics and literature through the living arts. Félix: The lark on the loose (2019), multimedia concert co-idealized with artists Christian Quesnel and Alexandre Berthier in collaboration with the Orchester symphonique de Gatineau, reflects this interest.
Inhabited by heritage and didactic questions, she enrolled in the bachelor's degree in heritage studies at Laval University (2017-2018) and in elementary and preschool education (2020-2022). She participated in Springboard Danse Montréal (2016), where she had the opportunity to perform the works of Roy Assaf (Israel) and Spencer Theberge (United States). Since then, she has been perfecting herself with a multi-sectoral approach.
She is the manager of her company Zia Lab Créative (2018-), co-founded with music artist Pascal Asselin alias Millimetrik. She currently sits on the boards of directors of the Moulin des Jésuites (2021-), of Interférences, arts et technologies (2022-) and of the Personne Danse company (2022-). She is a graduate of the 2009-2012 cohort of L'École de danse de Québec.
Photo credit: Charline Clavier
Administrator
Of Haitian origin and born in Montreal, Thaïna Rosinvil did not receive conventional dance training, although she has always been driven by a deep desire to move. While pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience, Thaïna joined the dance troupe at the University of Montreal from 2015 to 2017. Since January 2018, she has participated in two intensive BIG BANG training courses led by Stéphanie Decourteille with the aim of deepen the discovery of its corporeality and its artistic essence. In 2018, she is part of Mue érable, first work self-produced and choreographed by Charles-Alexis Desgagnés, as an interpreter.
In 2020, Thaïna presents her first moving short film entitled Nwar as an emerging choreographer-performer at the 18th edition of the Festival Quartiers Danses (FQD). The artwork is produced by directed by Phethsari Pathammavong and Mukoma Nshinga and deals with the implicit biases related to systemic racism. She is currently a student in medicine at McGill University, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montreal.
Photo credit: Steven Daivasagaya
Administrator
Charles-Alexis Desgagnés is a queer creator, dancer and multidisciplinary performer-choreographer. Self-taught and curious, he evolves in the fields of contemporary dance, improvisation, cinema, acting and teaching. His company, Les sans-papiers, whose name echoes his career away from the big schools, is defined by his gaze more focused on uniqueness and vulnerability. Finalist of the Revolution show in 2018, Charles-Alexis sees this opportunity as a way to popularize contemporary dance to the general public.
In 2022, his group piece J'ai pleuré ce matin dans le métro, created on 23 emerging performers, brought him new media recognition. He is currently working on a short film project titled The skin of the other, in co-creation with director Vincent René-Lortie, in addition to developing a 60-minute solo work for the scene entitled Homo Deus. Recognized for his embodied strength and sensitivity, he develops an artistic vision whose heart is human.
Photo credit: Marie-Eve Dion