Michèle Anne De Mey

Biography

Belgian choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey (Brussels, 1959) attended Mudra, the Brussels-based school founded by Maurice Béjart from 1976 to 1979. She choreographed her first show, Passé Simple, in 1981, giving contemporary dance a new direction she subsequently followed with the two-handers Ballatum (1984) and Face à Face (1986).

In 1983, she became one of the four founding members of the Rosas company. She spent six years working on devising and staging several works by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, including Fase (1982), Rosas danst Rosas (1983), Elena’s Aria (1984) and Ottone, Ottone (1988). Although Michèle Anne De Mey focuses on the connection between dance and music, the choreography of her productions always has a strong drama content and places the dancer in a specific and innovative relationship between stage and audience.

In 1990, while staging Sinfonia Eroica, she set up her own company, Astragale. There followed thirty or so productions that enjoyed international success. Among them were Châteaux en Espagne (1991), Pulcinella (1994), Love Sonnets (1994), Cahier (1995), Katamenia (1997), Utopie (2001), Raining Dogs (2002) and 12 Easy Waltzes (2004). Michèle Anne De Mey has also done important teaching work (in Amsterdam, at INSAS in Brussels, at CNDC in Angers and at the École en Couleurs, also in Brussels).

Her work as a choreographer has led to several films being made, including Love Sonnets and 21 Études à Danser by Thierry De Mey, and Face à Face by Eric Pauwels. Devising her choreography from powerful music by reputable composers, she has also worked with Robert Wyatt and Jonathan Harvey. For many years now she has been forging close work partnerships with other artists, like visual artist and scenographer Simon Siegmann, Transquinquennal group member Stéphane Olivier and Grégory Grosjean with whom she staged the two-hander 12 Easy Waltzes. In 2006, she revived Sinfonia Eroica, one of her landmark shows from the 1990s, a successful, irreverent and cheerful spectacle to the soundtrack of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This production has been staged more than a hundred times all over the world since then. In 2007, she staged P.L.U.G., which deals with the mechanics of mating and, in 2009, the one-person show Koma at the Made in Korea festival started by BOZAR. This one-person show is one of a series of four, with the other three being by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Arco Renz and Thomas Hauert. In 2009, she also devised Neige, using Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, an atmospheric sequel to Sinfonia Eroica. On the occasion of the VIA 2011 festival, she staged the première of Kiss & Cry, alongside Jaco Van Dormael and in a team with Grégory Grosjean, Thomas Gunzig, Julien Lambert, Nicolas Olivier and Sylvie Olivé. In May 2012, she presented Lamento, a one-person show devised for and performed by dancer Gabriella Iacono, inspired by Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna.

Kiss & Cry was a great success, playing 300 performances in 9 different languages in twenty or so countries, and was seen by over 180,000 audience members. After this, Michèle Anne De Mey and her team of talented designers devised Cold Blood within the context of Mons as European Capital of Culture in 2015, and this show has enjoyed the same worldwide success as Kiss & Cry.

Subsequently, Michèle Anne De Mey stepped down as director of Charleroi Danses and restarted her company, Astragales. In Octobre 2016, at the Théâtre National, she devised Amor, a poetical, powerful show in which, alone on the stage, Michèle Anne conveyed her own, intimate near-death experiences.

In 2019, at Liège opera, she choreographed ballet extracts for a new version of Verdi’s Aida, directed by Stefano Mazzonis. She was assisted by Fatou Traoré and worked with dancers and circus performers.

En novembre 2019, la chorégraphe présente sa nouvelle création au Théâtre des Martyrs, « River » une fiction dansée. S’ensuit la création des chorégraphies pour l’opéra Somnambula à l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie en collaboration avec Jaco Van Dormael, qui, lui, assure la mise en scène. La Première devait avoir lieu en mars 2020, mais a été reportée suite au confinement.

A défaut de pouvoir présenter ses créations et éprouvant l’envie de pousser plus loin la recherche de la rencontre entre fiction et danse, elle tourne son premier court-métrage en 2021 en collaboration avec le jeune chef opérateur, Gaspard Pauwels. « Fiction dansée », est interprété par Violette Wanty et Aurélien Oudot, tout deux danseurs et acrobates. Le film s’inspire du confinement et du huis-clos. Il raconte l’histoire d’un frère et un sœur enfermés dans la maison familiale.

En 2022 elle présente son spectacle Sinfonia Eroica à l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège. Couronnée de succès dès sa création en 1990, ce spectacle est devenu un classique de la danse contemporaine. Véritable appel à la danse, il prend une dimension nouvelle, accompagné par l’Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, sous la direction d’Ayrton Desimpelaere.

Le Ballet Am Rhein de Dusseldorf l’a invité à chorégraphier l’un des quatre tempéraments du spectacle créé par George Balanchine. Elle explorera le tempérament flegmatique aux côtés d’autres chorégraphes de renom, Hélène Blackburn, John Numeier et Demis Volpi, qui se consacreront respectivement à la colère, la mélancolie, et le caractère sanguin. La première aura lieu en juin 2022.

Michèle Anne De Mey – Creations

1981 – Passé Simple

1984 – Balatum

1988 – Face à Face

1989 – Vendredi 10 mars, Angers

Trois danses Hongroises

1990 – Sinfonia Eroica

1991 – Châteaux en Espagne

1992 – ICE

Duo

Quatrième danse Hongroise

Sonatas 555

Histoire du Soldat

1994 – Love Sonnets

Pulcinella

1995 – Solo

Solo – Arie Antiche

Cahier

1996 – Premier Mouvement du quintette pour clarinette

Tableau

1997 – Katamenia

1999 – 21 études à danser

Un jour et la nuit

2000 – Just like before

Un jour et la nuit 2

35 mètres carré

Le sacre en couleur

2001 – Conférence dansée

2002 – Raining dogs

2004 – In Somnia

12 Easy Waltzes

2005 – 13 Reasons (to sing)

2006 – Sinfonia Eroica

2007 – Fast Foot

P.L.U.G.

2008 – Koma

2009 – Neige

2011 – Kiss&Cry

2012 – Lamento

O’solitude

2015 – Cold Blood

2017 – Amor

2019 – River

2021 – Fiction dansée (movie)

2022 – Sinfonia Eroica (re-creation)