© Jocelyn Michel 2018

ANNE PLAMONDON is a choreographer and performer. She first trains at the National Ballet School of Canada and the Banff Centre for the Arts, before graduating from l'École Supérieure de danse du Québec in 1994. She immediately joins Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, performing numerous works of the classical repertory choreographed by George Balanchine and Fernand Nault. The following year, she leaves Quebec to dance with the Nederlands Dans Theater II in Holland (1995-1998), then with the Gulbenkian Ballet in Portugal (1998-2000). During this period, Anne performs in works by over 30 choreographers including Jirí Kylián, Hans Van Manen, Johan Inger, Gideon Obarzanek, Angelin Preljocaj, and Itzik Galili. She creates lead roles for Rui Horta, Patrick Delcroix, and Pieter de Ruiter, as well as in Sad Case, the acclaimed work by Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, resident choreographers at Nederlands Dans Theater.

Returning to Montreal in 2000, Anne works with contemporary choreographers such as Jean Grand-Maître, Estelle Clareton, and Hélène Blackburn. She dances in the revival of James Kuldelka's master work, Fifteen Heterosexual Duets, produced by Coleman, Lemieux & Compagnie, and appears in Michael Slobodian's book of photographs, Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie: Reconstructing Fifteen Heterosexual Duets by James Kudelka. Since 2005, Anne collaborates with renowned choreographer Crystal Pite and her company Kidd Pivot, creating Lost Action, Fault, The You Show, and a duet that wins an Olivier Award in 2015, A Picture of You Falling. In the same year, she participates in the choreographic creation and performs in Tryptique by Les 7 doigts de la main, a meeting of dance and circus arts with pieces by Marie Chouinard, Victor Quijada, and Marcos Morau. In 2016, she collaborates in the creation of Corps Amour Anarchie, a PPS Danse work celebrating French poet Léo Ferré.

Anne Plamondon stars in the short films Small Explosions That Are Yours to Keep and Secret Service, as well as Gravity of Center, directed by Victor Quijada and Thibaut Duverneix. In collaboration with director Micah Meisner, Anne choreographs and performs solo in Red Shoes, winning a Golden Sheaf Award at the Yorkton Film Festival in 2010.

Between 2002 and 2016, with choreographer Victor Quijada, she contributes to the development of RUBBERBANDance Group, first as a performer, then as artistic co-director of the company from 2006 to 2015. The inventive daring of Quijada’s choreography -- blending Hip Hop and b-boying with the fluidity and precision of classical ballet and a contemporary dance sensibility -- has a pivotal impact on the course of Anne's career. The pair’s strong affinity as dance partners fosters a close artistic collaboration, and Anne rapidly becomes the emblem of the company. Between 2007 and 2011, Anne and Victor are artists in residence at Montreal’s Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts, where they create the memorable duet, AV INPUT/OUTPUT. During these years with the company, Anne participates in the creation of over ten works for the stage as well as three short films. She is also instrumental in the formulation of the RUBBERBAND Method, which she now teaches throughout the world. In 2015, wishing to pursue the exploration of her personal artistic language, Anne becomes an associate artist of RUBBERBANDance Group.

After twenty years of practice as a dancer, Anne Plamondon makes her debut as a choreographer in 2012 with the solo The Same Eyes as Yours (Les Mêmes yeux que toi). Undertaken in collaboration with theatre director Marie Brassard, this piece, which Anne also performs, probes the theme of mental illness. In 2017, Anne works again with Marie Brassard for a second solo, Night Mechanics (Mécaniques nocturnes). In this work, Anne Plamondon returns to the sources of the first movement, the first desire : a primitive state of being, the human animal before the emergence of the mysterious, impossible-to-muzzle urge to create and to build. With an emphasis on subjects that have deep meaning for her, Anne’s intention is to create works that leave a strong impression as much by their virtuosity as by their emotional authenticity.

"I am driven by curiosity, by a quest for meaning, for revelation of my own truth and that of others. This quest is at the heart of my process - it ignites my inner fire.

Strange paradox: when I dance, my body takes over, gets restless or gives way, reveals its complexities, driven by the vibrations of music or a troubling inner state.

When that happens, I feel my dancing in its truest, purest form. From time to time, I achieve this state of grace, fleeting and mysterious. It is to find those moments of grace that I dance, again and again."

Anne Plamondon, May 2018

Anne Plamondon Productions receives the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts.