Louise Lecavalier: DANSES VAGABONDES - performance 11.7.2026.
This July, the Mediterranean Dance Center welcomes Louise Lecavalier, one of the most important and recognisable figures of contemporary dance of the last decades. A dancer and choreographer who marked the history of La La La Human Steps and collaborated with Édouard Lock, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and numerous international artists, Lecavalier comes to San Vincenti with her recent solo danses vagabondes.
11 July 2026 at 20:00
Mediterranean Dance Center, Svetvinčenat
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
A grey screen turns white, and everything begins: a dancer appears, her body taut and driven by a feverish impulse. In a kind of opening ritual, at once mantra and accelerated invocation, Louise Lecavalier erupts into motion.
In this new work, through intensity, rhythm, and the constant transformation of the body, Lecavalier takes on different faces and stories of a wanderer driven by an irrepressible desire for freedom, refusing all authority and rules except her own. Through her ever-shifting dance, this spirit of defiance transforms into an almost luminous force transmitted toward the audience, carrying both light and shadow. The effect is nearly hypnotic; something larger than performance itself becomes activated between performer and audience, creating unexpected connections between our inner wanderings.
The performance leads us on a journey through movement, time, and memory, where the body becomes a living archive of experiences, emotions, and traces of past dances. Inspired by Carlo Rovelli’s Écrits Vagabonds, Lecavalier connects already danced gestures with new impulses, creating a continuous dialogue between instinct and precision, freedom and discipline. Each movement becomes an exploration, a search attempting to move beyond known boundaries toward the unknown.
The dance continuously breathes, transforms, and reignites itself, embodying a profound need for dance as a vital and boundless act. In silence, sound, and the invisible pulse that moves her, Lecavalier traverses the stage like an unstoppable force. Through her body, she tells stories that require no words, only to be lived.
CAST & CREDITS
Choreography, performance: Louise Lecavalier
Choreography assistant, rehearsal director: France Bruyère
Lighting and video design: Jean-François Piché
Music: Dawn of Midi + The Black Dog + Antoine Berthiaume + Kiasmos + Nils Frahm + Trentemoller + Nick Cave
Costume: Yso
Video: Marlene Millar
Production and Technical Director: François Marceau
Thanks: Patrick Lamothe + François Blouin + Elisabeth Duran
Production: Fou glorieux
Co-production: tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Hellerau Dresden, FTA Montreal, National Arts Center Ottawa
Fou Glorieux is supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Conseils des arts de Montréal.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Louise Lecavalier is a Canadian dancer and choreographer who joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 and soon became the company’s iconic figure. During nearly two decades of collaboration with Édouard Lock, she developed a distinctive, extremely physical and virtuosic performance style that brought her international cult status and redefined the perception of contemporary dance in the 1980s and 1990s.
Critics described her as “the most brilliant and tragic dancer of our time” and as a performer whose physical power, speed, and intensity were almost incomparable. As an integral part of La La La Human Steps, she participated in all of the company’s key creations and international collaborations, including work with the Bolshoi Ballet, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Nam June Paik, as well as Michael Apted’s documentary Inspirations.
After a series of independent projects, she founded her own company, Fou Glorieux, in 2006, through which she continues to develop authorial work grounded in virtuosity, risk-taking, and the constant pushing of performative boundaries. Collaborations with artists such as Crystal Pite, Nigel Charnock, Tedd Robinson, and Benoît Lachambre further shaped her choreographic language.
Since 2012, her creations So Blue, Mille Batailles, STATIONS, and the recent danses vagabondes have confirmed Lecavalier as one of the key figures of the contemporary dance scene, with extensive international touring and exceptional critical acclaim. In 2023, she also collaborated with visual artist Lu Yang on the project Delusional World, a work using live motion-capture technology that opened her practice to new generations of audiences.
She is the recipient of numerous international awards and distinctions, including the Denise-Pelletier Prize awarded by the Government of Quebec, the Choreographic Award from the French Syndicate of Critics, the Leonide Massine Award in Italy, and the title Officière de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.