Michele Anne De Mey

Michèle Anne De Mey, born in Brussels in 1959, is a Belgian choreographer and former student at Mudra (1976-1979), the school founded by Maurice Béjart in Brussels.

She pointed contemporary dance in a new direction with her first choreographies: "Passé Simple" (1981) and the duos "Ballatum" (1984) and "Face à Face" (1986). She worked with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for six years on the creation and interpretation of several of her choreographies, namely "Fase" (1982), "Rosas danst Rosas" (1983), "Elena’s Aria" (1984) and "Ottone, ottone" (1988). Although special consideration is always given to the relationship between dance and music, the choreographic structure of Michèle Anne De Mey’s creations cultivates a strong theatrical content and places the dancer in a specific and innovative relationship between stage and audience.

In 1990, she founded her own company and created "Sinfonia Eroica". She then created over a dozen performances which all met with international acclaim, among which "Raining Dogs" (2002), "Utopie" (2001), "Katamenia" (1997), "Pulcinella" (1994), "Love Sonnets" (1994), "Châteaux en Espagne" (1991).

Her educational contribution has also been significant (in Amsterdam, at the CNDC in Angers, at the École en Couleurs and the INSAS in Brussels). For three years, she worked with the children at École en Couleurson the elaboration of Sacre en Couleurs, a creation presented on the occasion of Bruxelles/Brussel 2000.

Her choreographic work has been the starting point for several films, such as "Love Sonnets" and "21 Études à danser" by Thierry De Mey and "Face à Face" by Eric Pauwels. Using the force of music to create her choreographic universe, she worked with renowned composers such as Thierry De Mey, Robert Wyatt and Jonathan Harvey.

In June 2006 she recreated one of her seminal pieces from the 1990s –"Sinfonia Eroica"– for nine dancers. This has gone on to be performed more than a hundred times all over the world. In December 2007 she created "P.L.U.G", a show all about the mechanics of mating. Michèle Anne presented "Koma", a solo for a female dancer, during the Made in Korea festival staged by BOZAR in June 2009. This solo is one of a series of four, with the other three by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Arco Renz and Thomas Hauert. "Neige" opened the Charleroi Danses Biennale in November 2009. For the VIA festival in March 2011, she created "Kiss & Cry" in collaboration with Jaco Van Dormael, Gregory Grosjean, Thomas Gunzig, Julien Lambert, Nicolas Olivierand Sylvie Olivé, a highly original and ambitious show confronting film, dance, words, theatre and brilliant DIY which has been presented more than 200 times to audiences around the world.

Michèle Anne De Mey is now associate artist at Charleroi Danses, the Choreographic Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. She presented her latest work "Lamento" in May 2012, a solo created for and performed by the dancer Gabriella Iacono based on Monteverdi’s "Lamento d’Arianna".