ADF presents ANNE PLAMONDON

ANNE PLAMONDON is a choreographer and performer. She trained at the NationalBallet School of Canada and the Banff Centre for the Arts, and graduated from l’École
Supérieure de danse du Québec in 1994. She immediately joined Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens de Montréal, performing numerous works of the classical repertory
choreographed by George Balanchine and Fernand Nault. The following year, she left
Quebec to continue her career with Nederlands Dans Theater II in Holland (1995-1998),
then with the Gulbenkian Ballet in Portugal (1998-2000). During this period, Anne
performed in works by over 30 choreographers, including Jirí Kylián, Hans Van Manen,
Johan Inger, Gideon Obarzanek, Angelin Preljocaj, and Itzik Galili. She created 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 worked with contemporary choreographers such as
Jean Grand-Maître, Estelle Clareton, and Hélène Blackburn. She danced 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.

Between 2002 and 2016, with choreographer Victor Quijada, she contributed 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 — had a pivotal impact on the
course of Anne’s career. The pair’s strong affinity as dance partners fostered a close
artistic collaboration, and Anne rapidly became the emblem of the company. Between
2007 and 2011, Anne and Victor were artists in residence at Montreal’s Cinquième Salle
of Place des Arts, where they created the memorable duet, AV INPUT/OUTPUT. During
these years with the company, Anne participated in the creation of over ten works for the
stage as well as three short films. She was 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 became an associate
artist of RUBBERBANDance Group.

After twenty years of practice as a dancer, Anne Plamondon made her debut as a
choreographer in 2012 with the solo, The Same Eyes as Yours. Undertaken in
collaboration with theatre director Marie Brassard, this piece, which Anne also
performed, probed the theme of mental illness. 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. In 2017, Anne worked
again with Marie Brassard for a second solo, 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. In parallel to developing her own choreographic
voice, since 2005, Anne has collaborated with renowned choreographer Crystal Pite and
her company Kidd Pivot, creating Lost Action, Fault, The You Show, and a duet that won
an Olivier Award in 2015, A Picture of You Falling. In 2015, she participated in the
choreographic creation and performed 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 collaborated in the creation of Corps Amour Anarchie, a
PPS Danse work celebrating French poet Léo Ferré.

Anne Plamondon has starred 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 choreographed and
performed solo in Red Shoes, which won a Golden Sheaf Award at the Yorkton Film
Festival in 2010.