Kilina Cremona

French dancer, choreographer and pedagogue.

She studied in Paris with Karin Waehner and in New York (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, etc.) and danced for Twyla Tharp. She taught in Montreal and at Merce Cunningham’s studio in New York where she established the Cremona-Meguin Company in 1977 and, upon her return to France in 1980, pursued its activity in Lyon. A prize-winner at the Bagnolet International Choreographic Contest with Symphonie solitude (1990), she dissolved her company in 1993 and settled in Zagreb (Croatia) in 1995.

Deeply influenced by Cunningham, she created works which embraced great formal rigour yet occasionally produced lighter and more emotive dance. A highly-demanding pedagogue, she continued her research work whilst in Zagreb, where she founded the Athena Dance Centre in 1996, which she designed as a “place of freedom, tolerance and sharing” and received the AFAA prize (French Association for Artistic Action) for her role in creating cultural employment opportunities abroad.

Following her loss of hearing and becoming profoundly deaf, Kilina Cremona returned to the Rhône-Alpes region in 2001 after having spent almost ten years abroad. To promote her activities she created the Kaélli / Les Ateliers Desmaé Association. In 2004, she received a grant for choreographic writing from the French Ministry for Culture for her research with sign language. In 2008, she won the Villa Médicis Hors les Murs award for her research and creation project focusing on traditions and modernity in Mongolia.

Source : Lise Brunel with Philippe Le Moal, Dictionnaire de la danse, Larousse, 1999