Marie Gourdain
After studying animation at the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs (ENSAD Paris) and VŠUP (Prague), I moved to the capital of puppet animation in 2010 to work. Other specialties, such as sculpture (Prix Frédéric de Carfort 2011 / Prix de l’ENSAD 2009), and set design, also fascinated me during my studies. After several experiences on animated film productions, it became clear to me that set design was really what best matched my aspirations, and in 2014, I decided to return to the theater and dance I had practiced as a teenager. So I began working as a set designer for choreographers such as Lucia Kašiarová (2014), Zdenka Svíteková, Barbora Látalová, Andrea Miltnerová (2016), Karine Ponties (2017), Rita Gobi (2018), or In Situ projects for the KoresponDance festival (Dominique Boivin, Jean Gaudin, Pierre Nadaud, 2014-2018).
At the same time, in 2015, I joined tYhle, a Franco-Czech physical theater and dance collective, and began my own choreographic process. Set design alone was no longer sufficient for my creativity to flourish. I needed to develop a more personal and advanced approach to movement, to the encounter between body and object on stage. This is why I define myself today as a choreographer, set designer and visual artist, since these three fields unite in my practice.
Although I mainly developed my activity in Prague between 2010 and 2020, I also work on various projects more widely in Europe and have been based in Lyon since 2021.
My work therefore combines my training in the visual arts with contemporary dance, employing the tools of graphic and sculptural composition as well as detailed movement analysis. What I’m looking for is a meeting point between a highly formal approach to the body, a mix of different types of performativity, in-depth work with scenographic objects, and dynamic physicality. But I also leave plenty of room for intuition and improvisation.
Today, I have five pieces in the repertoire of the tYhle collective: UN (2016), in which I perform alongside Florent Golfier, LEGOrytmus (2017), Medúza (2018), Mu—Tation (2021) and Icarus (2021), created as part of the European project BeSpectAvtive, (Creative Europe).
In the Czech Republic, my work has been supported for many years by Studio ALTA, a stage for contemporary dance in Prague, of which the tYhle collective will become Ambassadeur (associate artists) in 2020-2021, as well as by the Tanec Praha organization.
Also in 2020, I took part in the Édition Spéciale #4 choreographer training program at CN D in Paris. I also received the first international Caroline-Neuber-scholarship from the city of Leipzig, which enabled me to open up my artistic approach to Germany and France through the Matière Mobile company created in Lyon to develop my work (2021).
In 2022, in collaboration with Felix Baumann, I will create Seismic, my sixth piece, between France, Germany and the Czech Republic.
Source : Marie Gourdain Website
