Mélanie Demers

A multidisciplinary artist, Mélanie Demers founded her dance company, MAYDAY, in 2007 in Montreal, exploring the powerful link between the poetic and the political. Her body of work has all been created from this perspective. With each new creation, she deepened her engagement with cross-genre works and hybrid forms. Her fascination with the interplay between word and gesture crystallized with WOULD (2015), which won the CALQ Award for best choreography. In 2016, Mélanie Demers began a new creation cycle with Animal Triste and Icône Pop; both works toured internationally. In 2017, Mélanie Demers was invited alongside Laïla Diallo to work as a guest choreographer at the Skånes Dansteater in Malmö (Sweden) for the creation of Something About Wilderness.
After the ambitious international project Danse Mutante hit the stage, La Goddam Voie Lactée (2021), Confession Publique (2021) and Cabaret Noir (2022) entered the spotlight in various prestigious venues and festivals. In 2021, Mélanie Demers received the GRAND PRIX de la danse de Montréal, which recognizes the unique mark she left on her field. The next year, she was awarded the CALQ Award for best choreography for Confession Publique, while Angélique Willkie received the best performance Award for the same work at the ceremony of Les Prix de la danse de Montréal 2022. She recently turned to theatre and directed the piece Déclarations by acclaimed author Jordan Tannahill. In April 2023, Mélanie Demers was a finalist for the Jovette-Marchessault award.

She regularly teaches in the greatest theatre schools in Canada and is a regular contributor on radio and television shows. She won the 2024 NAC Award as part of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards and, more recently, the 2025 Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize. Her recent play l’amour ou rien premiered in May 2025 at Théâtre ESPACE GO.

To this day, she choreographed thirty works and was presented in some forty cities across Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Photo: Julie Artacho