Photo: Marion Chuniaud & Ruben Naranjo

Charlotte Lehodey

Biography

My name is Charlotte, and I was born on the same day as Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom.

So clearly, I was destined to be a Queen.

I grew up in the Alps, then moved to Paris to do theatre and go to protests when I was 18.

Now I’m 25, and since I’m afraid of death, I’m going to stop with the chronology.

But I will keep protesting.

I have a soft little heart, so to keep myself from drowning, I cry a lot. And I write. And I act. And I dance. And I shout. And when that’s not enough, I watch High School Musical.

Like a spring girl, I bloom with sunlight and raspberries. And like a spring woman, I would like to place flower crowns on each of our heads.

Artistic Statement

My poetry speaks about me. About my sensations, my emotions. It is my self-centered therapy.

My live performance, my relationship to the stage, is different. It is a way for me to exist — with my sensations and emotions — while leaving my brain aside. I become a vessel, carrying something to the audience.

I built my relationship to the body and movement through gymnastics. It taught me how to move.
And when I wanted to learn how to express myself, dance naturally imposed itself.

I am currently writing and staging a theatre piece about domestic violence. Giving women a voice through my art is essential to me.

This is what brings me to speak about witches in my solo for Big Bang. Because at a time when our rights are being threatened, and when the rise of sexism among young men feels frightening, I feel like a witch.

In a time when women were feared, and men felt their power slipping away, women were burned.

I do not want to burn.

I draw my strength from this history. And so that we never forget these women, I will tell their story