Photographer: Marion Chuniaud
Marie-Chantale Béland
Biography
Marie-Chantale was born in a monoculture field filled with pesticides. The women in her family worked the land. Repetitive tasks were commonplace. Her choreographic work explores women's lived experiences and the social body by examining the traces left by past values and beliefs. She likes to say she never wanted to pursue art. Yet, she always returns to it.
Each project confronts her with her own sense of modesty; what is the limit of sharing intimacy?
It was through significant encounters with several mentors and choreographers that she learned to summon her courage and keep her choreographic research alive. Her latest creation, À toutes les dames qui portent un jupon (To All the Ladies Who Wear a Petticoat), was presented in May 2025 at La Rotonde (Quebec City) and at the Vue sur la relève festival (Montreal). Alongside this, she practices kung fu as a serious hobby.
Artistic approach
This solo project is part of an autobiographical choreographic approach, inspired by a member of my family whom I never knew: Cordiana, my great-grandmother.
The question of identity is at the heart of this research;
Am I the reincarnation of this woman?
I am particularly interested in the notion of freedom within physical or imagined constraints. I seek to share a fragment of the human condition, placing the moving body at the center as a site of transformation where a feeling of freedom can emerge. I enjoy working with contrasts in the body, spontaneous reactions, and the pleasure of movement. My work is tinged with subtle humor and explores a palpable tension between restraint and surrender.
I am here, I exist in space.