In the UK premiere of danses vagabondes, Louise Lecavalier – all radiant intensity and mesmerizing rhythms – dons the many faces and stories of the vagabond. Driven by an irrepressible desire for freedom, obeying no authority or rules other than his or her own. This spirit of defiance is transformed, through Lecavalier’s ever shifting dance, into a luminous force whose rays are transmitted to us, carrying both light and shadows. The effect is hypnotic.

A brand-new work inspired by Carlo Rovelli’s Écrits Vagabonds, Lecavalier weaves already-danced gestures with new impulses, creating an ongoing dialogue between instinct and precision, freedom and discipline.

In silence, in sound, in the invisible pulse that moves her, Lecavalier traverses the stage like an unstoppable force. With her body, she tells stories that need no words – only to be lived.

Louise Lecavalier is a dancer and choreographer, joining Edouard Lock’s La La La Humans Steps in 1981. An icon of the company for nearly two decades, she was described as “the most brilliant and tragic dancer of our time (…) Legs of fire” (Melody Maker, London) and as “The signature of La La La Human Steps. Often imitated, never equalled.” (Le Monde, Paris).

Until 1999, Louise was an integral part of all the major creations and collaborations that impacted the course of La La La Human Steps – with the Bolshoi Ballet, David Bowie, Nam June Pike, Frank Zappa, and in Michael Apted’s documentary Inspirations. She also played the role of Vita Minh in the Kathryn Bigelow film, Strange Days.

She worked on a number of independent projects before founding her company, Fou Glorieux, in 2006. Through choreography commissions and her own creations, she has since pursued a quest based on virtuosity, the surpassing of oneself, and risk-taking – a quest for the absolute.

She worked with Tedd Robinson, Crystal Pite and Nigel Charnock before collaborating with Benoît Lachambre. Together, they created “I” is memory (2006) and Is You Me (FTA, 2008).

Beginning in 2012, her creations began revealing Louise as a singular, contemporary choreographer. The works So Blue (2012-2022), Mille Batailles (2016-2020), and STATIONS (2020-2024) have had lengthy touring lives and have taken us into inimitable, highly personal choreographic worlds.

In a new creation in 2023, she collaborated with visual artist Lu Yang as part of the 6th International Digital Art Biennial (BIAN) presented by ELEKTRA at Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal. This live motion-capture work, Delusional World, won over a younger, more diverse audience, laying the groundwork for Louise’s latest creation, danses vagabondes. Opening in Düsseldorf Germany in December 2024 the piece has continued touring in Europe in 2025 and had its North American premiere at the FTA 2025.

The solo from So Blue, re-created for two dancers of Gauthier Dance under a new title, Ether, had its world premiere in the ELEMENTS program in Stuttgart, Germany on February 29, 2024. In April 2024, Louise created and danced a new solo entitled Minutes around late afternoon in an evening shared with artists Germaine Acogny & Malou Airaudo and Ben Duke at the Elixir Festival, Sadler’s Wells, London. On January 29, 2024, Louise was invited to speak at Concordia University’s Wild Talks Lecture Series with moderator MJ Thompson, professor and dance researcher, and author of a book on Louise Lecavalier published in October 2025.

Louise Lecavalier is the recipient of numerous grants, awards, and distinctions in the arts including the Denise-Pelletier prize awarded by the Government of Quebec and an honorary doctorate from UQAM in 2017, the Choreographic Award form the French Syndicate of Critics in 2011 and the Leonide Massine Award for Contemporary Dancer of the Year in Italy in 2013. In June 2021, the title of Citizen of Honor, City of Montreal, was awarded to her by the mayor.

Most recently; in 2023, she became an Officière of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.