Mélissandre T-B

Winner of 2024 Prix CALQ – Artist of the year in Lanaudière, an École supérieure de ballet du Québec graduate and pupil of great percussive dances teachers such as Sandy Silva, Martine Bilette and Pierre Chartrand, Mélissandre T-B has worked professionally as a dancer, a dance master, a choreographer, a dance caller and an entertainer since 2003. As a specialist in Québec step dancing, she was part of the creation process and show cast for 1000 performances of Cirque du Soleil’s ZAIA production in Macau, China. She has also danced for several companies such as Disney (Epcot Centre), La Bottine Souriante, Les Sortilèges, Benjamin Hatcher, Zeugma and Rapetipetam. 

For her choreographic creations, Mélissandre merges step, contemporary and ballet dance styles. She is a choreographer and interpreter for Les Bordéliques danse et musique, a group she co-founded with musician Gabriel Girouard. This duet shows theatrical, clownish performances told through original music and percussive dance. Since 2011 they have toured all over Québec and abroad (Canada, the USA, the UK) and reached an audience of more than 6000 people. They won the Jeune public prize (2013), Coup de Coeur prize (2016) and Ambassadeur (2018) prize at Grands Prix Desjardins de la culture, as well as the prestigious CALQ-Oeuvre de l’année en région (Lanaudière) prize in 2016, for their show Blind Date.

Mélissandre also works as a freelance artist. She has danced and created acts for the Just for Laughs Festival, the Orientalys Festival, Les Sortilèges, La Grande Rencontre and the Biennale de gigue contemporaine. In 2020, she created her first dance video project, Rouge pamplemousse, where she dances, choreographs, directs and writes poetry. The film premiered in Montreal’s FIFA 2021. As an individual artist, she has won the Arts de la scène prize (2018) at Grands Prix Desjardins de la culture.

In 2021, she co-founded Cent méandres—Arts & découvertes with her colleague Vincent-Nicolas Provencher. The organization, which brings together under the same banner their individual, joint and collaborative projects, touches as much on creation and production as on community outreach, with a focus on percussive dance and traditional Québec arts. Deeply rooted in Lanaudière, the organization contributes to nourishing the cultural life of the region and promotes its works on local, national, and international territories.

Mélissandre has taught dance in several contexts, from the École des arts de la Veillée to the Earful of Fiddle Music and Dance Camp (Michigan, USA). Whether it’s ballet and choreographic creation for the dance concentration at Collège Esther-Blondin, initiation to traditional dance during school workshops, step dancing for professional artists at Cirque du Soleil, she takes pleasure in sharing her passion with dancers of all ages and levels.