Isabelle Rousseau - Dance Artist Bio

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Isabelle Rousseau is a dance artist based in Amiskwaciwaskahigan (Edmonton), on Treaty 6 territory.
She is a dancer, a choreographer and a teacher.
She first trained as an actor at l’UQÀM in Montreal where she also started training in dance. There was a time when she was a professional radio announcer. She loves any form of communication, especially non verbal.

She is devoted to dance as a catalyst for personal transformation and social innovation. Her dance roots include experiential anatomy, authentic movement, contemporary dance, ballet, hip hop, traditional dance and butoh.
She loves creating engaging and welcoming spaces where all are welcomed to express themselves.

Rave culture has been a long-lasting influence on her dance practice, as well as the decades she has spent alone in the studio exploring and creating.
She’s grateful that nowadays many people join her in class or studios to dance and expand bodies and minds together.

As a child, she would listen to music and dance in the living room. She remembers taking creative dance classes in the elementary school gym just around the corner and loving it so much, feeling so happy.

Later, she saw traditional dance performances from all over the world. And Rudolf Nureyev in Sleeping Beauty. And The Nutcracker every year. She didn't feel she had access to dance though, especially not ballet. She practiced sports, and was terrified of wearing a leotard in front of people. Nowadays she thinks it was the right thing to avoid those environments because there was already enough body shame.

She became interested in theatre—although originally destined for science. Making her way to the theatre acting program at UQÀM, she discovered contemporary dance. And was blown away. She had access to incredible teachers and creators in Montreal: Daniel Léveillée, Jocelyne Montpetit, Diane Dubeau, Manon Labrecque, La La La Human Steps and all the creators of that era. It was the 90s, and it was incredible.

She performed in and created dance-theatre shows during her studies and afterwards. With Itinéraires, a company led by Sophie Côté and her partner, they created and performed Triptyque, inspired by the Montreal avant-garde theatre. The show was presented at the Festival du théâtre à risques. She also worked with the Théâtre de la Nouvelle Lune; was at Festival du Théâtre universitaire, the Fringe and other events.

She started training in dance and discovered Butoh, studying on her own or with different groups in various classes, at Studio 303, also on Ontario Street. A scary injury got her to rethink her training. She left dance and theatre to do radio while she was working at Tangente for Dena Davida, where she met a woman who hosted a dance show on CISM radio. She ended up working with her and then participating in the "Mordus du Micro" (Microphone Addicts)

competition for Radio-Canada. She was one of the seven laureates that year, 1999. And after an internship in Moncton, landed a position in Edmonton, thinking her future would be in radio. But it turned out that working for public broadcasting wasn't what she had imagined.

She found her way back to theatre thanks to Daniel Cournoyer and L’UniThéâtre. Josée Thibault, and Bernard Salva, resuming modern dance classes with Heidi Bunting, contemporary at Mile Zero Dance (Gerry Morita, Kathy Ochoa, Mari Osanai), also taking movement workshops in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, therefore going on to create several physical theatre pieces.

And then one day in Vancouver she picked up a brochure, found a workshop offered by Judith Koltaï, and that was that. She trained with Mrs. Koltaï for 15 years and got certified in Embodied Practice® (Syntonics and Authentic Movement), which became the angular rock to all of her subsequent work. Meeting along the way Val Campbell, friend and mentor, Monique Léger, Cindy Block, Marja Cantell and Tedi Taffel. All of them major influences.

In 2012, she was given a golden opportunity by the then director at La Girandole Dance Association: working as dance artist in residence at Campbelltown School in Sherwood Park, being offered many more exciting opportunities in these years. Eventually she became Artistic Director of La Girandole. Along the way starting to work with small children and families, as she reconnected with an old Montreal friend she had done radio with, Julie Lebel and her company Foolish Operations.

In these years, she found that traditional dance provided powerful tools to respond to students' needs and engage audiences and communities. France Bourque Moreau and Anita Rudichuk have been meaningful influences in this area. In traditional dance, there are many very natural things that come easily to people. It was a moment of recognition. Something opened up within that connected with her roots, and more importantly with the root of her love for dance.

So a vision was gradually taking shape in terms of pedagogy but also artistry and training as she refined her training but started teaching this way to others, melding anatomy, ballet, theatre, hip hop and traditional dance.

Her career as a professional dance artist and teacher really started in 2018 after leaving her role as Artistic Director at La Girandole. She’s been part of the Mile Zero Dance Education Team, teaches for the City of Edmonton, in schools all around the province, and more.

She’s thankful to the dance gods/goddesses she’s met on the way: Joséphine Cavaco, Sylvie Boisclair, Gerry Morita, Sonja Myllymaki, Good Women Dance Collective, Foolish Operations, and many exciting and talented colleagues.

Her combined experiences make her the individual and artist she is now: a dancer who loves games: a teacher with a knack for words; and a choreographer whose inspiration comes from the world around her, people, places and stories.

After several years mostly teaching, she’s ready to get back to creating and performing. She’s excited to be part of Kathy Metzer’s most recent project, Life Map 25.

Isabelle has received the Power Corporation Award (2006) and the Edmonton Trust Fund (2013). She has received several grants for her work in theatre and dance.