Artistic Director

Karine Ledoyen is a choreographer and dancer who began her training in Québec City and launched her career in France. Returning to Québec City, she initiated the Dare! concept in 2002, which went on to leave a lasting impression in her native province and internationally. She founded the company Danse K par K in 2005, producing creative works imbued with fiery energy and a quest to reveal human fragility in all its forms. Over the years, she has gradually integrated digital expertise into her artistic approach, surrounding herself with collaborators from diverse backgrounds. Danse K par K has a prolific catalogue of shows that includes: Cibler, Air, La Nobody, Trois paysages, Danse de garçons, Danse de nuit, Danse de salon and De la glorieuse fragilité.

During the pandemic, Karine developed Dare! Solo, a series of outdoor dance performances for one spectator at a time. This was followed by Solos prêts-à-porter: short films projected into the hands of passersby, for which she collaborated with director Eliot Laprise to develop the first 10 short films.

Alongside her career, Ledoyen reflected on her artistic practice while pursuing a master’s degree at Université Laval.

In 1996, La Rotonde – Québec City Contemporary Choreographic Centre was founded by Luc Tremblay, director of the Danse Partout company, part of Groupe Danse Partout Inc., which also included Compagnie Danse Partout and the École de danse de Québec. In 1997, Compagnie Danse-Partout was dissolved. This gave way to La Rotonde to become the main presenter but left Québec City without a dance company, resulting in many dance artists leaving for Montreal. In 2000, Harold Rhéaume returned to his hometown of Québec City to establish his company Le Fils d’Adrien danse.

At the same time, Karine Ledoyen had just graduated from the École de danse de Québec and left for Belgium and then France. Returning to Québec City in 2001, she began working as a performer for choreographer Harold Rhéaume. Karine was encouraged to create her first solo piece, Laque, which premiered at La Rotonde in 2001. The following year, she launched the Dare! project in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Québec, to provide an affordable space for creation and performance. With this project, she addressed the urgent needs of young Québec City dance artists at the time: to dance and create, while also wanting to bring contemporary dance to a larger audience. The project was a success and ran for nine consecutive summers. In 2003, Karine joined eight other Québec City dancers in establishing the service organization L’Artère. Still performing regularly, Karine continued her creative work, including Julio et Romette (2005), which received both critical and public acclaim. Propelled by the momentum of numerous and wide-reaching projects, the choreographer founded the Danse K par K company in 2005 at age 27.

“It was my instinct for survival that led me to create a company that I hoped would allow me to make a living from my art while remaining in Québec City. It was my professional goal and my personal challenge: to create, dance and live from dance while based in Québec City. At that time, people often asked me, ‘Why do you stay in Québec City? There’s nothing for dance here.’ And I was happy to answer that, on the contrary, there was plenty of room to dream, create and invent dance. It was a time when everything had to be built from scratch with very limited resources, but I believed in it, and I did it.” – Karine Ledoyen