Press
UdeM Nouvelles
April, 16th 2025
Wise people: drawing on experience
A choreographer, documentarian and speaker of rare intensity, Rhodnie Désir captivates with her uncompromising presence and integrity. She joins the cohort of sages for the first time, continuing to weave together the arts and sciences to explore what binds us as human beings.
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Radio Canada
April, 4th 2025
Culture: Harbourfront presents the BOW'T Trail Retrospek project
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Le Courrier de l'UNESCO
September, 24th 2024
Rhodnie Désir, dancing the past
In Bow't, Rhodnie Désir, a choreographer from Quebec, blends traditional dance with contemporary influences to tell the story of expatriated slaves. This intimate solo was enriched and transformed by research into the rhythmic cultures of Afro-descendant people, taking her from Mexico to the United States via Haiti and Brazil.
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Radio-Canada
August, 9th 2024
Rhodnie Désir: dance as a conversation with notes and communication with the divine
In her latest show, Symphonie de cœurs, the artist examines the organ in all its states, from its physiological function to its many poetic aspects. A work in which she once again explains how creation is associated with the transmission of a divine message.
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Le Droit
May, 29th 2024
Symphony of Hearts: an ode to the power of the heart
And it is all this beauty that is translated into movement and that gives rhythm to the creation. Like a tragedy, because life is so fragile, Symphonie de cœurs addresses both the organ and the emotions of the heart.
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UdeM Nouvelles
May, 10th 2024
Artistic creation and science: a sparkling encounter
The 10th Mountain Conference highlighted some fascinating projects where artistic creation and scientific research merge.
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Revue Jeu
April, 8th 2024
Symphony of Hearts: Rhodnie Désir, a generous one-woman band
Decolonizing the show. Put an end to Eurocentric stage and body language. These are the key words of Rhodnie Désir, who drives the creative spirit behind this Symphony of Hearts. The scenic enterprise is impressive, and the performance, like the multimedia technical production, wins over the challenge of seducing the audience.
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Mountain Lake
April, 8th 2024
Rhythms of the Heart: The Magic of ‘Symphonie de Cœurs’.
After three years of intense research with specialists in the Cardiology field, Rhodnie Désir’s ‘Symphonie de cœurs‘ presented by RD Créations, was held from April 4th to the 6th 2024, at Montreal’s Place des Arts’ Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.
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La Presse
April, 5th 2024
Review of Symphonie de cœurs Cœur à corps
Rhodnie Désir presents the fruit of three years of documentary research into the heart, its jolts and its flaws. We're not talking about moods here (or only moods), but about the organ that beats in all these bodies of ours.
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La Presse
March, 30th 2024
The heart in all its states
After tackling the climate crisis in her piece MWon'd, choreographer Rhodnie Désir continues her documentary approach, drawing on testimonials from specialists and patients at the Montreal Heart Institute and the Istituto Cardiocentro de Ticino in Lugano. A way for her to take the pulse of the human soul.
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Radio Canada
January, 23rd 2024
Michel Lacombe talks to choreographer Rhodnie Désir
“I created, because there are situations that make me want to scream and shout,” notes choreographer and artistic director Rhodnie Désir. Her passion for dance manifested itself at a very early age, but it was at 13 that she became more serious about pursuing a career in the field. Winner of the Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal for Bow't Trail Retrospek, she says she feels a deep need to document history and situations through gesture. With Bow't Trail, she travels to six countries to retrace the history of black people in America.
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ResMusica
September, 4th 2023
Powerful women dance at June Events
"Canadian choreographer Rhodnie Désir is a powerful woman and performer who manages, with three nesting tables and a few props, to recreate all the identities of the 400 faces and personalities, which make up the Pantheon of this retrospective."
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Toute la culture
September, 4th 2023
Rhodnie Désir:
"These three wooden boxes, also found in the latest work BOW'T TRAIL Rétrospek, follow me. They are my muses, my spaces for transformation, channelling, multiplying time and territory.
The strength of this project is that it highlights my knowledge and ability to recount what has been brutalized, but also the resilience and existence that means I can dance and exist today." - Rhodnie Désir
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C'est ma tournée - Radio Canada
August, 3rd 2023
Choreographer Rhodnie Désir: from heart to dance
"For me, dance means being in dialogue with society. Being in dialogue with the issues from now, but also from the past." - A quote from Rhodnie Désir, choreographer and dancer
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CAPACOA
July, 5th 2023
Regard sur… Rhodnie Désir
« The beauty behind the piece is that we’re collaborating with two cardiology institutes. I’ve already interviewed 22 specialists, from neurologists to electrocardiologists. I’ve met them. I’ve actually seen two live operations just to really understand the heart. Because that’s a big part missing in our job: as a choreographer, you speak about the body but you never see the inside of the body. » - Rhodnie Désir
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L'oeil d'Olivier
June, 8th 2023
June Events, entre voyage onirique et parcours de mémoire
Flanked by two musicians, a drummer and a beatmaker, Jahsun and Engone Endong, she appears from behind, wearing a wide skirt. With the back of her hand, she smoothes the sides of the skirt. Then, suddenly, her arms fly out and her hands turn on themselves. By turns a boxer in a hooped petticoat, like a cage she's trying to escape from, a warrior or a griot, accompanied by three table-boxes she manipulates inventively to conjure up images, she multiplies herself into a mosaic of characters.
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Le droit
March, 16th 2023
Bow’t Trail Rétrospek: conversation entre le passé et le présent
Pour créer son spectacle Bow’t Trail Rétrospek, la chorégraphe-documentariste Rhodnie Désir a traversé pendant cinq ans le continent américain pour s’imprégner des cultures et des rythmiques africaines déployées par les peuples qui y ont été déportés.
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ONFR+
March, 16th 2023
Danser l'histoire des peuples déportés
Vendredi et samedi, le studio Azrieli du Centre national des arts (CNA) accueillera le spectacle BOW’T TRAIL Rétrospek de la chorégraphe-documentaliste Rhodnie Désir. Il s’agit de l’aboutissement d’une décennie de démarche artistique profonde. L’artiste raconte l’Histoire des peuples africains déportés dans différentes régions du monde.
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AL24NEWS
March, 12th 2023
Danse contemporaine : la chorégraphe canadienne Rhodnie Désir présente son spectacle à Alger
Le 11e Festival culturel international de danse contemporaine s’est poursuivi samedi soir à l’Opéra d’Alger Boualem-Bessaih avec pour la troisième soirée, le spectacle « Bow’t trail Retrospek » de la chorégraphe canadienne Rhodnie Désir et des prestations chorégraphiques de compagnies algériennes provenant de plusieurs wilayas.
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Le Devoir
May, 28th 2022
Rhodnie Désir, first associate artist at Place des Arts
Until 2024, Place des Arts will host dancer, choreographer and documentary filmmaker Rhodnie Désir. This is a major first for the organization, which already offers numerous residencies for artists, but which wanted to “go further” by offering its rehearsal rooms, yes, but also coaching and the opportunity for the artist to intervene in the institution's various projects.
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Sarasota Magazine
October, 6th 2021
If We Threw a Party in Sarasota Right Now, Here’s Who We’d Invite
Suncoast Waterkeeper’s Justin Bloom, dancer/choreographer Rhodnie Désir, the TikTok star redefining Jewish food, a UF prof studying rudeness, and a horse (of course).
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Chatelaine
May, 27th 2021
Rhodnie Désir: dancing with arms around you
She has traveled the Americas. Afro-American rhythms and black histories have permeated her very being. The dancer and choreographer offers us Bow't Trail, the project of her life.
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Radio Canada
February, 28th 2021
Rhodnie Désir: thinking about the political nature of dance
“I'm more interested in the sustainability of a change than in the change itself; how far the change will permeate people's traditions and ways of doing things. Then we'll be talking about real change.”
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Radio Canada
November, 9th 2020
Rhodnie Désir wins the Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal
Haitian-born Montreal artist Rhodnie Désir is the first black person, and the youngest, to win the Grand prix de la danse de Montréal for her show Bow't Trail Rétrospek, presented at Espace libre last February.
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Métro
November, 9th 2020
Rhodnie Désir wins the Grand Prix de la danse 2020
“This multi-faceted artist, savvy communicator, activist and powerful performer digs beyond the obvious with perseverance and conviction,” justifies in unison the Prix de la danse jury, presided over by Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé for its 9th edition. This Montreal-based choreographer, performer and teacher was awarded the Prix de la danse in the discovery category last year.
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La Presse
November, 9th 2020
Rhodnie Désir wins two major awards
Choreographer Rhodnie Désir is the winner of the Grand Prix de la Danse de la Ville de Montréal. The choreographer is the youngest artist and first black woman to win the $25,000 prize, created in 2011.
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