art smarts

Chapter 2. Artist Profiles

France Geoffroy

"In the beginning, after my accident, I thought, How I will be a dancer? Impossible! And now, after many, many years, I am a dancer! Before, when somebody would ask me, ‘What do you do?’ I would say that I dance. And now, I feel like I don’t dance, I am a dancer. It’s very different."

When she was seventeen and about to begin a college program in dance, France had a diving accident that left her a quadriplegic. Since then, she has studied, performed and taught integrated dance. In addition to taking private classes, France has completed her diploma in dance from Collège Montmorency, which she had planned to start before her accident. In 1998, she went to England to complete a one-week intensive training with CandoCo, the British integrated dance company. She has gone on to study one-on-one with CandoCo dancer Kuldip Singh Barmi.

France wonders whether in the future she might be known as a pioneer of integrated dance in Montréal, and indeed this seems quite likely. She has worked hard to introduce Montréalers to integrated dance through performances and classes. In the fall of 2000, France formed her own company, Corpuscule Danse, with Martine Lusignan and Isaac Savoie. France has danced in student and professional productions since 1997 and been featured in a number of documentaries, including Passage, a documentary of the creative process surrounding the development of Kuldip and France’s duet, etcetera, which was performed at Théâtre Tangente in Montréal in 2000. The documentary is slated to be broadcast by Radio-Canada, CBC and BBC in 2002. France is currently working on a new piece and completing her Bachelor’s degree in art history at l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

“Work hard, because success is ten percent talent, and ninety percent work.”

Roger Hardy