Carol Prieur

Born in Paris, Carol Prieur grew up in Ireland. She arrived in Canada at the age of eleven and studied dance with the Arts Umbrella Youth Dance Company (1985–1988) and at Simon Fraser University (1988–1989). In 1989, she began her professional career with Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers (1989–1992), taking part in various creations and performing works by Canadian choreographers including Tom Stroud, Rachel Browne, and Claudia Moore. In 1993, she toured Canada with Joe by the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, the result of a collaboration between Compagnie Jean-Pierre Perreault, Toronto’s Dancemakers, and Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers. Between 1992 and 1998, supported by professional development grants, she attended the professional series at Tanzwochen Festival in Vienna, studied butoh, ballet, Pilates, and Limon technique in New York, and was introduced in India to Kalaripayattu, one of the oldest martial arts.

In 1995, she joined Compagnie Marie Chouinard, where she continues to perform today as a dancer, soloist, and rehearsal director. She has taken part in the creation of works that have since become contemporary dance classics: L’Amande et le diamant (1996), Les 24 Préludes de Chopin (1999), Le cri du monde (2000), Chorale (2003), bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLDGBERG (2005), ORPHÉE ET EURYDICE (2008), and LE NOMBRE D’OR (LIVE) (2010). Marie Chouinard created for her the solos Humanitas (1998), Étude poignante (1998), and Mouvements, soixante-quatre dessins, un poème, une postface par Henri Michaux, Éditions Gallimard 1951 (2005), celebrating her ten years with the company.

The creative complicity between Marie Chouinard and Carol Prieur has also been explored on other platforms. Notably, Cantique no 1 (2003), for which Prieur received the Performance Award at Toronto’s Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video, followed by Cantique no 2 (2003), Cantique no 3 (2004), and the installation Icônes (2009).

Alongside her work with Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Carol Prieur has been involved in independent projects. She participated in the creation of Brain Storm (2001) by Sarah Bild, Interiors (2002) by Tony Chong, Quarantaine (2004) and Terminus (2012) by Charmaine LeBlanc, and Les creux d’un rêve (2010) by Sabrina Reeves and David Usher. She also danced and collaborated on numerous projects with Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, including Where Heaven Meets Earth (2004) at Grasslands National Park, Convoy PQ 17 (2005) in St. Petersburg, Russia, the community project From Pointe Shoes to Pow Wow (2007), the in situ project Breaking Ground (2009), and Hymn to the Universe (2008).

Highlighting her remarkable contribution to the world of contemporary dance, the German magazine TANZ, a global reference in dance, named her Performer of the Year in 2010.