CATHERINE DÉNÉCY Choreographer and dancer

Catherine Dénécy first started her professional training in Guadeloupe, she moved to New York City in 2004 to enter the Ailey School as the recipient of The Oprah Winfrey Foundation Scholarship. Catherine Dénécy has had the privilege to study with many great figures of American modern dance such as Denise Jeffferson, Peter London, Jacqueline Buglisi and Elizabeth Roxas.

In 2005 she joined the Urban Bush Women Company and became a permanent member for five seasons, she had the pleasure to premier and perform works of an artistic director and choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in the USA, South America, West Africa and Europe. In 2008 and 2009 also went to Senegal with Urban Bush Women where she collaborated with choreographer Germaine Acogny and her company Jant-Bi on the creation of “Scales of Memory”.

Catherine Dénécy then went on to be awarded the Grand Prix de la Création artistique de Guadeloupe for her dance project with set designer Soylé. In 2011 she founded the BLISS Company to support her work and research on contemporary Caribbean dance on the international scene whilst continuing to Jawole Zollar and Nora Chipaumire.

Throughout 2013 she toured in Jamaica, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Cuba and England and later that year she travelled to Paris for the Festival Outre Mer Veile and also that very same year she made her debut as an actress with a leading role in Bat Fanm aw mode d’emploi directed by Abel Bichara as part of a national Campaign against domestic violence. Catherine Dénécy has also studied at the Lee Strasberg Film and Theatre Institute whilst there she played Velma Kelly in Chicago, The Musical at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre and later on made her first appearance on TV. Catherine who has undoubtedly been influenced by her African Caribbean origins obviously explores and works on the relation between the dancer and the musician, or the body and the instrument. While doing so, she challenges the codes and develops a refreshing and exalted contemporary dance.