Mercedes Dassy

Mercedes Dassy, performer and choreographer, has been dancing since childhood. Growing up in Brussels, she was influenced by the vibrant choreographic scene of Belgium. As a teenager, she was selected to participate in a show with other young dancers, an experience that introduced her to both the demands of creation and the joys of touring. She knew then that she wanted to make it her profession. At 19, she went to train at the "Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance" (S.E.A.D.) in Austria for 3 years. Returning to Brussels in 2012, she danced as a performer for companies such as Voetvolk/Lisbeth Gruwez, Compagnie3637, Notch company/Oriane Varak Leslie Mannès/Thomas Thurine/Vincent Lemaître, among others.

However, she quickly felt the need to devote herself to her own projects.

After a first short form, PAUSE, she created the solo I-CLIT in 2018, surrounding herself with a team of loyal collaborators. With this piece, she inaugurated the choreographic construction of a prolific and radical work around the articulation between the intimate and the political. I-CLIT is first a process of reappropriation of her body but also of the feminist culture she inherited and to which she integrates her own influences from pop culture. The result is a protean and metamorphic work, dense and radiant, sculpted by omnipresent music, video images and costume transformation. She lays the foundations of a new and singular aesthetic that shakes the audience and the dance scene. That same year, she received the Jo Dekmine award from the Théâtre des Doms, which rewards promising creations and artists.

The following year, Mercedes Dassy tackles a new solo, B4 summer, which she wants to be more introspective. Following on from her previous work, she deploys a magnetic presence that is sometimes placid and haunting, sometimes raw and frenetic. The scope of her questioning widens: how to fight? How to face the vertigo of all forms of domination? She refines her vocabulary and extends her footprint. Once again, success is there and she is again rewarded, this time by the jury prize of the Podium dance competition in the solo/duo category.

During this same effervescent period, she set up a duo with actor Tom Adjibi, the play TWYXX, then choreographed a solo for dancer Maeva Lassère, commissioned by the Lyon Opera, and performed PAMELA CHAPTER 6765 for the 2020 edition of the Actoral festival in Marseille.

Then in 2022, she moved away from the solo form to create RUUPTUUR, a new opus that wants to tell the power of the collective. For this, she surrounds herself on stage with three other dancers from very different backgrounds. Together, they develop a new group choreography with a futuristic look, combining movement with the figure of the centaur through the use of an articulated costume. After 5 years of incredible production and at only 32 years old, Mercedes Dassy is now opening a new cycle of research. Fascinated by the iconic figure of the singer, she is interested in voice and writing which she wants to explore from her own texts. For this new chapter, she will be, among other things, an associate artist at Charleroi danse from the 2023-24 season.

Biography by Hanna El Fakir