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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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).

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.