Dance Informa | February 2022

Inspiring from the ground up: Mathilde Gilhet

Dance Informa had the opportunity to speak with the lovely Mathilde Gilhet about her life in dance, her unique floorwork creations and the WE Program, which raises money to support dance projects around the world. Learn more about her and her work below.

When did you start dancing? Can you give a short history of your life in dance?

“I grew up in France, and initially started out playing music. Every day on my way to my clarinet lesson, I would pass in front of the dance studios, and at some point I asked my parents if I could try dance. So I started dancing when I was seven or eight years old and when I had to choose between music and dance at age 12, I chose dance. I went to a contemporary dance school attached to a company in the north of France until I was 17 years old, which gave me the opportunity to see performances and learn about what it was really like to be a professional dancer. After that, I went to study in Geneva, where I had the incredible opportunity to work with top choreographers including Alexander Ekman, Hofesh Shechter and Itzik Galili, among others. After studying there for three years, I got my first full contract working for a company in Lisbon, Portugal, and I stayed there for six years. It had been my dream to travel the world and meet new people through dance, and I was lucky to have the opportunity to tour extensively.

Next, I freelanced for four years, which I also really enjoyed. I started in Lisbon, and then traveled through Europe for projects and teaching. When my best friend and his husband decided to open a company in Columbus, Ohio, I moved to America to join them. We started FluxFlow Dance Project and opened FLUX + FLOW Dance and Movement Center, and the experience taught me so much, especially about the production side of dance. From contacting people to secure opportunities to social media, we were responsible for making things happen and had to do everything from scratch. It was definitely a culture shock, but I loved it, especially the cold winters and snow. People were so nice, and we were lucky to have a beautiful community of teachers and arts lovers. I stayed there for two years before moving to Vancouver to be with my partner and to teach at Arts Umbrella. It was a huge experience being able to teach alongside legendary choreographers like Crystal Pite, and I was very inspired by seeing the way she worked. Canada was also very different from America, and I learned a lot there. […]

When did you start making your floorwork videos for Instagram? Was there one certain post that caused your Instagram to explode?

“I never had any formal training in floorwork or even knew that it was its own style until recently. When I was a child, my parents had a house in Paris with wooden floors, and that was my playground. When I started dancing, I’d always find myself on the floor while improvising as a comforting and safe place. When I started teaching, I found that my students were very interested in movement on the floor and started developing a language through teaching. The Instagram videos began as a way to keep my students at Arts Umbrella motivated during the pandemic. I would post a floor movement challenge once a week, which they had to either reproduce or put into their choreography assignments, post a video of and tag me in. Soon enough, people I didn’t know started doing the challenges and getting interested in the work. One post suddenly got like 10,000 views, and I started to get more followers. Because I was posting regularly for my students, there was a snowball effect, and more and more people were seeing the videos and learning the movements. Before this, I wasn’t an Instagram person at all, so it was a big surprise and a new experience for me.”

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By Charly Santagado

Dance International Magazine | July 2021

Social Media Stand-Outs: Five dance artists to follow

Social media became a lifeline for many dance artists during the pandemic, giving them a virtual stage to keep their work alive and to connect with their communities. Now more than ever, establishing an online presence is key to staying active in the global dance community.

But what makes a dancer stand out on a platform like Instagram, where so many things compete for our attention?

These five dance artists from around the globe — Divya Ravi, Sylvain Émard, Kristián Mensa, Patricia Zhou and Mathilde Gilhet — use the platform a little bit differently, offering something unique that goes beyond surface level. With creative flair, they are getting others involved, finding a way to communicate their values through their posts, and (of course) doing some fantastic dancing.

By Rachel Silver Maddock

Mathilde Gilhet @mathildegilhet

One post, the Praying Mantis, features Gilhet wearing bright green pants and step-hopping across the dance floor, wrapping her knees around her arms with each motion. 

Over email, Gilhet says she chooses her subjects intentionally to give visibility to stories, facts and new initiatives that she believes deserve to be better known. The French dancer, currently with Luzern Theatre, has worked with a number of companies in Europe and North America and has also taught widely. 

During the pandemic, she started her own organization, the WE Program, to support the global dance community. Through WE, Gilhet teaches low-cost virtual dance workshops and uses the money to support other dance artists pursuing artistic projects. This “self-sustainable” initiative, in her own words, allows the global dance community to support itself. During the pandemic, she’s raised over $5200 Euros and awarded four WE-Awards to support dance projects in India, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Italy.

Springback Magazine | April 2021

Springback experiences of what works (or doesn’t) as online class participants

It can be really hard to take dance classes when your ‘studio’ is your sitting room, bedroom, kitchen or (lucky you) garden. Some people stop physical classes altogether, others turn to those that focus on conditioning and fitness. Yet there are many online dance classes, and more and more participants are learning that geography has become, well, history: nowadays, time zone seems more of a limit than geolocation.

We asked our Springback contributors about their experiences of online dance classes, and what works (or doesn’t) through the medium of the screen. Below is a selection of their responses.

Take the floor by Stella Mastorosteriou

I first discovered Mathilde Gilhet on Instagram, where she shares daily videos showcasing her distinct floorwork moves with quirky names, like The Bionic Jellyfish and Butt Wiggling Pounce. In her online floorwork/contemporary dance class she gives detailed tutorials of some of those moves and frames them into longer dance sequences.

The class is lots of fun, thoroughly technical, high energy and low cost. Although the class does not happen on a regular basis and is attended by hundreds worldwide each time, Gilhet manages to create a sense of community and continuity through Instagram, where she reposts daily stories by class participants trying out her tricks. There is another notable aspect of the WE class: All proceedings from each class go towards funding an artistic project by an emerging mover, selected through an open call.

Dualist | December 2020

Mathilde Gilhet, recently joined the Tanz Luzern Theater in Switzerland. She’s a performer, dance instructor, international judge for dance competitions and a floorwork advocate.

For the past 10 years, I have worked, toured and performed with different dance companies in Europe, USA and Canada. Yet, my greatest accomplishment is my work as an instructor to both professional and non-professional dancers. Teaching and facilitating workshops gave me the opportunity to meet movers of all ages, dance background and body abilities.
In 2018, I became the Associate Artistic Director of On Board(hers), an all-women dance project by and for female immigrants and their testimonies. This work showed me the importance of dance as a cultural and social translator as well as its ability to build strong communities.
In addition, I recently created WE, a program that believes in the self-sustainable power of our movement community to support emerging artists.

What is WE and how this program will contribute to the movement community?

WE is born out of my desire to contribute to the community of movers in times of cultural and social challenges. I strongly believe in the self-sustainable power of our community, where each of us can contribute to our individual and collective growth as artists.

We Educate. We Engage. We Encourage.

WE is a global program that aims to provide low- cost education opportunities (WE-Class). All class proceedings will go toward one emerging mover each time (WE-Award). To benefit from this award, an open call will invite proposals from movement artists who want to create or pursue an artistic project (WE-Open Call).

This ambitious program is very dear to my heart as I strongly believe in the idea that we can all support each other and grow together.
WE are essential movers!

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