Margie Gillis Biography

Internationally acclaimed modern dance artist Margie Gillis has been performing her solo dance concerts for more than thirty years.
As choreographer and performer of more than eighty original solo dance works, she has earned rave reviews throughout the world
for her intimate, emotional and intelligent portrayals of the multiple facets of the human soul.

Born in Montreal, to a family of accomplished athletes, Margie Gillis could not have wished for a better environment in which to develop her talent.
Showing a passion for dance early in life, she began ballet and gymnastic lessons at the age of three. She has studied with such prominent teachers as
May O'Donnell, Linda Rabin, Lynda Raino and Allan Wayne. Over the years, this charismatic dancer has forged a unique style and technique.
The critics have unanimously acclaimed her intricate yet larger than life expression of the complex human heart.
See Repertoire

In 1979, she introduced modern dance to China, being the first performer, teacher and lecturer in that art since the Cultural revolution.
Two years later, she founded her own company, the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, to support and promote her work.
Her international tours have taken her to India, Europe and the Middle East as well as across North and South America.
See Performance History

Ms. Gillis also collaborates with other artists in various productions of interest. She was in the original cast and involved in the creation of two of Martha Clarke's major works.
She has performed twice with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in pieces by her brother, the late dancer/choreographer Christopher Gillis.
With Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, she danced the role of Miss Lucy in James Kudelka's Dracula. She has been a guest artist with The National Ballet of Canada,
Ballet British Columbia, Momix, and the Bruce Wood Dance Company. She has also collaborated with many important figures in the world of dance, most notably with John Butler,
Paul-André Fortier, Christopher Gillis, Pauline Koner, James Kudelka, Peggy Baker, Robbie LaFosse, Joao Mauricio, Tedd Robinson, Rina Schenfeld, Paola Styron, Rex Harrington
and Emily Molnar. Recently, she toured in Sacred Ellington with the great soprano Jessye Norman, and danced in Adela, a film choreographed by José Navas.
Ms. Gillis has also been collaborating with classical singer, Suzie Leblanc.

Parallel to her solo performance work, Margie Gillis also choreographs for other dancers and companies. In 2000, she created Métis sur mer, a duo performed by Laurence Lemieux
and Bill Coleman, as well as Towards the Sea a group piece for the Texas based Bruce Wood Dance Company. In 2004, she choreographed Rivers Without Bridges for the Alberta Ballet.
Margie Gillis also gives workshops for dance students and professionals in various cities throughout the world, including New York where she has taught at the Juilliard School.
In 2006, Margie Gillis was asked to choreograph two solos for the Cirque du Soleil's newest production LOVE which premiered at the Opening Gala in Las Vegas on June 30, 2006.

Margie Gillis is an Honorary Cultural Ambassador for both the Québec and Canadian governments. In 1988, she was the first modern dance artist to be appointed to the Order of Canada.
In 2001, she received a Career Grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for her exceptional contribution to Québec culture.

Ms. Gillis is an artist with social commitments. She has lent her voice to a number of organizations dedicated to the fight against AIDS.
She has also been a spokesperson for OXFAM and for the Planned Parenthood Foundation.

"I choreograph and dance from the inside out in order to make transparent the imagery that lives inside the body. I have researched and developed techniques which give integrity to the form.
I reveal and work with what is essential, vulnerable and true in our nature. My life's study is in the miraculous nature of the physical communication of intellect, emotion and spirituality.
Dance as catharsis, transformation and revelation."

-Margie Gillis