Anne Delahaye
Outstanding performer
Swiss Performing Arts Award 2024
Anne Delahaye was born in France in 1975, studied classical dance in Tours and completed a course in contemporary dance in 1995 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon. She has a diploma in dance education (1996) and another in the Alexander technique (2021). On moving to Berlin in 2001, she started a work on real-time composition under Isabelle Schad. This approach would influence her subsequent work as a performer and choreographer. As a dancer, she has appeared in works by Jean-François Duroure, Felix Ruckert, Sylvie Giron, Philippe Saire, Marco Berrettini and Cie Alias, among others. She has been involved in most of Massimo Furlan’s performances since 2001 and has worked with Nicole Seiler on multiple occasions. In 2017, she collaborated with Ruth Childs on the revival of four historical performances by the US choreographer Lucinda Childs. As a choreographer, meanwhile, she has undertaken personal research work with the Compagnie de Genève at the interface between contemporary dance, visual art, performance and theatre.
Anne Delahaye has made a name for herself on the contemporary scene in French-speaking Switzerland since the end of the 1990s. The breadth of her performance is huge. With Nicolas Leresche, for example, she created Magica Melodica (2008), winning a circusnext 2007-2008 award in France. The two have worked together on a number of pieces and performances, including Parc National (2015), which was selected for the Swiss Dance Days 2017. In 2020, Nicole Seiler created C’est sérieux for Anne Delahaye and the musician and performer Christophe Jaquet as part of Das Tanzfest. The duo had already appeared together in other pieces by Seiler, including Sekunden später… zog sich die Gestalt in die Schatten zurück at the Swiss Dance Days 2019. Anne Delahaye has also showcased her acting talents in theatre productions and performances such as those by the Geneva-based troupe Les Fondateurs. She will appear in the next production by Massimo Furlan and Claire de Ribaupierre at the Théâtre de Vidy in autumn 2024 and will be working with Marius Schaffter of the Old Masters collective in 2025.
Anne Delahaye has become a firm fixture on the dance scene, collaborating with most of the region’s choreographic artists and creating her own works with the Compagnie de Genève. She is both a dancer and a practitioner of the Alexander technique, blessed with remarkable skill and a taste for working across disciplines. Her omnipresence attests not only to her abilities but also to her great openness and curiosity for the universe and for different artistic discourses – above all her capacity for actively collaborating on the creative process. In a discipline that tends to idolise choreographers to the detriment of dancers, Anne Delahaye ranks among those who remind us that dancing itself is also an art form.
Gabriel Schenker, Jury member
