CÉCILE BALLY
Cécile Bally (FR/DE) is a Berlin-based artist working across choreography, theater and scenography, who anchors her work in strong performative states and worldbuilding. Cécile uses DIY magic, absurd humor and maximalist scenography to trigger dreams and nightmares, as well as to interrogate the role of narration in performance. Her performances are rooted in the genres of science fiction and magical realism, which she uses to examine how specific entities (for instance vampires, supermarkets and suburbs) give rise to utopian and dystopian visions.
Cécile graduated in Dance and Choreography at the Inter-University Centre for Dance (HZT), Berlin University of the Arts (UDK) in 2016 and holds an MA in Economics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Pantheon Sorbonne University (2013). She based her first solo An organizational study, that’s my work (2014) on her MA Thesis in Decision Theory which examined how ideas emerge and develop in dance rehearsal processes.
From 2016-2018, Cécile created a series of works dealing with monstrosity and rationality in modern times (The price is Right, Aktion, and The Sleep of Reason). Starting with The End of the Road (2019), she created a new series of performances around the construction of collective futures in relation to urban space and ecological collapse. She co-signed The Flood (2021) with Emma Tricard, and über überüberübermorgen (2022), a children’s performance anchored in solar-punk futurity, together with Cathy Walsh.
Cécile is currently conducting research for a new body of work focusing on how videogames allow us to rethink the notion of communities, and the rules, bugs and boundaries of the world we experience.
Cécile’s work has been shown at venues such as Sophiensaele, Bauhaus Dessau, Ballhaus Ost (Germany), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Belgium), NAVE (Chile), Scène Nationale – Manège de Reims, 3bisF (France), If I Can’t Dance (Netherlands), Dansehallerne (Denmark) and Queens Collective (Morocco).
She was awarded with the Fonds Transfabrik Prize in 2021, the Künstlerhaus Lukas Scholarship in 2019, and the Goethe Institut Young Talent Prize in 2015, among others.
Working in collectives is central to Cécile’s artistic and political practice. She co-founded the performance collectives BlingBlingRecycling and Breakfast Club. She is the official agent of Celine from the showbiz duet Celine and Renana, and co-organized events such as Monday Feast and Flutgraben Performances. Additionally, Cécile has been part of several feminist collectives since 2014, in the framework of which she developed various lecture-performances (HKW Berlin, Dutch Art Institute, 3AM Berlin) and created Salon & Practice (with visual artist Lea von Wintzingerode and researcher Valerie Terwei).
As a performer Cécile collaborates with artists such as Clément Layes, Martin Hansen, Alex Martinis Roe, Jasna Vinovrški, and Asaf Aharonson.