Cécile Proust, the founder of the femmeuses project, is a French dancer and choreographer who has long been interested in the issues related to gender construction – in art as well as society. Thus in addition to contemporary dance, she is involved in various so-called 'women's' dances, such as belly dance, Indian katak dance, and Japanese jiuta-maï (geisha dance). Since 2003 she has been engaged in studying relations between feminist thought and art, which is also the topic of her lectures delivered at the department of dance at Paris 8 University as well as the Centre National de la Danse. The origins of the femmeuses project date back to 2004 and pertain to the invitation extended by Centre d'Art Contemporain du Parc Saint-Léger. As a teacher, Cécile Proust works with the renowned theorist Laurence Louppe, who after her humanist studies in France and elsewhere focused on dance – both in practice and from the perspective of critical discourse. Laurence Louppe has been working with Brussels-based Nouvelles de Danse since 1989 and has taught the history and theory of dance at the CNDC (National Centre of Contemporary Dance) in Angers (France), University of Quebec (Montreal, Canada) and the Brussels-based P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios). She has participated in choreography projects with Quatuor Knust, Alain Buffard and Lisa Nelson, as well as published her work in numerous magazines and exhibition catalogues. In addition to Cécile Proust, femmeusesaction #7.1 also includes the participation of dancers Martha Moore and Ghyslaine Gau, together with theatre and dance artist Pascal Queneau and multimedia artist Jacques Hœpffner.
