Leïla Ka

Maldonne

A choreographic manifesto on the complexity of the female role

The French choreographer Leïla Ka is currently one of the most acclaimed voices in French contemporary dance. Her artistry has been praised for its fusion of power, vulnerability, and uncompromising presence.

In the performance Maldonne, Leïla Ka creates a physical and visual reckoning with gendered expectations. With five dancers and forty second-hand dresses, movements drawn from domestic and everyday choreography are transformed into a bodily protest against the impossible demands placed on the female role.

With strength and precision, the dancers embody a multifaceted femininity, where the feminine is allowed to be both tender and relentless, playful and defiant. The performance offers a poetic and at times ironic perspective on our social norms, where each costume change is a revolt and every step a rewriting of the invisible rulebook.

Maldonne is a mosaic-like flow of images and stories—a feminist exclamation mark that refuses to submit to a rigged game.

The title Maldonne comes from the world of card games and refers to a misdeal—an incorrect distribution of cards that forces the game to restart. Ka suggests that the woman’s position in society is also a misdeal, and that despite progress, persistent inequalities remain, requiring the struggle to begin anew—like playing with an already disadvantaged hand.

An artistically and symbolically brilliant dance piece
La Terrasse

She draws her presence and conciseness from her life experience as a resister against imposed role models, speaking from the soul of all people who somehow long for freedom.
Tanz

Her success is relayed by phenomenal tours: she is the most present young choreographer currently on the bill with around a hundred dates annually.
Le Monde

Leïla Ka embodies a youth who asserts itself, revolts and invents a style outside the codes.
Télérama

Leïla Ka

Choreographer

Leïla Ka is a French choreographer and dancer with roots in the urban dance scene. She began her career as a street dancer but soon transitioned into contemporary dance, where she became an assistant to the groundbreaking choreographer Maguy Marin—an experience that has deeply influenced her artistic expression.

Since 2018, Ka has created her own works that move between the explosive and the poetic, often marked by physical intensity and a strong stage presence. Her solo piece Pode Ser has received multiple awards, and To Cut Loose earned her the French Critics’ Prize for choreographic talent. With Bouffées, she won first prize at Danse Élargie at Théâtre de la Ville, and her latest work Maldonne, which premiered in 2023 at La Garance – Scène nationale de Cavaillon, has been consistently met with standing ovations.

In 2023, Leïla Ka was also awarded the prestigious The Bloom Prize by Sadler’s Wells in London—an international recognition highlighting choreographers with a particularly original voice in contemporary dance.

Credits

Choreographer: Leïla Ka
Performers: Océane Crouzier, Jennifer Dubreuil Houthemann, Jane Fournier Dumet, Leïla Ka, Jade Logmo, or Justine Agator, or Adèle Bonduelle or Lise Messina or Flore Ruiz
Choreographer assistant: Jane Fournier Dumet
Light designer: Laurent Fallot
Costume: Leïla Ka
Lighting manager: Laurent Fallot or Clara Coll Bigot
Sound designer: Rodrig Desa
Portrait photo: Estelle Avril
Photo: Duy Laurent Tran
Duration: 60min

Production: CENTQUATRE-PARIS and Cie Leïla Ka
Partners and supports: La Garance – Scène nationale de Cavaillon, Théâtre Malakoff – Scène nationale, Théâtre d’Angoulême – Scène nationale, Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar – festival Suresnes Cités Danse 2024, Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans – Direction Maud Le Pladec, Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine direction Petter Jacobsson dans le cadre de l’Accueil-studio, Les Quinconces et L’Espal – Scène nationale du Mans, Espaces Pluriels – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national Art et création – Danse de Pau, La Manufacture – CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux/La Rochelle, La Passerelle – Scène nationale de Saint-Brieuc, Fondation Royaumont, Espace 1789 – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national Art et création pour la danse de Saint-Ouen – Le Quatrain – équipement culturel de Clisson Sèvre et Maine Agglo, Ville de Gouesnou – Centre Henri Queffélec, Mécénat Caisse des Dépôts, Aide à la résidence Fondation Royaumont / Fondation d’entreprise Hermès

Leïla Ka is associate artist at La Garance – Scène nationale de Cavaillon, associate artist at DSN, scène nationale de Dieppe, at la MC2, scène nationale de Grenoble.

The compagny is supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation since 2024.

Touring with Dansnät Sverige in autumn 2026.

Tour dates

2 September
Norrlandsoperan, Umeå

4 September
Västerås konserthus

8 September
Vara konserthus

11 September
Dans i Nord, Kulturens hus, Luleå