Gwen Rakotovao is a choreographer, dancer, and researcher whose practice spans performance, pedagogy, and cultural inquiry. She works internationally across stage, education, and research contexts, and is currently a PhD candidate at Stockholm University of the Arts. Her choreographic and academic work engages deeply with cultural memory and diaspora, currently focusing on the Malagasy funeral ritual Famadihana as a site for choreographic thinking and embodied knowledge.

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Rakotovao founded the Gwen Rakotovao Company in 2011 in New York, creating a repertoire of solo and group works that have been presented on four continents. Her pieces, including Fitiavana (2016), Initiation (2013), L’amour. La liberté(2014), and the upcoming Mitsangana (2025). Her creations have been shown at festivals and venues such as the Goethe-Institut (Madagascar), TPAM (Japan), Biennale de la Danse en Afrique (Morocco), and Fringe Manila (Philippines). Her choreographic language is shaped by the interplay of movement, ritual, and poetic resistance, exploring the body as both an archive and a site of future possibility.

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In 2022, she became an associate artist with SoaZara Arts et Partage, an artistic company based in Tours, France, founded by writer and artist Raharimanana. Rooted in ethics, aesthetics, and poetic engagement, SoaZara is dedicated to creating works that honor difference, transmit memory, and cultivate shared knowledge and care through artistic expression.

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Alongside her choreographic production, Rakotovao has performed with YK Projects, directed by Qudus Onikeku, touring We Almost Forgot across Europe and West Africa. She has also danced with Whitney V. Hunter, H.T. Chen, Regina Nejman, Bodystories / Teresa Fellion Dance in New York, and the Jeune Ballet Jazz under the direction of Rick Odums in Paris.

 

In parallel with her performance career, she has worked extensively in educational and community settings—designing programs such as Masimihanta, a dance initiative for children in Madagascar, and leading workshops for a wide range of participants, from conservatory and university students, to community-based programs for children with intellectual disabilities, as well as youth and adults in under-resourced areas. Many of these initiatives have been developed in collaboration with ministries of education and culture.

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She has been awarded residencies by institutions including the Centre National de la Danse , Pavillon Noir, Centre Chorégraphique de Tours, École des Sables, and La Maison Rouge. In 2024, she received the Trophée de l’Originalité from the Trophées Danse & Diversité at Théâtre de Chaillot. Other recognitions include the J. Ndukaku Amankulor Memorial Award for academic excellence from NYU Tisch and first prize at the Concours International de Danse de Biarritz