Simone Mousset is a Luxembourgish choreographer based between London, Luxembourg, and France. Recipient in 2017 of the Luxembourgish Dance Award, supported by Réseau Grand Luxe in 2018-2019, and associate artist of Escher Theater in 2020-2022, Simone is currently a Work Place artist at The Place, and accompanied by the Fondation Cléo Thiberge Edrom in France. Her company, Simone Mousset Projects, was founded in 2018 and is supported by the Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg since 2020. Simone develops her work in conversation with artists, dramaturgs, producers, and the performing arts production agency Les Indépendances in Paris. Recent commissions include works for London Contemporary Dance School, Nationalmusée / Musée National d’Archéologie, d’Histoire et d’Art in Luxembourg, and the Luxembourg Pavilion at World Expo 2021/2022.
Simone trained in London at Trinity Laban, Royal Academy of Dance, and London Contemporary Dance School (EDge), touring works by Sasha Waltz, Igor Urzelai & Moreno Solinas, James Wilton, Tony Adigun, Matthias Sperling, and Rachel Lopez de la Nieta. She has since worked with choreographers and companies including Anu Sistonen (FI), Jean-Guillaume Weis (LU), Dog Kennel Hill Project (UK), Caracalla Dance Theatre (LB), Provincial Dances (RU), Olga Pona (RU), Ballet Moskva (RU), and others.
Next to her choreographic work, Simone is interested in setting up spaces to accompany artists and artistic processes. In 2023, she was part of the Aerowaves Startup Forum for emerging dance presenters, and in the same year she started accompanying artists in the Talentlab residency at Les Théâtres de la Ville (LU) in the role of artistic companion. Simone’s book On Uncertainty, Choreographic Spells, and Wanting to Be the Grass focuses on the choreographic process of Empire of a Faun Imaginary and was published in May 2023 by the Centre National de Littérature (LU) as part of their Choreographical Talks series.
What are you most excited about joining the new group of Work Place artists?
I am really looking forward to finding out more about the work the other Work Place artists do, the questions they have, and the dreams they have for themselves and for the world. I am curious as to how we might support each other, but mostly I am excited about how we might change together.
Where do you seek or find inspiration for your work?
I currently tend to find most of my inspiration in the people I work with, and I think it has something to do with a mix of admiration of them as artists and humans, the texture of the conversations and exchange, and a shared sense of humour. I also find a lot of ideas in stumbling blindly into them. I get inspired to make things when I am surprised, so I try to find ways to somehow stay half-surprised a lot of the time.
What does it mean for you to be an artist in this day and age?
I ask myself this question a lot, and for me being an artist may mean that I can keep asking that question.
Partly, and for me very personally, at the moment, making things up and dancing and moving is a way for me to try and save myself, and potentially others, from a sense of general hopelessness. I think I've always felt that art was, for me, a useful way of dealing with the human condition and much of what it entails.