Viviane Gauthier

Viviane Gauthier (March 1918 - June 1, 2017) was a Haitian dancer and teacher of Haitian folkloric dance who studied Haitian folklore with Katherine Dunham-trained Lavinia Williams of which she is considered the heir and eventually opened the Viviane Gauthier School of Dance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She is credited for researching and championing Haitian folkloric dance as its own discipline, deserving of recognition and preservation despite pressures for it to incorporate modern dance. She has also been credited for keeping Haitian dances such as Yanvalou, Nago and Rada alive. One of her students has opened a dance company in Paris and another is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in the United States. Haitian-American millennial singer Riva Nyri Précil is another alumna of her dance school.

Early life and career

Viviane Gauthier started dancing at the age of 30, a relatively late start explained by her father dying when she was very young leaving behind children as young as 2 years old, a circumstance which caused her to have to work to help support the family. She grew up in a very strict household. She was the grand-daughter of Haitian President Florvil Hyppolite but did not find out until age 30. For a time she lived in Cap-Haitien at Rue 24. She studied accounting at the Maurice Laroche school and practiced as an accountant for 21 years. She claims to have been chubby until the age of 25. Though she is often credited as a choreographer she considered her specialty to be the preservation of Haitian dance.

Views

Viviane Gauthier believed that the Yanvalou dance was the basis of all of the other Haitian dances. She believed that the Yanvalou dance was the best form of exercise because it involved moving all parts of the body from head to toe. She worried that the authenticity of the Ibo dance was under threat.

Her dance school which taught children as young as 4, was known as a ready supplier of dancers to most folkloric dance productions in Haiti.

Personal Life

Viviane Gauthier never married or had children. She offered several reasons for this to Al Jazeera and to Haitian documentarian Arnold Antonin: she liked to be free of her movements and she liked to be the boss. She even admitted to being independent and did not believe her lifestyle as a researcher compatible with the home bound life expected of married women of her time. In her own words, dance was her only love.