Otth Marie-Jane

Marie-Jane Otth began her artistic career with training in fine arts and classical dance. In 1970, she founded L'Atelier de Danse in Vevey, which became an important center for dance in French-speaking Switzerland. In 1979, she founded her own company, the Cie. Marie-Jane Otth, and her work was characterized by close collaboration with filmmakers and French-speaking Swiss television, which enabled her to significantly advance the connection between dance and audiovisual media.

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Between 1984 and 1988, Marie-Jane Otth was actively involved in funding contemporary dance and music in the canton of Vaud. Her choreographies, including En miroir, which was created as part of the joint production Saveurs de l'autre - collectif du Bugnon, are now part of the Fonds Cie. Marie-Jane Otth and the Fonds Collectif danse. These recordings document the artistic development of her company and are a valuable contribution to the history of dance in French-speaking Switzerland.

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Marie-Jane Otth also worked as a set and costume designer. Her works are archived in the Diane Decker and Cie. Philippe Saire funds. The works of her company were presented in 2008 in the exhibition Move-Movie, which explored the 30-year relationship between contemporary dance, film and video in the canton of Vaud.

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The works of Marie-Jane Otth and other choreographers documented in the Pionniers de la Romandieproject form the basis for the development of contemporary dance in French-speaking Switzerland since the 1980s. The founding of the Association Vaudoise de Danse Contemporaine (AVDC) in Lausanne and the Association pour la Danse Contemporaine (ADC) in Geneva created important structures for organizational, cultural-political and pedagogical cooperation in French-speaking Switzerland.