Marie-Josée Lecours

After studying dance at the École supérieure de ballet du Québec, Marie-Josée Lecours embarked on a career as a dancer, during which she was a member of dance companies such as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (1984–1988), Calgary City Ballet (1989–1990), and Ballet British Columbia (1992–1994).

In 1994, she left dance to devote herself to her studies, obtaining a bachelor's degree in art history in 1998 and a master's degree in library and information science (M.B.S.I.) in 2000. Since then, she has worked as head librarian at the Vincent Warren Dance Library. With her intimate knowledge of the arts, academic training, and constant desire to contribute to the creation and preservation of dance history, she has led several projects that have had an impact on the entire dance community. Under her leadership, the Dance Library has kept pace with the integration of new technologies through the implementation of library management software and the publication of the bibliodanse.ca catalog on the Internet. She oversees several projects to digitize iconographic collections, which have made nearly 14,000 documents (photographs, prints, posters, and show programs) accessible, thereby ensuring the wider dissemination of Quebec's dance heritage.

Since 2011, she has been teaching dance history at the college level. For more than two decades, her professional career has focused on preserving, disseminating, and building a cultural heritage that reflects the creativity, vitality, and strength of our creators, educators, and institutions.