Louise Lecavalier, (born October 3, 1958) is a Canadian dancer, known as one of the icons of Canadian contemporary dance.
She began her professional dance career at the age of eighteen when she joined Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire. It was there that she met Édouard Lock.
Lecavalier became Lock’s main character and inspiration in his company La La La Human Steps. With her mane of platinum dreadlocks, her physical power and her mastery of the full-body barrel jump, which looks like a horizontal pirouette, her image was a signature for the company. She was the perfect embodiment of Lock’s frenetic and technically punishing androgynous aesthetic in works such as Human Sex (1985) and Infante, c’est destroy (1991).
She joined La La La Human Steps in 1981 for its production of Oranges and went on to perform in each of the company’s productions up until Salt in 1998.
In 1985, Louise Lecavalier became the first Canadian to win a Bessie Award in New York for her performance in Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel (1983). She danced in Human Sex (1985), New Demons (1987), Infante, c’est destroy (1991) and finally, 2 (1995) and Salt (1998).