“Dance allowed me to be reborn.
Movement became my language of freedom, where words no longer had a place.”

Interview conducted by Fabio, for the TRANScenDANCE project (France, 2025)

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Introduction

As part of the TRANScenDANCE project, we give the floor to transgender and/or non-binary people to shed light on their experiences in artistic and performance spaces. The goal is to make these environments more inclusive, welcoming, and representative of the diversity of gender identities.

In this interview, conducted by Fabio, we meet Élisea, a 23-year-old trans woman and dancer trained at the Paris Conservatory of Dance. She shares her journey, her challenges, her disappointments, but also her hopes and reflections on the role of the body and identity in art and in society. Her testimony highlights the reality of trans trajectories in cultural spaces and beyond.

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Journey and Early Steps in Dance

[00:00:15] Fabio
To begin, could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about who you are?

[00:00:20] Élisea
My name is Élisea, I’m almost 23 years old. I grew up in Lyon, and at 16 I moved to Paris to join the National Conservatory of Dance. That was a decisive step in my life, shaping both my artistic and personal journey.

[00:01:00] Élisea
I don’t come from a family that could support me financially. From the moment I arrived, I had to work: waitress, cashier, babysitter… I learned very early what precarity means. Balancing these jobs with the Conservatory’s intensive training was extremely difficult. Very quickly, I felt the pressure of productivity: you always had to give more, perform, and push through exhaustion.

[00:02:10] Élisea
During my second year at the Conservatory, I decided to begin my transition. That changed everything: my relationship to myself, to my body, and the way others looked at me.

[00:03:00] Élisea
A year after finishing my studies, I chose not to pursue a master’s degree. I needed time for myself — to reflect on my path and to heal from certain wounds.

[00:03:40] Élisea
I was also deeply disappointed by the dance world. I saw violence, silences, and an obsession with output. I thought it would be a space of emancipation, but it was a competitive system that suffocated me.

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Transition and Identity

[00:05:00] Fabio
When you talk about your transition, what were the most significant moments?

[00:05:10] Élisea
What struck me most is how much it changes your relationship with the world. People often present transition as something personal, but in reality, it also reshapes your relationship to others, to institutions, to society as a whole.

[00:06:40] Élisea
Being the first openly trans person at the Conservatory meant being constantly under the spotlight. Instead of protecting me, I was told it was up to me to “give others time” to adjust. As if I had to absorb the mistakes and the aggressions. I never felt protected — not by my teachers, not by the institution.

[00:07:30] Élisea
And despite all this, my family was always there for me. I was lucky to be supported at every stage. That’s what allowed me to keep going and not collapse.

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Challenges and Resilience

[00:12:30] Fabio
What have been the biggest challenges in your journey?

[00:12:45] Élisea
First, isolation. At the Conservatory, I felt very alone.

[00:13:20] Élisea
Then, precarity: paying rent, financing my transition, working on the side… I felt crushed by this logic of permanent productivity.

[00:15:10] Élisea
And then the dance world itself. I thought I’d find openness there, but I mostly found indifference, sometimes rejection. It wasn’t a world that would protect me.

[00:19:10] Élisea
I didn’t abandon dance, but I chose to look for gentler, more collective spaces, where the body could exist outside of suffering and competition.

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Relationship to the Body and to Dance

[00:25:00] Fabio
What role has dance played in your relationship with your body?

[00:25:15] Élisea
Dance has always been my first language. But before my transition, I experienced my body as a constraint, as an obstacle.

[00:26:50] Élisea
With my transition, I had to relearn how to dance. I wanted dance to become a space of reconciliation. Today, dancing is a way of celebrating who I am, not hiding it.

[00:28:40] Élisea
When I dance, I’m saying: “This is who I am.” It’s vulnerable, but it’s also liberating.

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Micro and Macro-Violences in Institutions

[00:32:00] Fabio
Can you tell us about the violences you experienced along your journey?

[00:32:15] Élisea
There were many.

• One day, during a fitting, the costume designer flat-out refused to make me a woman’s costume. In front of her five assistants, while I was standing there in just a thong, she measured my body and kept saying those weren’t a woman’s measurements — from my shoulders all the way down to my ankles. And not one person in the workshop spoke up.
• At the Conservatory, I was also forced to dance male roles, such as in Le Baiser by Thomas Lebrun. I said no, but I was told that’s how it was.
  
• Some activities were separated into girls/boys. Each time, it was a form of violence: I constantly had to justify my place.
  
• During an exam, I was called by my deadname and misgendered in front of the entire audience. It was a brutal humiliation, and no one ever apologized.

[00:35:20] Élisea
I was never protected by the institution. Not by my teachers, not by the administration. On the contrary, I was told it was my role to endure the mistakes, to “give others time.”

[00:36:30] Élisea
And later, in another professional context, I also felt an exacerbated competitiveness between women. Some colleagues explicitly told me not to have sexual characteristics “more feminine” than theirs. As if I had to tone down my femininity not to disturb them. It was humiliating, and it isolated me even more.

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Views on Society

[01:05:00] Fabio
How do you see the place of trans people in society today?

[01:05:15] Élisea
There are advances, some spaces opening up. But there is also still a lot of violence, often normalized. Being trans today still means being constantly exposed.

[01:10:00] Élisea
We are too often reduced to our transition. But we are whole people, with histories, with talents. Yes, I am a trans woman, but I am also a dancer, a worker, a friend.

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Messages and Conclusion

[01:20:00] Fabio
What message would you like to share with young trans people?

[01:20:15] Élisea
That there is not just one way to live a transition. Each person invents her own path. Yes, it’s difficult, but we are never alone.

[01:22:10] Élisea
And I also want to say that we have the right to be happy. Our lives should not be defined only by suffering. There is also joy, pride, and beauty.

[01:24:45] Élisea
Thank you.

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Editorial Note

This interview was conducted and written by Fabio for the TRANScenDANCE project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Through the voice of Élisea — the first openly trans woman at her Conservatoire — this conversation explores the power of the body as a space of resistance, creation, and self-reclamation.

Her testimony reveals the strength it takes to exist within artistic institutions, to transform pain into movement and marginalization into light.

A vital story that reminds us how dance can become an act of survival and freedom.

Fabio, for the TRANScenDANCE project
© TRANScenDANCE Project – Erasmus+ 2025