The August 1984 issue of Dance Magazine included a profile, written by Linde Howe-Beck, of then-30-year-old modern dance artist Margie Gillis, who had enjoyed astonishing international success as a solo artist. She had grown up in Montreal in a family of athletes (her parents were Olympic skiers, her older brother Christopher was a leading Paul Taylor dancer, her younger siblings skied and played hockey professionally). “But we were all very encouraged to play piano, paint and do creative things,” she said. “It really was like a wall-to-wall kindergarten.”

In 1979, she was “discovered” dancing in a park in China and quickly embraced by the dance crowd there; Pierre Trudeau, then Canadian Prime Minister, later named her an Honorary Cultural Ambassador. By 1981, Gillis was a “firmly established cult figure” in Montreal, as Howe-Beck put it. “She was hailed as Canada’s queen of independent dancers, a guaranteed sell-out, a squat stick of dynamite with waist-length hair that softened some of the jagged, risky and highly personal gestures… As an artist, she stands uniquely, her earthy, vibrant style based less on a recognizable dance vocabulary than on a response to her own spirit and her own need to communicate feelings.”

In addition to her solo work, Gillis collaborates with numerous artists and companies, has been commissioned by artists such as Cirque du Soleil and the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and developed a workshop using movement as a means of conflict resolution. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1987 in recognition of her dance and advocacy work, and was promoted to Officer in 2013 for her ongoing contributions to contemporary dance. She still teaches, creates and performs.