Aurélie Giet

Born in 1984 on the border of Belgium, Aurélie Giet is a dancer, musician, and clown. After classical training in clarinet, she discovered, as a teenager, the world of folk music and dance at a family gathering. This first encounter captivated her. She then undertook numerous travels and meetings to train in different repertoires of European traditional dances through many workshops and festivals. At the same time, she began learning the music associated with these dances and developed a practice independent of written notation.

From 2003 onwards, she became passionate about teaching these dances and began transmitting what she had learned. The opportunities she encountered were numerous and varied, allowing her to engage with different audiences and adapt her practice to various contexts. In 2012-2013, she was entrusted with a training program for facilitators in traditional dance in Besançon. This experience provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on her pedagogy and to apply the tools she had gained from her teaching certification. After exploring a wide diversity of repertoires, she specialized in two geographical areas, Wallonia and Sweden. The first allowed her to return to her roots and focus on highlighting local heritage. For the second, she spent an extended period in 2010 as part of her master’s in anthropology to train in traditional Swedish dances and to further reflect on the socio-cultural aspects of this practice.

Today, she travels across Europe to share her knowledge and passion with enthusiasm, collaborating with various groups and talented musicians and dancers, including Duo Tanghe-Coudroy, 21BOuTONS, and Calamalys, among others. Since 2017, Aurélie has also worked as a clown, musician, and dancer with Cirque Pacotille, a family project that takes her on the road for several weeks each year, performing for preschool and primary school audiences in a program exploring nomadism and circus arts.