Mickaël Bouffard, art historian and Baroque dancer, was born in 1983. PhD Candidate and Lecturer in the Art History Department of the Université de Montréal, he is specialized in 17th and 18th century French art. His work has twice been recognized in the form of prestigious scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). His interdisciplinary approach is strongly influenced by the objects and methods of cultural history, and more specifically by the history of the body and also by the history of stagecraft practices (dance, gesture, declamation).

Since 2002, Mickaël Bouffard has studied art history at the Université de Montréal with a specialization in 17th and 18th century European art. After finishing a Bachelor of Arts with high honours, he completed in 2007 a Master’s Thesis at the same university entitled “La figure aristocratique dans le portrait d’apparat européan (1650-1800) : positions, danse et civilité” (The Aristocratic Figure in the European Swagger Portrait (1650-1800): positions, dance and civility.) This Master’s Thesis received the honour summa cum laude and earned its author the Dorothée Sainte-Marie award for best thesis. Mickaël Bouffard is currently in the final stages of his doctoral thesis, entitled “Le Bel Air et la Bonne Grâce : attitudes et gestes de la figure noble dans l’art européen (1660-1789)” (Easy Air and Bonne Grâce : Attitude and Gesture of the Noble Figure in European Art (1660-1789)) under the supervision of Professor Luis de Moura Sobral.

Upon invitation by the cultural historian and ethnologist Herman Roodenburg in 2011, Mickaël Bouffard was a resident researcher at the Meertens Instituut of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he contributed to the development of a database on the history of body language. Next year, he will begin postdoctoral research with Professor Jérôme de la Gorce (Centre André Chastel) on the subject of drawings of French ballet costumes under the reign of Louis XIV.

Mickaël Bouffard is the author of studies and essays in multi-authored books and scholarly journals, among which features the prestigious journal Artibus et Historiae. He has also been published by Honoré Champion, L’Harmattan and has contributed to an exhibition catalogue for the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (Netherlands). Furthermore, he is currently in the process of publishing a multi-author book on the history of the body, which he is codirecting in collaboration with his colleagues Érika Wicky and Jean-Alexandre Perras with the publishing house Presses de l’Université Laval.

In 2008, Mickaël Bouffard presented his research on the scenic restitution of aristocratic posture at the conference Restitution et création dans la remise en spectacle des œuvres des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles of the Association pour un Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Spectacle aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. He was responsible for the organization of two international conferences bringing together sixty young researchers: Croisement des savoirs et perspectives interdisciplinaires in 2007 and Le corps dans l’histoire et les histoires du corps in 2009, under the honorary presidency of Professor Georges Vigarello (EHESS).

Mickaël Bouffard also organized or collaborated on numerous expositions, notably at the Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec, in Montreal’s cultural centres (Vaslav ou le corps du danseur in 2007, Orenda in 2009), at the Centre des Sciences de Montréal (L’Anatomie au fil du temps in 2007), as well as at the Université de Montréal’s Bibliothèque des livres rares et des collections spéciales (À la croisée des savoirs : Le livre aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles in 2007 and L’Amérindien vu et inventé in 2009).

As a Baroque dancer, Mickaël Bouffard trained with several masters in Europe and North America. He interpreted, in great depth, ancient choreographic notations with Anne-Marie Gardette and Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière, Director of the Baroque dance company Les Jardins choréographiques. He also completed several internships at the Académie Internationale de Danses et Musiques Anciennes of Sablé-sur-Sarthe where he trained in interpretation and choreography with Françoise Deniau. He presented his choreographies for the first time in 2006 at the Montreal Baroque Festival in the context of the harpsichord recital Opéra en solo : symphonies de l’opéra Alcide de Marin Marais. As a dancer in the company Les Jardins choréographiques, he performed together with Toronto and Montreal ensembles: the Toronto Masque Theatre of Larry Beckwith (to pieces by Purcell, Lully and Charpentier), Les Idées Heureuses of Geneviève Soly (La Costanza vince l’inganno of Christoph Graupner in 2009 and 2010), the Ensemble Masques of Olivier Fortin (La Belle danse in 2010) and the Bande Montréal Baroque (Ballet de l’Impatience by Lully).

Mickaël Bouffard has been a member of the Groupe de Recherche of Académie Desprez since 2011 and currently serves as assistant to Gilbert Blin in costume design for the opera Il Tigrane by Alessandro Scarlatti, which shall be presented in June 2012 by the Opéra de Nice.