Dancer, choreographer, and video artist, Shantala creates choreographic performances and films within Mana company, exploring the crossroads of dance, visual theatre, and performance art. Her work delves deeply into figures of ambivalence and the paradoxical notions of power and vulnerability, themes that permeate her entire artistic practice.
After directing the short films Émergences (2011) and Embrace (2014), both awarded at international festivals, Shantala began a solo journey investigating femininity and its representations. In 2016, Despite Her immersed audiences in the flamboyant and tormented world of American blues and jazz divas. In 2018, she received an award for The Magma Chamber, a film that reclaims the manichean archetypes of the witch and the enchantress. That same year, she choreographed the hypnotic Carcan, calling for the liberation of the body trapped in its own representations. In 2019, she led audiences through the imaginary mazes of a solitary and resilient Alice.
In 2022 she creates RAFALES with five performers - a meta-narrative on universal and timeless phenomena of solidarity and migration—which was awarded the SACD Choreography Prize. Her performance exUTERO premieres in March 2025 as part of Puissances seules at Les Brigittines and is nominated for the Maeterlinck Citrics' Prize in the solo performance category. Shantala is currently preparing her fourth short film and a first collection of poetry.
A gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics as a child, Shantala trained at the Avignon Conservatory of Dance. For over 20 years, she has worked as a performer, assistant, and teacher for artists with diverse aesthetics, including Mossoux-Bonté, Chaliwaté & Focus, Karine Ponties, Isabella Soupart, Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh, Erika Zueneli, Michèle Noiret, Wilkie Branson, Sofia Fitas, Fernando Martin, Sheron Wray.
She also trained in acting with John Flanders, Beatriz Flores Silva, Marjorie Ballentine, and Pico Berkowitch, and has appeared on screen for several directors and choreographers.
Since 2022, her company has held a co-working residency at Théâtre Les Tanneur.
The projects produced by MANA have received support by
Les Brigittines - Contemporary Art Centre for Movement of the City of Brussels, Le Phare-National Choreographic Center of Le Havre Normandie / direction Fouad Boussouf (as part of the Accueil Studio program), Le Delta, Théâtre Les Tanneurs, Théâtre de la Vie-Lundynamite#13, Cie Mossoux-Bonté, Jacques Franck Cultural Center, Engis Cultural Center, Le Marni, Zahrada - GARDEN Cultural Center, the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Dame de Pic/Cie Karine Ponties, Le LookIN’OUT, SACD Belgium, DAN.CIN.LAB, The Loire Film Commission, the City of Saint-Etienne, Athanor asbl, Quoi d’Autres asbl, Wolubilis Cultural Center, LE BAMP, AD LIB, Iles asbl/Artist Project – Suitcase, WorkSpaceBrussels, Atelier Graphoui, the Federation Wallonia-Brussels - Dance Commission, Wallonia-Brussels Theatre Dance, Wallonia Brussels International.