Marie-Astrid Mence

Marie-Astrid Mence was a former student of the Higher National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris and a scholarship student at Alvin Ailey School. Marie-Astrid joined Ballet Black in 2014 up to 2020 where she performed numerous pieces from Mark Bruce, Will Tuckett, Martin Lawrence, Mthuthuzeli November, Sophie Laplane, Christopher Marney, Michael Corder, Cathy Marson, Arthur Pita, Christopher Hampson, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa.She joined Phoenix Dance Company in 2015 for a year where she worked with Sharon Watson, Itsik Galili, Kate Flatt and Darshan Singh Buhller. In 2016 she was promoted dancer of "the month" of February by the Magazine Dancing Times UK. In 2018 Marie-Astrid featured in Disney's series 'Find Me in Paris' Season 2 and 3 (2019) and OCS production series 'L'Opera' where she was a body double for the 2nd female role in 2020. At the end of that year 2020, Marie-Astrid performed, wrote and shared a story in the Nowness short film 'The Truth of Being a black Ballerina' by Rebecca Murray. In 2021, Marie-Astrid was featured in Moeasy, Jords, Masego, Cascade music videos and Alexandra Luxem's short film.In 2022, she featured in Ulu’s series ‘Spellbound’ where she was a body double for the 1st female role and also featured in ‘Queen Charlotte’ in the ball scene. In the same year, she performed a 15-minute solo in ‘Oklahoma!’ as the lead dancer at the Young Vic then made her West End debut in 2023 at the Wyndhams Theatre. Recently, she performed as a TEDX speaker in Paris where she talked about the notion of success and the courage to find our voice in a exclusive and inequitable environment.