Approaching choreography through a wide variety of movement philosophies,

Montreal-based dance duo Tentacle Tribe

concocts uncommon dance works with a contemporary approach. 

Drawing from their wide scope of dance experience, co–founders Emmanuelle Lê Phan and Elon Höglund create conceptual hip–hop with a contemporary twist, while intermingling organic influences from earthly creatures.

This Canadian-Swedish creative alliance experiments with intricate partnering, refined musicality and a saturated dose of physical choreography. As b-boy and b-girl, present in the street dance community and as seasoned stage performers, the duo combines movement techniques that transcend style boundaries and create works that express the embodiment of music beyond technique.

Their repertoire includes magnetic duets and group pieces such as Ghost, Threesixnine, Nobody Likes a Pixelated Squid, Origami Mami, Fractals of You, Prism and Dirt which have toured internationally.

Although the two performers have worked together since 2005, it wasn’t until 2012 that Tentacle Tribe was formed when they performed their first official collaboration choreographed for the Cirque Du Soleil stage in Quebec City. This duet was adapted into a short film, Elon & Emmanuelle, by director Natalie Galazka.

Their first full–length piece, Nobody Likes a Pixelated Squid, was sought after and performed over 80 times in more than 60 international cities. They followed with Fractals of You, a voyage through consciousness using video mapping projections imagined by artist Gene Pendon.  

In 2016, the company expanded and transposed their duet research onto group pieces. It started off with Origami Mami, a powerful female trio that toured Hiphop festivals internationally, soon after followed by Threesixnine, a sextet prized for "Best Choreographic work of 2017-2018" by the CALQ. 

In 2018 they created the intricate ensemble work Ghost, a physical score that echoes the pulse of respiration.  Ghost has toured Canada, Europe, South Korea and the USA.  Ghost was adapted into a full feature by director Jean-Sébastien Ouellet and was featured on Radio-Canada’s Ici Tou.TV. 2019 marked another year of expansion with shorter works such as Synecdoche, Fil Rouge and Puzzle, which casted larger groups of up to 10 dancers.            

In 2023, their most ambitious production, Prism, made its debut as a kaleidoscopic voyage through an illusory set design.  The production was nominated for the Sadler’s Wells International Rose Prize.  The most recent work, Dirt, by Höglund, is a quintet mixing puppets and unusual conceptual hip-hop, a profound meditation on our ancestral connection with the Earth. It premiered in 2025 at Agora de la danse.

Their choreography was adapted into award–winning dance films Vanishing Points (2014), Crack the Cypher (2016), Mami Origami (2018), and Offspin Cycle (2022), directed by Marites Carino, which have been screened at more than 60 festivals internationally. 

The duo has been hired as an act and as choreographers with Cirque Du Soleil and Cirque Éloize.   The group work has also been showcased at the renown C2 Summit. As choreographers, they've made commissioned work for Vancouver’s OURO Collective, Norway's Urban Moves Festival, the 100 LUX Festival, Stockholm's DOCH (Dance and Circus University program), Toronto's York University, the Arizona State University, Rutgers University, École de danse de Québec, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and the National Circus School.

With 9 stage productions, 6 films, and significant national and international recognition, Tentacle Tribe aims to expand its efforts in the development of street dances by establishing the first street dance festival in the city of Québec, the Coro Casse Festival, in partnership with Grand Théâtre de Québec and La Rotonde.