“I wouldn’t buy things with him on it: I worked with him,” Lecavalier said, speaking with reverence from her home in Montreal. Behind her was a life-size blue screen print of the late singer’s face, a special exception to her no-Bowie policy. A few Decembers ago, she spotted the print at a holiday art market, and during their brief exchange, the artist realized she knew exactly who Lecavalier was.
(the first Canadian to receive a New York Bessie Award) and an Order of Canada officer, Lecavalier is best known as Bowie’s stunning blonde dance partner, kicking her leg above his shoulder in the faux-tango video forand touring with him, along with other dancers in the now-defunct Montreal company La La La Human Steps, on the 1990 Sound and Vision tour. That day at the Christmas market, Lecavalier politely declined to buy the Bowie portrait and continued strolling the stalls, looking for presents for her twin daughters. To her surprise, the artist came looking for her, artwork in hand. “She said, ‘I want to give it to yo