Création 1984

The departure of Viola Farber before the end of her contract at the CNDC sounded in a phase of transition in 1983. Members of her company took over the daily running of the establishment. In this context, the film ‘Burles romaines' marks the characteristic interplay between American and French aesthetic influences. 

Didier Deschamps and Claire Verlet, members of Viola Farber's European company, collaborated with her in the choreography of ‘Burles romaines'. The cast includes dance students from the third and last classes taught by the American choreographer at Angers. Filming took place in Paris, in the "Ménagerie de Verre", an independent dance studio complex which had just opened and would soon become emblematic of the French "Nouvelle danse" movement, which was trying to take its fate into its own hands. In front of the cameras, the dancers explored every nook and cranny of the building. With their resourceful teamwork and compliance with the performance space, and with their movements borrowed from the advertising style of the time, the dancers of this intriguing production heralded the choreographic mood which was to appear in the years to come. 

Source: Gérard Mayen

Didier Deschamps is a French dancer, choreographer and dance teacher born in 1954 in Lyon. Director of the Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine in Nancy until July 2011, he then assumed his current position as director of the Théâtre National de Chaillot.

Trained as a dancer in Lyon, notably by Michel Hallet Eghayan, and in Paris at the Centre International de Danse, he then studied in New York in Merce Cunningham’s studio. Didier Deschamps was first an interpreter in national and international companies, particularly in Régine Chopinot’s company and in the Opéra de Lyon ballet, and then as from 1972 in the USA, in the Hawaii Dance Theatre (José Limón and Doris Humphrey Company).

Contributing to the development of the New French Dance, he set up his own company and became a choreographer, particularly for Régine Chopinot, the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse (CNSMD) in Lyon, and for companies resident in Copenhagen and London.

Alongside this, Didier Deschamps started to teach dance, working in very many companies such as Régine Chopinot’s in the Ménagerie de Verre, Paris, and then overseas, before being named in 1983 study director of the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, then directed by Viola Farber. From 1984 to 1990, for a period of 6 years, he was director of the department of choreographic studies for the CNSMD in Lyon.

In 1990, he joined the government administration, working first in the dance inspectorate. He was then appointed General Inspector of Dance by Jack Lang in 1992, Delegate for Dance by Philippe Douste-Blazy in 1995, and, finally, Dance Consultant alongside Dominique Wallon, then director for Music, Dance, Theatre and Shows (DMDTS) in 1998. 

On July 1st, 2000 he was named director of the Centre Chorégraphique National – Ballet de Lorraine, succeeding Pierre Lacotte who had directed the Centre since 1991. He was also appointed Officer in the Ordre national du Mérite, and Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

In July 2011, he was appointed director of the Théâtre National de Chaillot, and reappointed for a period of three years as from July 1st, 2016. At the same time the theatre took on the new name of Chaillot - Theatre National de la Danse.

Source: Théâtre national de Chaillot