« Suspended by an invisible thread to a stationary point above our heads, the ball swings, sways, wavers until it vacillates, blanks out, shies away under our feet. It is this vertiginous sensation of instability and doubt, between a moment suspended in weightlessness and an imminent loss of balance, that makes me seek support on its torso, on its hands. The slightest pressure of its body on mine and imbalance becomes a dance…

I wrote “Le bal pendule” as a metaphor of a human community that is filled with a multitude of postures, of operating processes and systems. An incredible chart of “manners”, of ways to behave, to behave vis-à-vis the other, to walk, to attach oneself, to position oneself. A complex game of relationships that spin the web of individual and collective stories; the ball goes beyond us and makes us swing between control and abandon, jubilation and sadness, seriousness and lightness. For this passage, five dancers, two men and three women, just like the usually higher number of women and what this creates. Peripheral points of tension, witnesses of stories that take place here, they wait… resolutely, impatiently, timidly to enter into the dance. »

Nadine Beaulieu

More information

Company website

Updating: October 2011

Nadine Beaulieu has led her dance career abroad, in particular with the Erick Hawkins Company in New York from 1991 to 1996. Simultaneously, she was trained by Susan Klein on the “release technique” and by Lucia Dugloszewski, contemporary music composer. When she left the United States for France in 1996, she created her own company, now established in Rouen, Upper Normandy.

As a “liaison artist”, Nadine Beaulieu's approach studies bodies and systems in their intimacy, their individuality, then joins them together or creates a tension between them in a symbolic and poetic dimension. Within this framework, she has created and has been invited to create artistic projects in a variety of situations and in extremely varied forms.

She has created: “Animae tuae”, for a dancer and a voice (1996), “Au delà-dedans”, solo (1997), “Scratch & Snap”, creation for two dancers, two sonorous costumes and a voice (1998), “Pochette à deux”, for two dancers and a string quartet (2000), “Quadruplex”, for two dancers and two visual artists (2002), “In Vitro”, an event for thirteen dancers, four architects and a musician, “Densité/Dansité”, a danced and architecture event for the cultural event “Lille, European Capital of Culture” (2004), “Transparence”, for six dancers (2005), “Les Figures du corps en mouvement”, dance-video and installations (2005), “Y a-t-il quelqu'un là-dedans ?” for three performers (2006), “(IN)finNI”, for a dancer and a flutist (2008).

Nadine Beaulieu trained in classical and contemporary dance and holds a State Diploma as a contemporary dance teacher and is a national interministerial staff member for creating partnerships.

Updating: September 2011

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).