”Abraço” (2005) is a short film by Julie Desprairies and Arnold Pasquier. It  is taken from "Vue sur la mer", a choreographic piece by Julie  Desprairies, in partnership with Wesley Anchieta Carneiro, Karina dos  Santos Machado, Dayana Lima, Nedjma Merahi, Arnold Pasquier, Rosimere  Silva de Barros, and Astrid de Toledo. It was shot in October 2005 at Santos Dumont Airport, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  

Remark by Arnold Pasquier in 2019 :  

" Julie Desprairies’s show was created for all the public spaces of the  Santo Dumont Airport built in 1937 by the Roberto brothers on the edge of Rio de Janeiro’s city centre. It is a good example of Brazilian modernist architecture. The choreographic path took into account the spatial and formal features of the building. Proposed in the form of a crossing from the northern entrance of the airport to  the belvedere on the take-off and landing runway, the dance deployed  intimate and spectacular propositions.  
As far as I remember, I was the one who proposed an improvisation on the  farewell theme at the departure gate, interpreted by Nedjma Merahi & Wesley Anchieta Carneiro.  The  idea was to contrast the dynamism of travellers’ flows with the  sentimental slowness of two lovers who collapse softly to the ground. This contrast was meant to be gripping. It was most certainly inspired by Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater language, which is what makes me think it was I who proposed this action. However,  I no longer remember why I suggested making a film of it. No doubt  because the duration of the action and the setting in the departure  lounge called for a short film, the only video record of this in situ  work."  

Following theatre and visual arts studies, she created her first production in 1998 in stone quarries of Pont-du-Gard. The site’s materials, usages and specificities are at the origin of her work. She asserts her contextual approach by applying it to a number of modern and contemporary architectures. Her choreographies are written and presented in the buildings, whose spatial, historical and human characteristics guide her dramaturgical, plastic and choreographic choices. She advocates applied dance (like “applied art”), where the body serves as a tool to measure the spaces built. Her aim is to give visibility to the movement of places.

 Her love of the gestures taken from the places she occupies has led to her interest in working gestures. She frequently associates with her creations the people she has met in these places (140 inhabitants and tradespeople from the Gratte-ciel in Villeurbanne, 192 amateurs and employees from the Opéra de Lyon). While her performances take place in public places, she develops adaptable projects, based on landscapes and agriculture or on the theme of the funfair.

 She has set up an “Atelier de création radiophonique”, a programme for the radio station France Culture and produced three films: Autour du parc at La Villeneuve in Grenoble with Louise Narboni, Cinq points de vue autorisés on Les Courtillières, with Vladimir Léon and L’Architecte de Saint-Gaudens, with Serge Bozon. She has mounted a number of projects overseas, inviting native dancers, and has written Manuel d’entraînement régulier du danseur urbain and Danser l’architecture (2017).

Source : Cie Despraires

Arnold Pasquier was born in Paris in 1968. After studying visual arts and cinema, he made tests in Super 8 and video, in which he developed a world of filmed newspapers and fictions. At the age of twenty, he approaches contemporary dance and collaborates with choreographers as documentarist and dancer. This experience marks the realization of a work where dance holds an important place.
From 1997 to 1999, he was received as a resident artist at the Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France) where he designed the installation "C'est ici que j'avais des baisers" (1997-1999) and produced about twenty short films, four radio design workshops For France Culture and dance performances capturing. In 1999, he presented the show "C'est merveilleux" in the Grande Nef du Fresnoy. He is the author of numerous films (fiction, documentary, video art), staged shows, scenographies, radio broadcasts. His work is articulated at the crossroads of these different disciplines. Winner of a residence Villa Médicis Hors les Murs (outside the wall) in Sao Paulo in 2004, he dances for Julie Desprairies in "La danse en accès accès", "Vue sur la mer" and "Là commence le ciel". He co-signs with her the video-dance installation "Les 3 contents", the result of the residence of the choreographer at the Manufacture de Sèvres (France). 

Source: Website of the Compagnie des prairies  
More information https://arnoldpasquier.com