While baroque dance is sometimes seen as an ancient, obsolete genre, associated with the court of Louis XIV – with its aesthetics, pomp and costumes – it is in fact a living form and practice, open to multiple interpretations, that was rediscovered during the 20th  century and which is now set in the present. Bruno Benne, a dancer and  choreographer who specialises in baroque dance, has always had it heart to affirm the richness of this unique model for the relationship between  gestures and measures, invention and constraint, or codified and free figures. In order to highlight the variety of styles and the evolution  of contemporary baroque, he has composed a diptych: on the one hand, a solo recreation of a quintet by Francine Lancelot, Les Caractères de la Danse [The Characters of Dance]  (1986) on the music of the same name by Jean-Fery Rebel (1715); on the other, a new mirror-image creation in which he is pursuing his research into minimalist baroque art with the composer Youri Bessières. Each of these two interpretations display its own character – theatricality, abstraction, delicacy or a lightness of writing.

Source: programme of the CN D

Performer and choreographer specialised in baroque dances, BRUNO BENNE is developing a contemporary approach of that style to reinvent it today in new forms and thus provide a modern vision of baroque art.

He has been dancing for Béatrice Massin and Marie-Geneviève Massé since 2005. In 2012 he collaborated with Lucinda Childs for the creation of choreographies of Alessandro.

A regular guest abroad (United-States, Norway, Greece, Poland, Canada, etc.), he passionately shares his knowledge during workshops and collaborations.

In 2013, Bruno Benne founded the company Beaux-Champs, création baroque to pursue his reflection on creation based on the baroque heritage, transmission and influence.

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.).