CONNEXIONS Petite Université de la Danse 2018

Intergenerational, daring, this innovative and major project is woven throughout the season between Maine-et-Loire, Toulon, Paris, Nantes and Quebec. Avril announces the time of the convergence of this heterogeneous but resolutely harmonious caravan and invites the spectator to share this original choreographic journey of an adventure shared by 80 people over several renditions. It is at the THV of Saint Barthélemy d'Angers that the choreographic caravan stopped over this year to present its work to you!

Directed by Phillipe Devilliers

CONNEXIONS Petite Université de la Danse

 This living project of choreographic culture, at the initiative of the company yvann alexandre and carried out jointly with its partners including the THV of Saint Barthélémy d'Angers which hosts the heart of the project, is above all a strong space for dialogue, invention and encounter. A tremendous human and artistic adventure that brings together those who teach, those who receive, those who transmit, those who dance, those who create, over the course of different times: to design, transmit, incarnate and share. 

Organized around the complementarity of actors from several horizons and built around a creative path, the small dance university allows the discovery of a choreographic material and the challenges of the interpreter's career: to experience the creative work, from the relationship of choreographer to performer, defending an artistic purpose, joining a team, a (re) composed family, from the studio to the stage in front of an audience. 

It is also, and in an inseparable way, a space for transmission and reflection where education and work are intimately linked. Where is the starting point? 

Is it a work that gives birth to a pedagogy, is it a pedagogy that allows access to a work, what are the borders and porosities between two, the entrance, and all the fascinating questions that embody this problematic, are the red thread of this toolbox with many drawers.

Live, practice, experiment, feed, question and better understand the filiations, the differences, the small university wants to be a bridge, a space of experimentation, appropriation, training and creation, complementary to the training provided. 

The strength and richness of each edition is to invent itself in dialogue and in concert between partners. 

It all starts with separate residences then comes the time to bring together who is organized over, among other things, master classes, conferences, rehearsals and restitutions, ... What brings together, weaves the thread, highlights, builds the bridges between yesterday and today, between here and there ... so many crazy strides for a living project of choreographic culture. 

Born in La Roche-Sur-Yon in 1976, Yvann Alexandre began dancing at the Amicale Laïque du Bourg and at the Conservatory of his hometown, then in La Rochelle with Colette Milner, Christine Girard and Brigitte Asselineau. He continued his training in Montpellier with Epsedanse directed by Anne-Marie Porras and, at the same time, also trained at Montpellier CCN (National Choreographic Centre) then under the direction of Mathilde Monnier. During this period, his encounter with Christian Bourigault and other foundational teachings led him to forge the bases of his creative work and his pedagogy. At just sixteen years old, he composed his first works and went on to establish his company in Montpellier in 1993. He produced his first creations for the Hivernales in Avignon and for Montpellier Danse festival.

In addition to his creations, performed on numerous prestigious stages and festivals in France and abroad, he was also the guest of the CNSMDPs (Higher National Conservatories of Music and Dance) of Paris and Lyon, of Quebec and Montreal, as well as the National Choreographic Centre in Nancy and the Nordwest Tanzcompagnie in Germany.

He gained a reputation over these 25 seasons of creation as the representative of abstract, highly-premeditated dance, far removed from the performances and improvisations of others of his generation, and had a particular interest for movement writing.

Even today, his work addresses reflection which focuses on the very substance of dance, where the notion of plasticity gives way to the movement’s own energy, all the while remaining faithful to the idea of line, an element which has existed for him from the very beginning. His creations place movement and scenography on the same footing, like two subjects on equal terms: the plastic matter totally interacting with the body-matter.

His extremely precise body language is full of details and is structured like rather intimate calligraphy.

Source: Cie Yvann Alexandre

More information: http://www.cieyvannalexandre.com/

“Videographer”, a curious word, a Métis word which has been translated for more than 20 years in Philippe Devilliers by images in which video is the medium which allows him to express his sensitivity to art and its actors: the artists. Through his teasers and making offs, his clothing for creations, he shows bodies and participates in stories. Witness and stakeholder of these imaginary realities, he has notably collaborated with cie charabia, cie non nova, gerardo jerez lecam, production Dekalage, choreographer n. béasse ... the story begins with y. alexandre and his dancers with the creation Le Corps Sombre in 06 then continued with Silences duos and Passages in 07, then Venenum Amoris in 09. He also contributed to the video creation of the project l'Autre et moi en 10, Cloud en 14 , Les Soli Noirs in 15, Les Fragments Mobiles in 2017.

Source: Cie Yvann Alexandre

Créée en 1993, la Compagnie Yvann Alexandre est une compagnie professionnelle de danse contemporaine phare de la région des Pays de la Loire. Attachée depuis ses débuts aux allers-retours entre professionnels, amateurs et tout public, tout en proposant ses créations, la compagnie tisse une politique d’échanges, de rencontres et de formation. Au-delà de la simple diffusion, la compagnie mène un projet audacieux, exigeant et rayonnant à la croisée de la création, de la transmission et des territoires.

La compagnie développe ses créations, sur scène ou in situ, autant sur le territoire local qu’à l’international et les créations récentes pour la scène nationale de Sceaux, le Panama, la Tunisie ou le Centre des Monuments nationaux par exemple, témoignent de ces territoires investis. Un projet qui s’écrit ente fidélité assumée après 27 saisons chorégraphiques et nouvel élan avec des partenaires renouvelés.

Elle construit depuis 2004 un lien étroit avec le Québec, sous la forme de résidences de création, de diffusion et de développement de public et qui prendra un nouvel élan prochainement avec le lancement d’ARCHIPEL : un ensemble de partenaires culturels solidaires aux écosystèmes diversifiés et mutualisés pour un nouveau modèle de coopération culturelle.

Particulièrement attentive à l’ouverture sur l’art chorégraphique dès le plus jeune âge, la compagnie développe et construit à partir des créations des parcours multiples à destination du monde scolaire dans un projet novateur et reconnu. Des parcours conjugués, croisés et transversaux dont la Petite Université de la Danse en est le coeur.

Yvann Alexandre est un chorégraphe de lieux. Depuis ces débuts. En 2019, la compagnie prend la direction artistique du Théâtre Francine Vasse à Nantes avec un projet innovant qui démarre par la transmission pour arriver à l’oeuvre : Les Laboratoires Vivants. Un lieu pour les autres, un lieu ensemble. Pour faire oeuvre ensemble.

www.cieyvannalexandre.com