Jean-François Duroure, an accomplished gymnast at the age of ten, went on to take dance courses with Odile Duboc, Josette Baiz and then Andy Degroat, Mark Tompkins and Hideyuki Yano. At the age of fourteen, he took classes with Dominique Bagouet, who had just moved to Montpellier. He graduated from the Fédération Française, specialising in classical and jazz dance, at the age of 16. Accepted at The Place in London, at 16 he chose to study at the Centre national de danse contemporaine d'Angers (CNDC), which was about to open with Viola Farber, an American choreographer. After seven months at the school, he joined Viola Farber's company, a disciple of Merce Cunningham, and danced with François Verret, where he met Mathilde Monnier. In 1984, he won a grant from the French Ministry of Culture. They both moved to New York to study the Cunningham technique of this great American master choreographer and teacher.

Jean-François Duroure and Mathilde Monnier created their first mischievous, combative and humorous duet, Pudique Acide in 1984 in New York. Accompanied by music by Kurt Weill, this duet is an irreverent and virtuoso explosion, a mixture of genres in the impertinence of the costumes, tutus and white frills, kilts and the choice of music. Their dance explodes and explores all the possibilities of appearances and being. Their second duet, Extasis, was created in 1985 at the Maison de la danse in Lyon.

At the age of 19, a week after the creation of Pudique Acide, Pina Bausch hired him at the Tanztheater de Wuppertal in Germany, where he took part in the creation of Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört, and then took on the role of Jacques Patarozzi in Renate wandert aus.

Created at the height of the emergence of the young, freedom-loving French contemporary dance scene of the 80s, Pudique acide and its second part Extasis marked a turning point, projecting the dancers into their own era. This was followed by De Hexe, Mort de rire and the film Nuit de Chine (1987). Their universe brought a sparkling, virtuoso freshness, emblematic of the pivotal episode in the history of young French dance.

In 1988, he founded the Jean-François Duroure company. He created La Anqâ (1988), La Maison des plumes vertes (1988), Cosmono nox (1990) and C'est à midi que l'obscurité s'achève (1991). In 1993, three new works were presented at the Festival d'Avignon at the Cloître des Célestins: Le Langage des Oiseaux, L'Ephémère and La Nuit Partagée.  The latter paved the way for the first large-scale collaboration combining contemporary dance and urban dance. A number of choreographers went on to explore these new horizons. 

Rossignol & Palimpseste (1993) opened the field of children's theatre with an uncompromisingly creative approach. After a tour of over 80 dates in France, he flew to Ghana in 1994 to work with the National Ballet of Ghana. 1995 was the year of jazz and a memorable collaboration with the Compagnie Lubat, with whom he created a flamboyant baroque show entitled L'Enchantier, a musical trans that opened the Sigma Festival in Bordeaux. It was also the occasion of a memorable artistic encounter with accordionist Marc Perrone for a luminous, cinematic duet.

In 1996, the Fin de Siècle Festival in Nantes, which paid a major tribute to South Africa by inviting over 200 artists, commissioned Jean-François Duroure to open the evening at the Palais des Congrès. His work What are you doing here? was created after more than 18 months in residence in Johannesburg (Soweto, Eastrand and Alexandra). Strongly supported by Mandela's new government, the show was performed at the legendary The Market Theater in Johannesburg before touring France and Durban in Kwazulu Natal. 

Barbara Masekela, a leading figure in the anti-apartheid struggle and South Africa's ambassador to France, will be attending a special performance at Le Manège in Reims. Jean-François Duroure explores all areas of creation: choreography, body and voice, text and choreographic writing. He choreographed three plays directed by Georges Lavaudant: Terra incognita (1993), Hamlet (1994) and Lumières (1995), on a play directed by Marcel Maréchal, Les Enfants du Paradis (1997), then on Peer Gynt (2004) with director Patrick Pineau.

Mathilde Monnier recreated Pudique acide / Extasis with Jean-François Duroure at the Montpellier Danse Festival (2011), with the aim of reappropriating and transmitting a creative material to two new dancers.  For Jean-François Duroure, dance is transmission.

In 2001, he became choreographer in charge of choreographic studies at the Conservatoire Cité de la Danse et de la Musique in Strasbourg, where he refined his teaching of dance improvisation and individual creation as an expression of human interiority. Jean-François Duroure has developed a personal teaching style based on the study of movement, its dynamics and quality, and the necessary stage presence that can be achieved in conjunction with other arts, particularly music.

SACD joins all the authors it represents in sending its sincere condolences to her family and friends.

Joanne Leighton, Vice-President of Music and Dance at SACD.

Source : SACD