« Feue Pina Bausch.
 Far away in the distance, a forest in autumn, a green prairie at dawn, freezing-cold snow... On the ground, a bed of flowers, the sting of cacti, tumultuous rain… A long dress, long hair, long arms, just as long as legs, just as long as the silhouettes swaying to the accordion music of the Roaring Twenties… A seductive man, restricted in his suit laced with society events. A woman, perched on her high-heels, falling into the void, lost in a world… It's this world of Pina Bausch that I'd like to highlight. Without having experienced it, but knowing it because I received it… perceived it. I can feel a multitude of clear-cut emotions and images, from bursts of laughter in Walzer to tightened throats in Café Müller. Everything must be black. So that the brilliance comes from the emotion, so that the colours and the intensity come from the perceptible and from memories. Going through what I've received, what I've been given. Like a kid's dream, where you want to be everybody at the same time. Like a dancer's dream, where you see yourself on stage watching your own work. Like a choreographer's dream, where you touch mankind through all its faults. »

Thomas Lebrun

Updating: January 2012

Thomas Lebrun has danced for Bernard Glandier, Daniel Larrieu, Christine Bastin, Christine Jouve and Pascal Montrouge, and founded the Illico company in 1998, after composing the solo “Cache Ta Joie!“. Based in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, he was first of all an associated artist at Vivat, Armentières (2003-2005) before taking on a similar role in 2006 at Danse à Lille CDC (Centre for Choreographic Development). “On prendra bien le temps d'y être”, “(La) Trêves” “Les Soirées What You Want?”, “Switch”, “Itinéraire d'un danseur grassouillet” and now “La Constellation Consternée” are all works that are also aesthetic worlds which are explored, allying demanding and precise dance with an assertive theatricality.

Thomas Lebrun has also composed a number of pieces in collaboration, notably with the Swiss choreographer Foofwa d'Imobilité (“Le Show” / “Un Twomen Show”) and the French choreographer Cécile Loyer (Que tál!), and makes training and teaching a priority. She teaches at the CND (National Dance Centre) in Pantin and Lyon, Ménagerie de Verre, La Rochelle Conservatoire, Balletéatro de Porto, etc.

He has also choreographed for foreign companies, such as the Liaonning National Ballet in China, Grupo Tapias in Brazil (a solo and, in 2009, a quintet for the Year of France in Brazil) and for Loreta Juodkaité, the Lithuanian dancer

in the 2009 edition of the New Baltic Dance Festival in Vilnius et for FranceDanse Vilnius managed by  CulturesFrance (Vilnius, European cultural capital 2009).

In 2012, Thomas Lebrun becomes the new artistic director for the Centre chorégraphique national de Tours.

Further information

CCN Tours

Last update : May 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.).