My work of sharing the contemporary dance repertoire comes from a very simple desire. A desire to transmit and re-interpret a creation to reveal something new and different. With Jours Etranges, I wanted to teach the dancers the meticulously written choreography of Bagouet but at the same time allow them to find freedom within this writing. Supported by the attentive work of the dancers, lighting engineer, musician and costume designer, it is the show itself which is put to work. 

Jours Etranges was created around 5 songs by the Doors from their album Strange Days. The show brings into play different choreographic situations in which Dominique Bagouet was trying to « unlearn » a set of skills which he could not shake at the time. The result is both burlesque and poetic. The structure of the show is precise, but the content is directly linked to the quality of the dancers.

Six women for Jours Etranges. 

For this re-creation I only looked for experimented dancers, but I wanted a cast who was different and somehow missing from the original creation. Therefore, to challenge the original creation, it made sense to hire an exclusively female cast. I believe that this gathering of women, this interpretation and updating of the show gives a new distinctive tone to Jours Etranges

Catherine Legrand, June 2016.

See extracts of the original version of Jours étranges in the catalogue numeridanse : 

http://www.numeridanse.tv/fr/collections/64_collection-bagouet/1197_jours-tranges 

Jours étranges, re-creation 2016

« My work of sharing the contemporary dance repertoire comes from a very simple desire. A desire to transmit and re-interpret a creation to reveal something new and different. With Jours étranges, I wanted to teach the dancers the meticulously written choreography of Bagouet but at the same time allow them to find freedom within this writing. Supported by the attentive work of the dancers, lighting engineer, musician and costume designer, it is the show itself which is put to work. 

Jours étranges was created around 5 songs by the Doors from their album Strange Days. The show brings into play different choreographic situations in which Dominique Bagouet was trying to « unlearn » a set of skills which he could not shake at the time. The result is both burlesque and poetic. The structure of the show is precise, but the content is directly linked to the quality of the dancers.

Six women for Jours étranges. 

For this re-creation I only looked for experimented dancers, but I wanted a cast who was different and somehow missing from the original creation. Therefore, to challenge the original creation, it made sense to hire an exclusively female cast. I believe that this gathering of women, this interpretation and updating of the show gives a new distinctive tone to Jours étranges»

Catherine Legrand, June 2016.

See extracts of the original version of Jours étranges in the catalogue numeridanse : 

http://www.numeridanse.tv/fr/collections/64_collection-bagouet/1197_jours-tranges

Angoulême, July 9 1951 - Montpellier, December 9 1992

From 1965, Dominique Bagouet received a classical instruction from Rosella Hightower in Cannes, and was firstly engaged in the Ballet du Grand Théâtre of Geneva at Alfonso Cata's in 1969. He danced the following year with the Félix Blaska's company and joined Béjart's 20th Century Ballet in Brussels. The experience lasted two years and continued with the Chandra group (where Maguy Marin also worked).

Back to Paris in 1974, Dominique Bagouet took tuitions with Carolyn Carlson and Peter Goss. He also danced in the Joseph Russillo's, Anne Béranger's and Peter Goss' companies. Then he left for the United States where he discovered with Jennifer Muller, Lar Lubovitch and others, the techniques of the American schools.

Back to France in 1976, he presented his first choreography “Chansons de nuit” at the Concours de Bagnolet and won the first prize with a mention for research. He then founded his first company. He created play after play, at a fast pace he deplored, in order to make his company survive. Until 1979, he created 14 plays, sometimes hastily and unsatisfactorily.

With “Sous la blafarde”, the young choreographer began to stand out and Montpellier became his haven: the town welcomed the company and gave it the resources to exist as Bagouet was asked to set up and run the Centre Chorégraphique Régional de Montpellier. Besides, he was to create in this town the Festival International Montpellier Danse that he would run until 1982.

Dominique Bagouet created then some of the most outstanding plays in French contemporary choreography, from “Insaisies” (1982) to “Necesito, pièce pour grenade” (1991), the last commission written to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Spanish town.

With plays such as “Déserts d'amour” (1984), “Le Crawl de Lucien” (1985) and “Assaï” (1986), Dominique Bagouet clearly established his own personality and style. All these plays registered his very particular style, sometimes referred to as ‘neobaroque', but above all very subtle and inventive. Bagouet's choreographic approach developed the dance movement with numerous short gestures (movements with hands and feet, special incline of the chest…) with terrific precision and no mannerisms.

Moreover, and this is another characteristic of Bagouet, the choreographer always managed to work with talented artists, such as Christian Boltanski, Pascal Dusapin for “Le Saut de l'ange” (1987), Tristan Murail for “Déserts d'amour” or the actress Nelly Borgeaud for the superb “Meublé sommairement” (1989) choreographically adapted from a novel by Emmanuel Bove.

He also directed two films with Charles Picq: “Tant mieux, tant mieux!” (1983) and “Dix anges, portraits”(1988), from “Le Saut de l'ange".

If a Bagouet style existed, it would also lie in this curiosity which influenced a whole generation.

His company's dancers founded in 1993 Les Carnets Bagouet, an association dedicated to preserving and passing on the choreographer's artistic heritage. They offer the repertoire to other companies and schools.

Source: Extract of “99 biographies pour comprendre la jeune danse française” in les saisons de la danse, summer 97, special issue.

More information: www.lescarnetsbagouet.org

 Dancer, Interpreter and teacher, Catherine Legrand met Dominique Bagouet during an audition in February 1982. Soon she joined his troupe where she performed till 1993. Since then she has regularly been transmitting Dominique Bagouet’s work within the association Les Carnets Bagouets. For instance, she has transmitted the choreographer’s work to troupes such as the Ballet Atlantlique Regine Chopinot, Dance Theatre of Ireland, Ballet of Lyon, Ballet of Rhin, CCN-Ballet of Lorraine and to the Paracuru troupe in Brasil. She also worked with several dance schools such as the National Ballet School of Marseille, CNDC of Angers, Conservatory of La Rochelle and the Conservatory of Rennes. In 2012, she recreated Jours Etranges for a troupe of amateurs in collaboration with Anne-Karine Lescop and the Triangle de Rennes. Between 1990 and 2010 she danced for: Michel Kelemenis, Olivia Grandville and Xavier Marchand, Hervé Robbe, Alain Michard, Boris Charmatz, Sylvie Giron, Dominique Jégou, Laurent Pichaud, Deborah Hay and Loic Touzé.

She became a mother in 1997 and had her second child in 2000. 

Since 2010 she has been dancing for: Boris Charmatz (Levée des conflits), Olivia Grandville (Une semaine d'art en Avignon, Le Cabaret discrépant), Dominique Jégou (Accumulation #2 et #3 et La grande forme), Emmanuelle Huynh (A Vida enorme).

She helped Olivia Grandville on her project Le Grand Jeu and has been regularly teaching in primary and secondary schools as well as in dance conservatory where she steps in for one-off transmission projects. In partnership with the TNB, the city of Rennes and the association Danse à tous les étages, Rennes/Brest, she offers workshops for elderly people, or people in hospitals or in difficult social situations. Those projects are sometimes run in collaboration with the director Pierre Lamandé or the writer Nathalie Burrel.  

Sylvain Labrosse, director and scheduler of several cinemas in Paris and Creteil from 1988 to 1993, is now a scriptwriter and director of short fictional movies and documentaries. In 1995, Virage Nord was selected and screened in about thirty French and international film festivals including the renowned Cannes Festival. Virage Nord was awarded by the Foundation Beaumarchais. In 2002, La fosse Rouge was nominated to the short-film festival Lutins du court-metrage, was broadcasted on French TV, and received an award from the CNC. He is currently finishing his first feature film, Freres d’arme. Concurrently since 1998 he has been the technical manager of several dance troupes (Loïc Touzé, Latifa Laâbissi, Jennifer Lacey, Dominique Jégou, Claudia Triozzi, Compagnie Prana, etc…).