The choreographer, Luc Petton, is fascinated about birds. In 2004, he embarked on a fabulous project that conjugated dancers and living birds. And so began the frenzied adventure of “La confidence des oiseaux”, staged outdoors and in theatres and inventing a distinctive kind of magic with every performance. Crows, starlings, parakeets, magpies and jay-birds carry us along with the dancers in an unbelievable ballet. Between earth and sky, they burst forth and transport us on a magnificent yet fragile journey. Man becomes volatile, the bird assumes its rightful place in the choreography, and the birdsong blends harmoniously with the music. Together, each paying the utmost respect to the other, they redesign a sky, perpetrating dreams and liberty, where the only protagonists, the only witnesses are the birds.

More information : Company website

After intense practise in martial arts, Luc Petton discovered contemporary dance through Muriel Jaër, and then Moses Pendelton, director of the Pilobolus Company. In 1980, he was granted a scholarship to study in New York at Alwin Nikolaïs' and Murray Louis' Dance Theater Lab and he danced with the Robin Feld Company (contact improvisation), whilst pursuing his training with the Trisha Brown Company. From 1981 to 1984, he was involved in the Folkwang Tanz Studio in Essen, directed by Hans Zullig who, along with Jean Cébron provided him his training. Here he danced for several choreographers: Suzanne Linke, Marilén Breuker, Mitsuru Sasaki and Christine Brunel.

In 1986, he founded the Icosaèdre Company with Marilén Iglésias-Breuker, which he co-directed until 1994. During this period, he began working on his own creations, he participated in a myriad of performances and creations that embraced other artistic disciplines and other cultures, and he discovered the Intrumentarium Pilates with Dominique Dupuy who produced again the solo “En vol” for him.

In 1994, he established Le Guetteur - Luc Petton & Cie in Picardy and launched his atypical and prosperous career in the French dance scene. In 1996, he created “IF”, a trio for 2 men and 1 plank and then his work “Oscar”, inspired by the work of Oskar Schlemmer at the Bauhaus, which were performed at the Presqu'îles de Danse cultural event. In 1999, the Val-de-Marne Biennial requested his “Polemos”, a work that brings together dancers and highly-proficient karatekas.

Amateur ornithologist, with a life-long passion for birds, he embarked on this fabulous creative adventure in 2004 that conjugated dancers and living birds. Two versions emerge from this project, with the generic name of “La confidence des oiseaux”: the first, an outdoor performance, in 2005 at Art Danse Bourgogne in Dijon and at the Festival les Envies Rhônements in the Camargue region, and the second for the theatre, with a preview performance in 2006 at the Faïencerie in Creil. This theatre version continued to evolve and attained its final form in Avignon during the Hivernales Festival of 2008.

This “poetic gesture”, nourished with enthralling and passionate experimentations will soon pursue its adventure with a new creation that includes aquatic birds, swans, egrets, cormorants… and six dancers, in a stage-set that harmonizes air and water elements. This project is presented as a palimpsest of Marius Petipa's and Ivanov's "Swan Lake", enshrouded in the magical-poetic atmosphere of Ovid's "Metamorphoses"…

Source : Website of the National Choreographic Centre, Tours www.ccntours.com

More information

Company website

Last update : September 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.).