Choreography by Jean-Antoine Bigot and Anne Le Batard
A choreographic extract remodelled by the group Diagonale(s) (Bois-Guillaume), artistic coordinator(s) Marie-Brigitte Pelletier, Marie-Aude Babault, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Set up some ten years ago in the Rouen urban area, Diagonale(s)’s main members are physical and sports education teachers having practiced dance and wishing to participate in workshops, in addition to classes. A number of choreographers based in the region have agreed to collaborate, as well as the company Ex Nihilo that is a frequent guest. This group usually prefers dancing in outdoor spaces. In a rather paradoxical manner, although it has contacted a company that is a reference in this field, the group chose the work Salida, adaptable to stage frontality, according to a mechanism that is most unusual for these amateurs. 

The project
A rare occurrence, Ex Nihilo did not transmit an extract from Salida but rather completely reshaped the piece to reproduce its overall progression. The move from the original number of six interpreters to twelve does not present any real problems due to its modular writing based on duos. However, the equal distribution between men and women has been lost. Also noteworthy is the mature age of some interpreters, in a work where repoussés, jetés, lâchers, reprises, saisies are voluntarily vigorous. The dramatic quality of couple relationships, resolutely colouring gestural quality, is one of the fine challenges of this transmission. The choreographers dedicated themselves to this aspect, alongside Anne Reymann, enjoying the opportunity to revisit their own writing. 

The choreographers
Based in Marseille for the last two decades, the company Ex Nihilo is a reference in outdoor choreography. Co-directed by Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, it conceives movement as the taking up of space in the midst of urban movement. Its writing is deliberately highly structured, but open to surprise and responsive to the unexpected. Ex Nihilo had already transmitted one of its pieces, Trajets de vie, trajets de ville, on the occasion of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” 2014 meeting. Salida, revived this year, dates back to 2001. Its authors have detected in it founding elements of their group writing, based on duos taken in a perpetuum of choreographic globality where circulations demand a sustained mutual attentiveness.

ANNE LE BATARD After a career as a dancer (companies Karin Vyncke in Brussels and Georges Appaix in Marseilles), she founded the company Ex Nihilo in 1994. She explores the relationship between the dancer and dance to space and to others as well as the spectator’s place. She has developed a specific writing form, focused on listening and responsiveness, fed by long periods of immersion and research in public space. Her approach to dance is closely linked to a practice of the photographic image and video. 

With JEAN-ANTOINE BIGOT , they have written about fifteen choreographic pieces, ranging from duets to com- positions for 15 or 17 dancers. They teach and train in France and abroad the repertoire
and the technique of the company through workshops and specific creations. 

Ex Nihilo Company Website

avril 2020

From live stage images to life in images, the  director and video artist Karim Zeriahen seems to have found the  shortest way. Since the beginning of the 90s, when he worked in close  relationship with choreographer Philippe Decouflé, he learned how to put  the art of stage in motion, contemporary dance most of the time. Karim  Zeriahen then starts a fruitful collaboration with Montpellier based  choreographer Mathilde Monnier. Stop, Videlilah, day of night, short  films adapted from her stage creations. Each time, Karim Zeriahen's   camera takes over the place with movement, the body language is not  frozen but magnified. Choreographer Herman Diephuis also joins this  gallery of dancing portraits. Documentaries on figures such like Albert  Maysles or Hubert de Givenchy and from Joe Dalessandro to Paul  Morrissey, he sets a signature, a camera always in action with  confidence.

Today the director goes further with a new  project and tracks the subtle movements of the body language beyond the  physical appearance. A collection of living portraits as unique pièces  reminding us of the master portraitists of renaissance. These living  natures consists in filming the subject in a certain amount of time,  almost still, with signs of respiration, eye blinks, as if it were  posing for a painting. They are then displayed on a flat screen with a  memory card. With this collection starting, Karim Zeriahen, with his  documentary and artist vision, interrogates himself about the virtual  world filled with images. By taking a pause, and his models with him, he  questions the way we look at things, the way we look at life.

Source: Philippe Noisette 

En savoir plus: www.karimzeriahen.com

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
 Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
 Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
 +33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme