An extract remodelled by the company Périphéri’k (Elven), artistic manager Kaylie Le Trionnaire, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2016) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
The dance school, Périphéri’k, based in Elven, Brittany, opened with the creation of the company of the same name in 2011. Directed by Kaylie Le Trionnaire, the young interpreters, who practice classical, contemporary, African and jazz dance, regularly participate in creations and already made a name for themselves in 2016 in the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme. 

The project
Rooted in a resolute search between dance and music, the choice of the piece Ancestor’s Calling (1998), choreographed by Geraldine Armstrong that she herself transmitted, calls on the sensitivity of each dancer and on their personal memory. It satisfies the company’s desire to delve into the unique register of each individual, while pursuing a substantive work on the relationship with jazz music and the “search for the original movement of jazz dance” deriving from African traditions.

The choreographer
Born in the Grenada archipelago, before moving to London in 1967 and Paris in 1975, Geraldine Armstrong underwent a hybrid blend of classical and jazz training. She collaborated with Line Renaud, the companies Rick Odums, Reney Deshauteurs and Gianin Loringett‘s Off Jazz. In 2008, she presented at the Centre national de la danse in Pantin a piece by Donald McKayle entitled Songs of the Disinherited and completed the reconstruction of major African American shows at the crossroads of art and politics such as Hex and Roots by Eleo Pomare. She also choreographs for James Carlès’s troupes and the Grand Ballet de la Martinique. 

Born in the Grenade island, Géraldine Armstrong studies the dance in London with Johnny O'Brien and Molly Molloy and continues her studies in Paris with André Glegolski, Jacqueline Fynnaert, Matt Mattox, Gianin Loringett. She co-founds in 1998 with Wayne Barbaste the Armstrong Jazz Ballet, who is called today "Black Source Dance Theater". Géraldine Armstrong knew to remain faithful to the single style of Alvin Ailey, composed of an alliance of the ballet dancing and black traditional dance, on the one hand, and of a brilliant comprehension of the most various musics and their relationship with the specificity of the movement, on the other hand.

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