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

The association Les Carnets Bagouet was created shortly after the death of Dominique Bagouet on December 9 1992.

The choreographer had been directing the national choreographic centre of Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon for twelve years. His early death aroused the desire among his company's dancers to take the responsibility of the heritage left by the choreographer.

-       To think about the means to be developed in order to spread Bagouet's work, pedagogy, and style in a faithful and lively way, and to think about perpetuating his approach.

-       To make of it an active heritage by carrying on showings of his works through stage productions as much as through training of future dancers.

-       To contribute to organize a reflection on the notion of choreographic heritage, through a collective study and using the experiences of every one, as performers of Dominique Bagouet and as contemporary dancers in general who then become ‘passers' according to Laurence Louppe.

Yet, the members of the Carnets Bagouet artistic board do not want to preserve the choreographic repertoire in the traditional sense of the word, they rather want to pass on to the present contemporary dancers, and wherever it will be requested, this ‘state of mind', this ‘changing thinking', and the traces left in them by Dominique Bagouet's dance.

French and foreign dance companies and students in training centres have already rerun some plays since 1993. Complete plays or extracts, shows or simple workshops, they have all allowed the dancers who have taken charge of passing on to refine their approach, and also to perceive more clearly the real issue of this work and its difficulties, always keeping in mind the words the choreographer used to say to his performers:  ‘live in peace with yourself'.

The team of the Carnets Bagouet

Sources: www.lescarnetsbagouet.org

Further information: www.lescarnetsbagouet.org

Last update: October 2014