“This solo is bound up with my own story. I wanted to find myself alone on a stage, to assess where I stood after so many years of composing with someone else. I felt an irrepressible need to move, to face up to myself, to my body of a 47-year-old woman. I wanted a real face-to-face confrontation, to see myself as I really am. With no pretence. “Face à Face” is an outcome, a kind of symbolic form of my independence. It is a cosmic, poetic, dream-like object which resembles me, which is made to measure. These days I am ready to dance alone, to show myself in front of an audience. This solo reveals the women I have inside me. I improvised a great deal in order to liberate the different facets which up to now I had not explored much on stage. I did not want to rely on words, but wanted to express everything through the body. I also drew on the world of cinema. I adore Asian films and Hitchcockian characters!”

Accounts collected by Gwénola David / Théâtre de la Ville

In 1980 Joëlle Bouvier created the company L'Esquisse with Régis Obadia. Together, they have produced 15 choreographic works performed around the world and co-produced 4 short films, recipients of awards in numerous festivals and produced several videos, including "Casser la Voix", by Patrick Bruel. She was co-director at the CCN in Le Havre from 1986 to 1992, and at the CNDC in Angers from 1993 to 2003.
 

2004, she created the Cie Joëlle Bouvier and set up a creative workshop at the Scène Nationale des Gémeaux, in Sceaux, from 2004 to 2008.  
 

2015 she returned to ballet at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva for the creation of Tristan & Isolde - Salue Pour Moi Le Monde, with the music of Richard Wagner.
At the same time as she was actively creating, Joëlle Bouvier was invited to produce events, such as a display activity at the Printemps department store in Paris in March 2002, and June 2007. In August, 2006, she performed for the launch of a new Chinese cosmetic product at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, then in China. Since 2012, she has worked with Maison Hermès on a show about shoes, presented in Hermès subsidiaries around the world.

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon