Andy De Groat, the American choreographer born in 1947, was based in  France from the 80s. He passed away in January 2019, leaving behind a  rich and varied body of work, based on a mingling of genres, techniques  and personalities. To pay him an initial homage, the CCINP – set up to  conserve his work – is organising on 22nd and 23rd June, a weekend  devoted to his Fan Dance. A call was given out to all those who  could and would dance Andy’s emblematic piece: answers came back from  groups based in Paris but also New York, Lille, Lyon or Montpellier, who  will be joined by dancers from Camping.

“Fan Dance is a strange mixture of simple but unusual steps,  enriched by precise arm movements and a constantly evolving random  space. It is a short anthem to geometrical beauty, dancing musicality...  physical, mental and sensorial coordination… group discipline and  personal freedom.”
Andy De Groat

Source: program of the CND

(1947-2019)

Andy De Groat was born in 1947 in the United States into a family of Dutch, Italian, French, German and English origins. Whilst studying at the New York School of Fine Art in 1967, he met the director Robert Wilson. He joined his troupe as a dancer, then as a choreographer for all the productions from Deafman Glance in 1971, A Letter for Queen Victoria in 1974 to Einstein on the Beach in 1976, created for the Avignon Festival.
In 1981, he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation in New York for his choreographic research.
He created new works in succession for red notes, including several for Jean Guizerix, Wilfride Piollet, Jean-Christophe Paré, the Choreographic Research Group of the Opera of Paris (GRCOP), the Scala in Milan, Ris et Danceries, the Ballet du Nord (Roubaix) and Wah Loo Tin Tin Co, a Montauban-based company of young performers.

Today, his work totals over sixty creations that have been presented in around twenty countries and periodically goes back to questioning the repertoire and the heritage of dance.

His company has worked regularly on lyrical productions since 1988, in particular on "The Magic Flute" (Mozart), with Robert Wilson at the Opera Bastille, Paris, "The Rake's Progress" (Stravinsky), with Alfredo Arias for the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Lyric Art and at the Operas of Lyon, Gênes and Montpellier, "Aida" (Verdi) and Klaus Michael Grüber at the Amsterdam Opera.

Source : website of the Centre national de la danse (CND, Pantin)

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.).