To mark the 30th annual Eurockéennes Festival in Belfort, VIADANSE – Centre chorégraphique national de Bourgogne Franche-Comté à Belfort (National Choreographic Centre of Burgundy and Franche-Comté in Belfort – CCN Belfort) invited 18 choreographers, representing the wide diversity in the field of choreography. The film director Nicolas Habas followed them on the natural site of Malsaucy, from the beginning of the preparations for the festival, and throughout it to the end. The choreographers took part in all that happened, everywhere it happened (stages, technical storage management areas, traffic routes, crowds of audiences, backstage…) resulting in danced portrayals that documented in a recreational manner the impressive machinery needed to bring about the event.

Clip #11 – shot stage side in the Eurockéennes marquee during its installation and in the space reserved for disabled spectators in front of the main stage, at that time still occupied by the stages construction tubing ; with the dancer and choreographer Amala Dianor

After  starting out as a hip hop dancer, Amala Dianor entered the prestigious  CNDC school in Angers (in the class of 2002). From 2002 and for 10  years, he performed as a dancer with a number of choreographers in very  different worlds, including hip hop, neo-classical, contemporary and  afro contemporary (as Emanuel Gat, Hafiz Dhaou et Aicha M’Barek, Régis  Obadia, Farid Berki, Abou Lagraa, Georges Momboye, Françoise et  Dominique Dupuy…). In 2011, he won two prizes at the Reconnaissance  award for his first choreography, named Crossroad and founded his own company, in 2012.

His dance style and vocabulary were immediately identifiable: sliding  from one technique to another with ease and virtuosity, he strips away  the showy, spectacular stuff from his choreographic techniques, keeping  instead only the raw, essential movement. With this deconstructive  process he allows his dancers to experiment with new approaches and  ideas. Drawn to dialogue and the meeting of minds and bodies, he creates  a dance fusion, a hybrid of shapes, a poetics of otherness. Since 2014,  he has worked in close collaboration with the electro-soul composer  Awir Léon, who has written the original music for his pieces. He  occasionally works with other choreographers (among them, Mickael Le  Mer, Pierre Bolo, Annabelle Loiseau, Johanna Faye, BBoy Junior or  Mathias Rassin), musicians (Awir Léon, Koki Nakano, Héloïse Gaillard,  Steve Eton, Eric Aldéa, Yvan Chiossone), a writer (Denis Lachaud), a  calligrapher (Julien Breton), plasticians (Grégoire Korganow, Olivier  Gilquin, Constance Joliff, Clément Débras).

Amala Dianor’s works were – and still are - invited at National  Center for Dance, Pantin and at Festival Suresnes Cités Danse before he  became associated artist to Théâtre Louis Aragon à Tremblay-en-France  (2014-2016), to CDCN Pôle-Sud in Strasbourg (2016-2019) and then to  Centquatre à Paris (2016-2018) and la Maison de la Danse de Lyon  (2019-2021). Since 2018, his works have also been commissioned by  Théâtre de la Ville, Paris. Today, he is associated with Touka Danses, a  CDCN in Guyana (2021-2024), with the Théâtre de Macon, scène nationale  (2022-2024) and les Quinconces-l’Espal, scène nationale le Mans (2021  2024). Since 2020, Kaplan I Cie Amala Dinaor is sustained by Fondation  BNP Paribas and has 18 creations in his repertory, ranging from large  form works to solos, and has performed more than 80 times a year in  France and abroad. Its touring is supported by the French Institute and  ONDA.

Among his repertory, Amala Dianor performs the solo Man Rec (‘Me only’ in wolof), the duet Extension with the Break dance star BBoy Junior or the trio Quelque-part au milieu de l’infini(‘Somewhere  in the middle of the infinite’). ). In 2019, he created his first major  work for nine dancers to whom he taught his special blend of styles and  techniques; the work was called The Falling Stardust and is currently touring. In 2021, he creates the trio Point Zéro,  which he performs with his friends Johanna Faye (co-director of  F.A.I.R.E, CCNR), et Mathias Rassin (multiple top rock world champion)  and a solo Wo-Man for a dancer with whom he rewrites a feminine version of his solo Man Rec.  In 2021, intending to expand his audiences in new directions, he began  working with the plastician Grégoire Korganow; they created a series of  short films called CinéDanse, its first episode, Nioun Rec,  in collaboration with FranceTV, was selected as one of the dance films  in the catalogue of the prestigious Villa Albertine in the USA. In 2021,  Amala Dianor is one of the four European choreographers to be selected  and supported by the program Big Pulse Dance Network (Creative Europe). In 2022, Amala Dianor was commissioned to create a work for eight South African dancers by Via Katlehong,

which will premiere at the 2022 Avignon Festival. He has also  committed to training pre-professional dancers in France - as he did for  instance in 2020 with the dance/theater collaboration entitled Urgence which was created at Biennale de la danse de Lyon 2021 - and then in Western Africa with his project Siguifin  (‘magical monster’ in bambara), a collective creation with the  choreographers Ladji Koné, Alioune Diagne and Naomi Fall, for nine  dancers from Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, and the work Premiered in  2022 at Suresnes Cités Danse.

Amala Dianor has received the Médaille de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2019.

Source : The Amala Dianor Company 's website

More information : amaladianor.com

Nicolas Habas comes from cinema first, as a screenwriter and director of several short fiction films including Le mal de Claire, broadcast on French TV and documentaries (La parole en chantier, triptych on a popular neighborhood in urban renewal). He is very interested in the tensions between reality and the imaginary, society and intimacy, geography and territories. With a self-taught apprenticeship that led him to a deep understanding of the codes of the film industry, he decided to find «his» cinema and returned with Le Corps de la Ville, the web series anchored in dance, to his first loves, since he made his first dance video in 1998. Shot during the 30° Eurockéennes de Belfort Festival and Broadcast on Arte Concert, Mouvements is its second web series.

Filmography :

2024 Le corps de la ville en Guadeloupe -  Documentaire 52 ‘(support : HD, © JPL Productions/ WIPS Productions/ Canal +) - en cours de post production - 

2023 L'envol - Court métrage documentaire d'après Ruptures de Bouziane Bouteldja (support : 4k, durée 28' © Cie Dans6T/Cie CinéDanse). Best Cinematography Award, 2024 Breaking Walls Dance Film Festival, Le Caire, Égypte.

2022 Le corps de la ville en Guyane - pilote du documentaire 52’ (support : HD, durée : 5’, © JPL Productions/ WIPS Productions). Sélection officielle : Festival Cinédanse Quebec, Danca Em Foco à Rio de Janeiro, Wyoming Dance Film Festival à Cheyenne, USA.

2022 Danse ton île - Documentaire 52’ (support : HD, © JPL Productions/ AV Com Productions/ France Télévision).

2021 Le corps de la ville en Martinique - Documentaire 52 ‘ et web série (support : HD, durée : 10 x 5’, © JPL Productions/ WIPS Productions/ France Télévision).

2020 Pères en prison - Court métrage documentaire (support HD, durée 5’ © Festival La Rochelle Cinéma/ studio Un Poil Court)

2019 Le corps de la ville à Nouméa - Documentaire 52 ‘ et web série (support : HD, durée : 10 x 5’, © JPL Productions/ AV Com Productions/ France Télévision).

2018 Mouvements - Documentaire 26’ et web série (support : HD, durée : 18 x 3’, © Séquence SDP/ Eurockéennes de Belfort/ Viadanse/ Ccn de Belfort/ Arte Concert).

2014/2019 Le corps de la ville - web série (support : HD, durée : 36 x 4’, © studio Un Poil Court en partenariat avec le Festival La Rochelle Cinéma, Studio Chérie (Berlin), le Périscope (Lyon), Le Festival Nocte Graus (Espagne), le Festival DAN.CIN.FEST, Le CCN de La Rochelle, la Cie En Knap (Slovénie), la Cie Hors Série, la Cie Propos, la Cie Jean Claude Gallotta et le CNSMD de Lyon).

2011 Mauvaise graine - Court métrage de fiction (support : 35 mm, durée : 21’, © CLC Productions/ Lyon TV).

2006/2012 La parole en chantier - Triptyque documentaire (support : HDV, durée : 3x40’, © Petits bolides films/ Espace Louis Aragon).

2004 Le mal de Claire - Court métrage de fiction (support : Super 16 mm, durée 14’, © Lumina Films/France Télévision).

2000 En attendant septembre - Court métrage de fiction (support : DV, durée : 30’, © Petits Bolides films/ Carré Image). 

1998 Marie au parc - Vidéo danse (support : S-VHS, durée 7’, auto production).

 True to its spirit of eternal youth, the festival has not aged at the dawn of its fourth decade and once again stands out as the mirror of its time, retaining its place among the great historic European musical gatherings … Since 1989, there have already been 1,777 concerts with claimed eclecticism, having pleased almost 2,813,000 festival-goers, of all ages, all backgrounds and all nationalities! This social mix and diversity of abundant styles, gathered in the hollow of a green cocoon, a little parenthesis out of time, are each year synonymous with shared emotions and beautiful encounters. A festive communion with respect for nature, faithful to the solidarity commitments of a 100% associative festival and all of its partners, communities and local associations.