"The Hero’s call is, on the spiritual level, the driving force behind creative development. The heroic action stimulates emotion and creation. It is also the individual’s self-sacrifice in the face of events”.  

Angelin Preljocaj 

Remark by the videographer (2019):  

"Based on the images drawn from socialist realism, Angelin Preljocaj has created a choreographic language expressing the different facets of the hero. The myth of the hero arouses in us feelings that, while frequently ambiguous and contradictory, are always extreme. He is at the same time a public figure, universally recognised, and profoundly isolated, alone responsible for his acts. He arouses the sublime and the ridiculous, identification and rejection. He is the person who creates the event, acting for and out of exemplarity. 

By combining the monumental style of the decor with the geometric expression of the choreography, the piece’s universe assumes its true poetic dimension. 

While I was a cinema lover in my teenage years, dance came into my life when I accompanied my mother to shows, at the Centre Pompidou and the CEC of my city, Yerres, which showed at that time the very best of the Nouvelle Danse Française I remember that I discovered Angelin Preljocaj’s show while I was “hanging out” at the Centre Pompidou. I used to spend my days there, between the library and the exhibitions, and I must have seen the announcement of the performance “A nos héros”. As I had the money, I bought a ticket and it was a revelation. Everything impressed me: the choreographic quality, the contemporary music.  It was thanks to a tour in Yerres that I made this recording, without permission. 

Show recording. Film location: CEC, Yerres (Essonne). 

Born in 1957 in the Paris region, Angelin Preljocaj began studying classical dance before turning to contemporary dance with Karin Waehner, Zena Rommett, Merce Cunningham, then Viola Farber and Quentin Rouillier. He then joined Dominique Bagouet until he founded his own company in December 1984. Since then he has choreographed 60 pieces, ranging from solos to large-scale works, and regularly works with other artists in a variety of fields, including music (Goran Vejvoda, Air, Laurent Garnier, Granular Synthesis, Karlheinz Stockhausen), the visual arts (Claude Lévêque, Subodh Gupta, Adel Abdessemed), design (Constance Guisset), fashion (Jean Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaïa), drawing (Enki Bilal), literature (Pascal Quignard, Laurent Mauvignier) and animated film (Boris Labbé)...

His creations have been performed throughout the world and included in the repertoires of numerous companies, from which he has also received commissions, including the New York City Ballet, the Berlin Staatsoper and the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris. He also makes short films and films featuring his choreography. He has received several awards including the ‘Grand Prix National de la danse’ (1992), the ‘Benois de la danse’ (1995), the ‘Bessie Award’ (1997), ‘Les Victoires de la musique’ (1997), the ‘Globe de Cristal’ (2009) and the ‘Samuel H. Scripps Award’ from the American Dance Festival for his body of work (2014). His first feature film, Polina, danser sa vie, directed with Valérie Müller and adapted from the comic strip by Bastien Vivès, was released in cinemas in November 2016.

In April 2019, he was appointed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the new choreography section. In the same year, he created Winterreise for La Scala in Milan, as well as Soul Kitchen with inmates from the Baumettes Prison Centre in Marseille, the results of four months of workshops held within the prison. The same year saw the release of the documentary Danser sa peine, directed by Valérie Müller, an intimate look at this creative process in a prison environment. The film won first prize at Fipadoc in 2020.

After Swan Lake in 2020 and Deleuze / Hendrix in 2021, he will choreograph and direct Lully's opera Atys for the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2022. At the same time, he devised a short choreography for the ‘Danse Europe!’ application, a participatory project open to all. For Dior, he created the choreography and film Roman Night with the dancers of the Rome Opera Ballet as part of International Dance Day. He also took part in the television series Irma Vep by Olivier Assayas, as an actor and choreographer.

In July 2022, he presented his creation Mythologies for the dancers of the Ballet Preljocaj and the Ballet de l'Opéra de Bordeaux to original orchestral music by Thomas Bangalter. In February 2023 he created Birthday Party for senior dancers at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, commissioned by Aterballetto, and Torpeur in June 2023 at the Festival Montpellier Danse. His latest creation, Requiem(s), saw the light of day in May 2024.

The Ballet Preljocaj now has 30 permanent dancers and performs an average of 120 dates a year throughout the world.

More information

preljocaj.org

Arnold Pasquier was born in Paris in 1968. After studying visual arts and cinema, he made tests in Super 8 and video, in which he developed a world of filmed newspapers and fictions. At the age of twenty, he approaches contemporary dance and collaborates with choreographers as documentarist and dancer. This experience marks the realization of a work where dance holds an important place.
From 1997 to 1999, he was received as a resident artist at the Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France) where he designed the installation "C'est ici que j'avais des baisers" (1997-1999) and produced about twenty short films, four radio design workshops For France Culture and dance performances capturing. In 1999, he presented the show "C'est merveilleux" in the Grande Nef du Fresnoy. He is the author of numerous films (fiction, documentary, video art), staged shows, scenographies, radio broadcasts. His work is articulated at the crossroads of these different disciplines. Winner of a residence Villa Médicis Hors les Murs (outside the wall) in Sao Paulo in 2004, he dances for Julie Desprairies in "La danse en accès accès", "Vue sur la mer" and "Là commence le ciel". He co-signs with her the video-dance installation "Les 3 contents", the result of the residence of the choreographer at the Manufacture de Sèvres (France). 

Source: Website of the Compagnie des prairies  
More information https://arnoldpasquier.com