Ten years after Produit de circonstances, and at the request of  Boris Charmatz, who took him at his word when he said: “you need just  two hours to become a butō dancer”, Xavier Le Roy put on a new  self-referenced solo which, this time, focused on the practically  improvised apprenticeship of this dance form, which he does not master  professionally. After some research carried out as an amateur, he relays  how you can train to learn a foreign dance, by your own means (through  videos found on the web, testimonies, books, etc…), while running the  risk of displaying the failure of this attempt. Illustrated by these  assorted documents, this non-professional demonstration examines  apprenticeship in terms of economy and personal investment, as well as  the possibility for attentive choreographers to leave behind their  fields of expertise. Punctuated by several danced solos— improvised,  rerun or imitated — the piece finally raises questions about the methods  of apprenticeship and the transmission of a memory via a demonstration  of humility shared intimately, which avoids neither doubts nor  hesitations.

Source: program of the CN D

Xavier Le Roy holds a doctorate in molecular biology from the  University of Montpellier, France, and has worked as artist since 1991.  Since 2018 works as Professor at the Institute for Applied Theater  Studies in Giessen (Germany). He has performed with diverse companies  and choreographers. From 1996 to 2003, he was artist-in-residence at the  Podewil in Berlin. In 2007-2008 he was “Associated Artist”at Centre  Chorégraphique National de Montpellier, France. In 2010 Le Roy is an  Artist in Residence fellow at the MIT Program in Art Culture and  Technology (Cambridge, MA). In 2012, he begins a 3 years residency at  Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris. Through his solo works such as  « Self Unfinished (1998) » and « Product of Circumstances (1999) », he  has opened new perspectives in the field of choreography.

At the same time, he initiated projects exploring the modes of  production and collaboration in group works: "E.X.T.E.N.S.I.O.N.S."  (1999-2000), "Project" (2003) and "6 Months 1 Location" (2008).
His  works such as the soli "Le Sacre du Printemps" (2007), "Untitled"  (2014), the group piece "low pieces" (2011), and works for exhibition  spaces such as "production" (2011) created together with Mårten  Spångberg, "Untitled" (2012) for the exhibition 12 Rooms,  "Retrospective" first realized in 2012 at the Tapiès  Foundation-Barcelona, "Temporary Title, 2015" created at Sydney in the  frame of John Kaldor Public Art Project or "For The Unfaithful Replica"  (2016) in collaboration with Scarlet Yu at CA2M Madrid; produce  situations that explore the relationships between spectactors / visitors  / performers and the production of subjectivities.

His works produce situations that question, the relationships between  spectators/visitors and performers and are attempt to transform or  reconfigure dichotomies such as: object / subject, animal / human,  machine / human, nature / culture, public / private, form / unform.

In 2017, together with Ensemble Issho Ni they create for the Ensemble  Modern in Frankfurt: the exhibition "Haben Sie "Modern" gesagt?", and  he developped, together with Scarlet Yu, "Still Untitled", a work for  public spaces commissioned by Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017.

Source: Xavier Leroy website

More information: www.xavierleroy.com/

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.).