Dominique Dupuy entered Jean Weidt's Ballets des arts at the age of 16, where he first performed solo roles such as that of the son in “La Cellule” by Jean Weidt, who was awarded first prize in the competition of the Archives internationales de la danse in Copenhagen in 1947. After several years dancing with Françoise Dupuy as “Françoise et Dominique”, the pair founded the Ballets modernes de Paris together, as part of which Dominique Dupuy would interpret several legendary roles: le Faune, le Mandarin merveilleux, le Piéton de l'air, l'Homme et son désir. Dominique Dupuy created six solos, the first of which came into being at the request of Amélie Grand and was conceived for the first week of the Avignon Dance Week, a precursor of the Hivernales Dance Festival: “Le Cercle dans tous ses états” (1979), “Trajectoires” (1980), “En vol” (1983), “Ballum circus” (1987), “L'homme debout, il…” (1995), “Opus 67-97” (1997). On more than one occasion, Dupuy expressed his opinion on the experience of making a solo, both at conferences and in publications. The project which would revive his solos came into being at the request of Luc Petton, for whom Dominique Dupuy recreated the cube sequence from “En vol” for the project “Passeur de danse”. He then recreated five other sequences for “Passeur de solitudes I”, presented in May 2000 at the Regard du cygnet centre in Paris and at the Avignon Hivernales Dance Festival.

From 1995 to 2007, he and Françoise Dupuy directed the Mas de la danse – the principal centre for the study and research of contemporary dance in France. Since then he has devoted his time to putting his archives in order.

Dominique Dupuy, died on May 1, 2024.

Born in Versailles, Adret began her dance training at an early age. In the 1930s she studied with the leading Franco-Russian teachers in Paris, including Victor Gsovsky, Madame Rousanne (Rousanne Sarkissian) and Serge Lifar. In the late 1940s, following World War II, she had a modest career with the Paris Opera Ballet, making a notable appearance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1948 in a principal role in Lifar's production of Le Pas d'Acier ("The Steel Step"), a modern ballet about Soviet factory workers set to a score in le style mécanique by Prokofiev.

From Lifar, director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1930–44, and from 1947–58, she learned much about company administration and direction. Under his guidance, she made her first choreography, entitled La Conjuration ("The Conspiracy"), in 1948. Based on a poem by René Char, it was set to music by Jacques Porte and had décor by Georges Braque.

Later that year, Adret left the Paris Opera Ballet and became ballet mistress of Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris, touring with the company in western Europe. In 1951 she succeeded Darja Collin as director of the Ballet of the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam while continuing to work with Petit's company, raising the technical level of the dancers in both companies. Working in Amsterdam until 1958, she also expanded the repertory of the Dutch company with classical ballets and a number of original choreographic works.

In 1960, she became ballet mistress of the Ballet de l'Opéra de Nice and remained with that company until 1963, staging opera divertissements and modern ballets. She then spent a few years as an international guest choreographer, staging works for Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in Paris, PACT/TRUK Ballet in Johannesburg, the Warsaw Opera Ballet, the Zagreb Opera Ballet, and the Harkness Ballet in New York City. While residing in Panama, she created the Ballet Nacional de Panamá.[citation needed]

Returning to France, Adret joined Jean-Albert Cartier in 1968 in the creation of the Ballet Théâtre Contemporain, the first national choreographic center, established in Amiens. She was choreographic director of the repertory, and for it she created some of her most notable works, including Aquathémes and Requiem. In 1972, the company moved from Amiens to Angers and embarked on its first tour of North America.

Adret remained with Ballet Théâtre Contemporain for ten years, until 1978, when it was subsumed by the activities of the newly established Centre National de Danse Contemporaine. She was then appointed inspector general for dance projects in the Ministry of Culture, a post she retained until 1985, when she was invited by Louis Erlo, director of the Lyon Opera, to create a new ballet company committed to contemporary choreographers. During her seven years there, until 1992, Adret put the company in the forefront of contemporary dance in France.

Adret next became artistic director and chief choreographer of the Ballet du Nord in Roubaix, where in 1994 she mounted two new versions of Symphonie de Psaumes and Le Tricorne. From 1995 to 1998 the Association Française d'Action Artistique sent her on three overseas missions, during which she taught dance classes and choreographed works in Seoul, South Korea, in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Asunción, Paraguay. She then returned to France, working again with Roland Petit, serving as ballet mistress of his Ballet National de Marseille in 1997 and 1998.

On 1 July 1999 she accepted a temporary appointment as artistic director of the Ballet de Lorraine, replacing Pierre Lacotte, who had returned to the Paris Opera Ballet. Nearing her eightieth birthday, she served in that post for an interim period of one year.[9]

Régis Obadia was born in 1958 in Oran, Algeria. He studied dance from 1976 to 1979 at the Institut des Arts et du Mouvement, run by Françoise et Dominique Dupuy, and was initiated into theatre by Jacques Lecoq. In 1980 he formed the l'Esquisse company with Joëlle Bouvier. Their earliest pieces thrust the pair into the national and international limelight.
Directors of the Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine, Le Havre from 1986 to 1992, they were appointed artistic directors of the CNDC, Angers in 1993, renamed CNDC l'Esquisse, which they directed until 2003.    
Since 1998, Régis Obadia has pursued a solo creative career.    
An important figure in modern dance since the early 1980s, Régis Obadia has marked the memories of those who have seen him with the feverish sensuality and powerful gestures of his pieces. With the founding of his own company in 2003, he asserted his distinctive style and his open-mindedness by working just as happily in the field of theatre as that of pure dance. His regular collaborations with Russia, in partnership with Lisa Wiergasova, have won him prestigious prizes, including a Golden Mask in 2004 for his choreography of “The Rite of Spring”, and a Seagull in 2004 for his direction of “The Idiot” at the Moscow  
Chaika Festival. After “The Rite of Spring” to Stravinsky's music, he composed “Réversibilité” (2005), inspired by Baudelaire's “Les Fleurs du Mal” and “Trois” (2006), set to Schubert's “Death and the Maiden”, performed at the Théâtre Sylvia Montfort, Paris. During this time he also produced the Dominique Mercy documentary “Danse Pina Bausch” (2003), in homage to the iconic German choreographer.    

Source : the company Régis Obadia's website

More information

regisobadia.com

Abou Lagraa began dancing in Annonay, before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. He began his career as a dancer-performer at the S.O.A.P. Dance Theater Frankfurt, working with Rui Horta, before becoming his assistant at the Gulbenkian Ballet in Lisbon.

In 1997, he founded the Compagnie La Baraka, with whom he was successively associate artist at Bonlieu, Scène Nationale d'Annecy (2004-2008) then at Les Gémeaux, Scène Nationale de Sceaux (2009-2013) and finally at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon (2015). The company's reputation quickly spread beyond France's borders, and it began touring all over Europe, as well as the United States, Algeria, Tunisia, Russia and Asia...

In 2010, with Nawal Aït Benalla, he created the first Ballet Contemporain d'Alger with ‘Nya’, a piece whose success led to several national and international tours. This return to his roots inspired his 2013 creation ‘El Djoudour’ (The Roots), the fruit of a fruitful partnership between his own French company and the Ballet Contemporain d'Alger. This creation opened the ‘Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture’ event.

In February 2018, La Baraka moved to La Chapelle Sainte-Marie in Annonay. Abou Lagraa and Nawal Aït Benalla decided to co-direct La Baraka and La Chapelle together. This desacralised setting, a jewel of Baroque art, has been transformed into a choreographic studio and houses the company's administrative offices. La Chapelle became a creative residency for French and international dance companies. Like a small ‘Villa Medici’ for dance in the Ardèche.

Source : Cie La Baraka

More information : https://www.compagnielabaraka.com/