Blanche neige et le sortilège du baiser 

What do little girls dream of? That he'll be handsome, charming, of course; that he'll ride up one fine morning on a throbbing charger and carry them off to some mythical kingdom of everlasting love? No? Go on, admit it… How ever much we might protest, the same candy floss still glues together the promises of eternal happiness. It is the picture-books of childhood that imprint their clichés indelibly as paragons in our dreams: Snow White, for example. The refrain starts from the cradle, with fairy tales played in a loop to blot out the greyness of miserable days. And it continues with daytime languishing in front of televised nonsense that broadcasts its glamorous glossy-coloured images. The mythical Prince Charming and his train of sugar-pink dreams still rides high and undeterred in girlish hearts. Indestructable! And yet… Nathalie Pernette trips him up nicely, without being vengeful or angry, just terribly insolent !

“Now that I'm approaching forty, I wanted to explore my own feelings about femininity. During twelve years of working closely with Andréas Schmidt, I had explored more of the androgynous side of my personality. I founded my company in 2001 and began with ‘Le Nid', an introspective journey which I wished to pursue.
A scene from childhood came back to me. I must have been eight or nine. We had a manual projector at home, which meant that you could slow films down. My sister and I ran the famous three-minute kiss scene from Walt Disney's Snow White for hours. At an age when we were feeling the first stirrings of love, we hoped to penetrate the mystery and learn ‘what to do when you kiss'. I wanted to return to this fable and wring the neck of this wretched ideal of love which I've been dragging around with me since I was very small.”

Nathalie Pernette

Further information

Digital Ressource - Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse
http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003853

Updating: March 2010

Challenge, blows received, given, hand to hand with the invisible, a raw energy carved by meticulous movements.

As well as manipulating others' bodies to capture their articular mobility, Nathalie Pernette anchors movement in spontaneity, the emotional discharge fed by interior sensation.

In this dancer-choreographer, classically trained since childhood, dance is nimbly embodied, verylintense and angular. Instinct and discipline against a background of permanent enquiry. Her time at Françoise and Dominique Dupuy's school only confirmed this zeal.

After working for twelve years with Andréas Schmid, she founded her own company in 2001 and kept up the repertoire of earlier works.

Whether out and about in town or on stage, Nathalie Pernette is always alert, always testing her theories, pursuing her obsessions. At length, with passion and with that dose of lucidity befitting a true researcher's spirit that is never satisfied. Over sixteen years and sixteen shows (six of which were in partnership with Andréas Schmid), Nathalie Pernette has turned work into a virtue.

Further information

compagnie-pernette.com

Updating: November 2010

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.).