Choreography by Odile Duboc
A choreographic extract remodelled by the company Équinoxe (La Rochelle), artistic coordinators Marion Bati (artistic director of Les Éclats, a regional centre dedicated to contemporary dance in Poitou-Charentes), Armelle Quentin (project coordinator for the company Équinoxe) , as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
Based in La Rochelle, the company Équinoxe is the result, nearly five years ago, of the training courses proposed by the Éclats Chorégraphiques (who also organise a festival in the Poitou-Charentes region). Boasting some ten members, this artists’ collective is driven by sensitivities that go beyond the sole reference to dance. With its extreme diversity allowing it to treat a variety of registers, it first preferred to elaborate its own collective choreographies, mainly intended for street performances. In 2013, a revival of Dominique Petit’s Tournesols was its first participation in the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme, respecting a fixed choreographic writing, while Projet de la matière proposes today a style of writing that is less strict. 

The choreographer
Odile Duboc (1941-2010) exerted a considerable influence on contemporary dance. As from 1983, she co-directed the company Contre Jour with the light designer Françoise Michel and, between 1990 and 2008, she directed the CCN de Belfort, in which a large number of the interpreters feature today amongst the leading innovative choreographers. Her work curiously relates to the incorporation of feeling of the dynamic link to the elements. In 1993, Projet de la matière was emblematic of this aesthetics less concerned with formal rendering than with depth of movement. The patient elaboration of this piece involved the contact with objects of original material texture and then, in their absence, the restoration of the movements thus inspired.

The artist
Stéphane Imbert leads the transmission of Projet de la matière to Équinoxe. He joined Odile Duboc in 1990, and took part in the creation of this work, as in all the creations, up to 2000 before becoming the assistant in charge of teaching and management of revivals, the only permanent member of the CCN de Belfort. Even if amateurs cannot dedicate as much time as professionals, he tries to evoke the same emotions within them, and the same experience for creation. The aim is to relive a uniquely individual experience of sensation by a search for letting-go, a quest for authenticity, an acceptance of gravity. A musical instant of the body is expected, from the passage of one suspension to another suspension.  

A classical  dancer and self-taught teacher in Aix-en-Provence, Odile Duboc created her own school Les Ateliers de la danse in the 1970s. In 1983, she created  the association Contre jour, with her partner and lighting designer, Françoise Michel. In  1990 and until the end of 2008, she directed the Franche-Comté National Choreographic Center in Belfort, where she succeeded Joanne Leighton. In 1993, she created the work Projet de la matière, a milestone in the history of the new French dance. She  will be recognized as an important choreographer of French dance, and  will stage many shows and operas for various institutions, including the National Center for Contemporary Dance in Angers. She died of cancer on April 23, 2010 at the age of 69.

From live stage images to life in images, the  director and video artist Karim Zeriahen seems to have found the  shortest way. Since the beginning of the 90s, when he worked in close  relationship with choreographer Philippe Decouflé, he learned how to put  the art of stage in motion, contemporary dance most of the time. Karim  Zeriahen then starts a fruitful collaboration with Montpellier based  choreographer Mathilde Monnier. Stop, Videlilah, day of night, short  films adapted from her stage creations. Each time, Karim Zeriahen's   camera takes over the place with movement, the body language is not  frozen but magnified. Choreographer Herman Diephuis also joins this  gallery of dancing portraits. Documentaries on figures such like Albert  Maysles or Hubert de Givenchy and from Joe Dalessandro to Paul  Morrissey, he sets a signature, a camera always in action with  confidence.

Today the director goes further with a new  project and tracks the subtle movements of the body language beyond the  physical appearance. A collection of living portraits as unique pièces  reminding us of the master portraitists of renaissance. These living  natures consists in filming the subject in a certain amount of time,  almost still, with signs of respiration, eye blinks, as if it were  posing for a painting. They are then displayed on a flat screen with a  memory card. With this collection starting, Karim Zeriahen, with his  documentary and artist vision, interrogates himself about the virtual  world filled with images. By taking a pause, and his models with him, he  questions the way we look at things, the way we look at life.

Source: Philippe Noisette 

En savoir plus: www.karimzeriahen.com

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
+33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme