[Apparently, what you cannot see] 

For almost twenty years now, the Ex Nihilo Company, directed by Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, has taken over unusual places with dance, where it has encouraged external work blending research and creation of performances. For “Apparemment, ce qui ne se voit pas”, research focused on places that were detached from the regard, peripheral places, places undergoing transformation.

The two choreographers collected photos and videos during their recent pursuits in various cities throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. These images provided the starting block for a new piece of work, in which the company explored the myriad of relationships that linked the individual to the city and to others, and that linked the dancing body to architecture. That which cannot be seen, may however be apprehended: images, bodies or figures appear then are transformed into a plethora of perspectives, and impart the “hidden possibilities of space”.

“The out-of-range part of an image is often more intense than the image itself. It is the antechamber of the imagination, the temple of that which is beyond the showable, the unseen space that gives the power to that which is seen... Ex Nihilo's urban experimentation questions in vivo this notion of another simultaneous space, conducive to projecting one's own thought. By overlapping their paths with the paths of passers-by, the dancers shake up the way places and moments are perceived, merging the notions of in-range and out-of-range and obliging us to review and bring into play our “self” instantly. Although created by and for the street, these dances have just as much scenic value as any other. As such, the experience becomes the subject, the moment becomes the object, the street becomes the décor, and behaviours are charged up because, paradoxically, for such a challenge, the stage is certainly a more hostile terrain than the street...”

Michel Kelemenis

Updating: June 2012

ANNE LE BATARD After a career as a dancer (companies Karin Vyncke in Brussels and Georges Appaix in Marseilles), she founded the company Ex Nihilo in 1994. She explores the relationship between the dancer and dance to space and to others as well as the spectator’s place. She has developed a specific writing form, focused on listening and responsiveness, fed by long periods of immersion and research in public space. Her approach to dance is closely linked to a practice of the photographic image and video. 

With JEAN-ANTOINE BIGOT , they have written about fifteen choreographic pieces, ranging from duets to com- positions for 15 or 17 dancers. They teach and train in France and abroad the repertoire
and the technique of the company through workshops and specific creations. 

Ex Nihilo Company Website

avril 2020

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.).

Website of the company

http://exnihilodanse.com/

Interview on Dailymotion

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xoxc53