Choreography by Dominique Bagouet
A choreographic extract remodelled by the association Vaines Caves (Châteauroux), artistic manager Virginie Andreu with the participation of Teresa Salerno, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2013) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing). 

The group

The association Vaines Caves was created on the initiative of Virginie Andreu as a means of setting up contemporary dance projects in Berry. She gathered around her advanced-level amateur dancers hailing from several dance schools in Châteauroux and looking for choreographic research and creative experiences. This group of dancers combines a variety of profiles: school-age teens mix with adult dancers, all with the same curiosity for contemporary dance that extends beyond the boundaries of dance such as practiced in the city’s dance schools.  

The project

In autumn 2012, Équinoxe, scène nationale de Châteauroux, organised a series of events: Constellation Bagouet, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the death of Dominique Bagouet. A special relationship then grew up between the association Vaines Caves and Christian Bourigault, a dancer who participated in the creation of Assaï, a particularly emblematic piece from Dominique Bagouet’s choreographic writing. The chosen extract, Haro 1, is made up of three trios: les créatures, les jeunes filles and les docteurs. Catherine Legrand transmitted les créatures, Dominique Noël les jeunes filles and Michèle Rust les docteurs, all three being former dancers of this piece. Christian Bourigault supervised all the rehearsals and the setting up of the project. 

The choreographer

Dominique Bagouet (1951-1992), an emblematic choreographer of French contemporary dance, trained at Rosella Hightower’s school, before completing his apprenticeship with Maurice Béjart in Brussels. In 1980, he became the director of one of the first Centres chorégraphiques nationaux, that of Montpellier. Rooted in classical dance, his detailed writing, subtly burlesque at times, combines gestural precision, quirky elegance and intimate musicality. He has collaborated with a large number of artists such as the composer Pascal Dusapin and the visual artist Christian Boltanski, to name but a few. Since his death in 1992, the association Les Carnets Bagouet, founded by his dancers, has kept and transmitted his works both in France and overseas. 

Angoulême, July 9 1951 - Montpellier, December 9 1992

From 1965, Dominique Bagouet received a classical instruction from Rosella Hightower in Cannes, and was firstly engaged in the Ballet du Grand Théâtre of Geneva at Alfonso Cata's in 1969. He danced the following year with the Félix Blaska's company and joined Béjart's 20th Century Ballet in Brussels. The experience lasted two years and continued with the Chandra group (where Maguy Marin also worked).

Back to Paris in 1974, Dominique Bagouet took tuitions with Carolyn Carlson and Peter Goss. He also danced in the Joseph Russillo's, Anne Béranger's and Peter Goss' companies. Then he left for the United States where he discovered with Jennifer Muller, Lar Lubovitch and others, the techniques of the American schools.

Back to France in 1976, he presented his first choreography “Chansons de nuit” at the Concours de Bagnolet and won the first prize with a mention for research. He then founded his first company. He created play after play, at a fast pace he deplored, in order to make his company survive. Until 1979, he created 14 plays, sometimes hastily and unsatisfactorily.

With “Sous la blafarde”, the young choreographer began to stand out and Montpellier became his haven: the town welcomed the company and gave it the resources to exist as Bagouet was asked to set up and run the Centre Chorégraphique Régional de Montpellier. Besides, he was to create in this town the Festival International Montpellier Danse that he would run until 1982.

Dominique Bagouet created then some of the most outstanding plays in French contemporary choreography, from “Insaisies” (1982) to “Necesito, pièce pour grenade” (1991), the last commission written to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Spanish town.

With plays such as “Déserts d'amour” (1984), “Le Crawl de Lucien” (1985) and “Assaï” (1986), Dominique Bagouet clearly established his own personality and style. All these plays registered his very particular style, sometimes referred to as ‘neobaroque', but above all very subtle and inventive. Bagouet's choreographic approach developed the dance movement with numerous short gestures (movements with hands and feet, special incline of the chest…) with terrific precision and no mannerisms.

Moreover, and this is another characteristic of Bagouet, the choreographer always managed to work with talented artists, such as Christian Boltanski, Pascal Dusapin for “Le Saut de l'ange” (1987), Tristan Murail for “Déserts d'amour” or the actress Nelly Borgeaud for the superb “Meublé sommairement” (1989) choreographically adapted from a novel by Emmanuel Bove.

He also directed two films with Charles Picq: “Tant mieux, tant mieux!” (1983) and “Dix anges, portraits”(1988), from “Le Saut de l'ange".

If a Bagouet style existed, it would also lie in this curiosity which influenced a whole generation.

His company's dancers founded in 1993 Les Carnets Bagouet, an association dedicated to preserving and passing on the choreographer's artistic heritage. They offer the repertoire to other companies and schools.

Source: Extract of “99 biographies pour comprendre la jeune danse française” in les saisons de la danse, summer 97, special issue.

More information: www.lescarnetsbagouet.org

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