“Danse la Ville” is the theme of the 2006 Biennial. Julie Desprairies was invited to create a work for it and chose the Gratte-ciel district in Villeurbanne, famous for its innovative and social character. This 1930s complex, with its extraordinary visual coherence, was the laboratory of a city centre that grouped political (town hall), symbolic (theatre) and communal (homes, shops, schools, swimming pool) functions. The designers were at that time convinced that the innovative aspect of urban planning determined social relationships and that the maximum amount of comfort must be available to the lowest-income households. Based on these humanist ideas, Julie Desprairies met local shopkeepers, residents, schoolchildren, elected representatives and employees and invited them to write together a choreographic score relating to its special architecture. The subtle artwork of the complex, the stained glass windows of a stairwell, the rhythm of a frontage, the ironwork of a front door, the collective terraces, the curious interior corridors: all these elements nurtured the choreographic research and composition work.

The extract broadcasted shows Elise Ladoué, a dancer in the Compagnie des Prairies, dancing in unison, from the entrance door of the city hall, with six residents placed at the top of the towers. The staging of the bodies is dictated by the urban setting, that majestic perspective of apartment blocks rolling down opposite the city hall steps. Gestures as signals transmitted at a distance of 500 metres, the choreography is taken from a dance, unearthed from the city archives, written by a primary schoolteacher for her pupils during the Fêtes de la Jeunesse Villeurbannaises (Villeurbanne Youth Festival) in 1966.

Source : Julie Desprairies

Following theatre and visual arts studies, she created her first production in 1998 in stone quarries of Pont-du-Gard. The site’s materials, usages and specificities are at the origin of her work. She asserts her contextual approach by applying it to a number of modern and contemporary architectures. Her choreographies are written and presented in the buildings, whose spatial, historical and human characteristics guide her dramaturgical, plastic and choreographic choices. She advocates applied dance (like “applied art”), where the body serves as a tool to measure the spaces built. Her aim is to give visibility to the movement of places.

 Her love of the gestures taken from the places she occupies has led to her interest in working gestures. She frequently associates with her creations the people she has met in these places (140 inhabitants and tradespeople from the Gratte-ciel in Villeurbanne, 192 amateurs and employees from the Opéra de Lyon). While her performances take place in public places, she develops adaptable projects, based on landscapes and agriculture or on the theme of the funfair.

 She has set up an “Atelier de création radiophonique”, a programme for the radio station France Culture and produced three films: Autour du parc at La Villeneuve in Grenoble with Louise Narboni, Cinq points de vue autorisés on Les Courtillières, with Vladimir Léon and L’Architecte de Saint-Gaudens, with Serge Bozon. She has mounted a number of projects overseas, inviting native dancers, and has written Manuel d’entraînement régulier du danseur urbain and Danser l’architecture (2017).

Source : Cie Despraires

Arnold Pasquier was born in Paris in 1968. After studying visual arts and cinema, he made tests in Super 8 and video, in which he developed a world of filmed newspapers and fictions. At the age of twenty, he approaches contemporary dance and collaborates with choreographers as documentarist and dancer. This experience marks the realization of a work where dance holds an important place.

From 1997 to 1999, he was received as a resident artist at the Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France) where he designed the installation "C'est ici que j'avais des baisers" (1997-1999) and produced about twenty short films, four radio design workshops For France Culture and dance performances capturing. In 1999, he presented the show "C'est merveilleux" in the Grande Nef du Fresnoy. He is the author of numerous films (fiction, documentary, video art), staged shows, scenographies, radio broadcasts. His work is articulated at the crossroads of these different disciplines. Winner of a residence Villa Médicis Hors les Murs (outside the wall) in Sao Paulo in 2004, he dances for Julie Desprairies in "La danse en accès accès", "Vue sur la mer" and "Là commence le ciel". He co-signs with her the video-dance installation "Les 3 contents", the result of the residence of the choreographer at the Manufacture de Sèvres (France).

Source : The Compagnie des prairies 's website

More information

compagniedesprairies.com