Choreographers of Paul Les Oiseaux company, Valérie Rivière and Oivier Clementz invent a space of smile, delicacy and sensuality.

Source : Maison de la Danse de Lyon program

Valérie Rivière trained as a classical dancer and then moved into contemporary dance. Thanks to her very sound initial technical training, she favoured dance which did not hide its virtuosity. From her years spent in Brussels at Mudra, she continued to uphold open-mindedness and mixing with other artistic disciplines. Incidentally, we can almost also imagine Valérie Rivière as a poet, painter, scenographer, author, landscape designer and costume designer for her own choreographies.

She first studied dance at the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux (Regional Arts Conservatory) between 1974 and 1978. Then she attended the Princess Grace Dance Academy in Monte Carlo, under the direction of Marika Besobrasova, then joined Maurice Béjart’s school, the Mudra in Brussels, to become a professional dancer. During her time here she discovered she was particularly attached to choreography and was very keen on the other art disciplines which were taught there. 

On arriving back in France in 1987, Valérie Rivière founded Paul les Oiseaux with Olivier Clémentz. Over the next four years, they were engaged in laboratory work to unlearn and to develop a new language which would lead each of them to acquiring a unique signature. In 1992, Valérie Rivière became the company’s only choreographer.

She produced twenty-five choreographic works which, each in their own way, strive to embrace the world of plastic arts without ever restraining them.

Source : Paul Les Oiseaux

More information :

http://www.paullesoiseaux.com/home-fr.html

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon

Founded in 1987, the company borrows its name from the Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello, and thus claims its kinship with the Italian master, in the obsession with perspective, scenography, as well as the graphic inscription of bodies on the tray. We can also detect there a tribute to the ceaselessly renewed migrations of birds, similar to the incessant journeys of the dancers, and to the light traces forgotten in space by the choreographic movements.

Source: Paul Les Oiseaux