“I intended to start off the 20th anniversary events for Groupe Grenade with an evening shared by three choreographers and myself; when seven choreographers responded to my invitation, I was able to create two programmes danced by the children and young people of Grenade.
The adventure was very rich in artistic emotion and technical rigour. Nothing was left to chance and it took all our know-how to achieve such a feat. When we toured these 20th anniversary performances, I met some choreographers and the idea of once again slipping into their distinctive worlds with my young dancers struck me as very appealing.
Thus, to take in this experience initiated with the 20th anniversary performances further, I would like to revisit pieces by renowned international choreographers and thus open my dancers to all these choreographic worlds. How can children or teenagers appropriate a Wayne McGregor duet or the repetitive movements of Lucinda Childs? This both fascinating and motivating challenge has been driving my work for two years.”

Source : Josette Baïz

“I intended to start off the 20th anniversary events for Groupe Grenade with an evening shared by three choreographers and myself; when seven choreographers responded to my invitation, I was able to create two programmes danced by the children and young people of Grenade. 

The adventure was very rich in artistic emotion and technical rigour. Nothing was left to chance and it took all our know-how to achieve such a feat. When we toured these 20th anniversary performances, I met some choreographers and the idea of once again slipping into their distinctive worlds with my young dancers struck me as very appealing.

Thus, to take in this experience initiated with the 20th anniversary performances further, I would like to revisit pieces by renowned international choreographers and thus open my dancers to all these choreographic worlds. How can children or teenagers appropriate a Wayne McGregor duet or the repetitive movements of Lucinda Childs? This both fascinating and motivating challenge has been driving my work for two years.”

Josette Baïz

Alban Richard discovered contemporary dance alongside his music and literature studies. As a performer, he went on to work for Odile Duboc, Christine Gaigg, Olga de Soto and Rosalind Crisp among others.

In 2000, he founded Ensemble L’Abrupt and built up a repertoire of some thirty pieces. His writing is process-based, structured by several partitions – for dance, music, light and costumes.

Ensemble L’Abrupt has done residencies at numerous theatres: Théâtre de Vanves, Centre National de la Danse de Pantin, Forum du Blanc-Mesnil, Théâtre Louis Aragon in Tremblay-en-France, Scène nationale d’Orléans, Le Prisme centre for artistic development in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Théâtre Paul Eluard (TPE) in Bezons and Théâtre 71, Scène nationale de Malakoff.

Alban Richard has developed numerous collaborations with artists from the music world, including the Alla francesca ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Instant Donné and Alternance ensembles, IRCAM, and the composers Laurent Perrier, Raphael Cendo, Jérôme Combier, Robin Leduc, Erwan Keravec and Arnaud Rebotini.

He is also a commissioned artist. In recent years, his installation-performances have been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, the Louvre, the Quai Branly Museum, the Guimet Museum and the Abu Dhabi Art Fair.

In September 2015, Alban Richard was appointed as artistic director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie.

More information : https://ccncn.eu/english/

https://ccncn.eu/english/