Dead dreams of monochrome men - Lloyd Nelson

Homosexuality has long been dealt with indirectly in choreographic creation. But the appearance of the AIDS virus changed this. In an approach perceived at the time of the creation as provocative, Lloyd Nelson is inspired by the serial killer Dennis Nilsen, who murdered gay men in London at the beginning of the 1980s. The choreographer places the dance in a hangar, which evokes “a sadomasochistic gay night club where four bodies explore the games of male desire, the theatre of sexual violence, voluntary submission and domination”. He stages the dancers in a both sensual and abrupt manner, intensifying the gaze of the spectator and also questioning his possible position of “voyeur”.

Violences civiles about the piece Insurrection - Odile Duboc

Odile Duboc is attached to the relationship between the person and the group. The choreographer sets both the singular and collective body to movement. In the tradition of a “classical” questioning of the relationship between society and the individual, she seeks to discover how the dancing bodies can be organised and thus immerses herself in problems related to the functioning of society.

Final/ment/seule - Cécile Proust

Final/ment/seule is a series of actions, performances and shows entitled Femmeuses, in which the dancer and choreographer Cécile Proust seeks “to question the place of women in art and in our society, as well as the coding of bodies and genders”. In this “femmeusesaction#19”, she recycles testimonies, texts and images from archives collected during her research, but also some of her own performances. The artist thus revisits theoretical writings and militant speeches from the feminist and “queer” movements, while injecting them with humour, her own reflection on the complex concepts of sexual identity and gender.

The spectator's moment – Mamela Nyamza

The personal engagement of a choreographer depending on the society in which they live is sometimes the drive behind their artistic creation. For Mamela Nyamza, it is crucial to point out all the forms of inequalities and violence in South African contemporary society.

Manta - Hela Fattoumi et Éric Lamoureux

Created by the choreographers Hela Fattoumi et Éric Lamoureux, the show Manta delivers a point of view on an extremely controversial question which affects all of contemporary French society – the wearing of the Muslim hijab. At a time when the question of legislating the wearing of the hijab has arisen, Héla Fattoumi, born in Tunis in 1965, wishes to embody what the hijab represents for a woman of today. The artists’ proposition of such a question concerns the way in which they set up their function in a given society, but also the way in which the spectator claims ownership of the artistic invitation made to him.

Interview around Ha - Madame Plaza

Chantier autorisé au public - Boris Ganga Bouetoumoussa

There are the festivals, the co-productions, the artistic networks etc. But sometimes, there is none of this. The choreographers then invent other methods of production, action and creation. They invite themselves into reality, but above all they intervene in reality. This film was based on the choreographic research task by Boris Ganga Bouetoumoussa. Here, reality becomes the place where dance is not essential, but perseveres; where dance does not say anything, but takes over from everyday life; where it bridges boundaries, but creates true bonds; where it doesn't resemble anything, but liberates. For the Congolese artist Boris Ganga, it matters that the dance on a building site gains a real audience. And conversely, it matters that the audience is accepted on the building site.

Dé-camper - Christophe Haleb

In Dé-camper, an in situ creation from 2006, the choreographer Christophe Haleb continues his questioning of the use of places and space, and of the methods of consumption. He asked his dancers to take over four windows of Printemps Haussmann in Paris. The artist thus modifies the relationship between fiction and reality, between seeing and being seen, questioning the devices of exposure of bodies and advertising strategies, which - under cover to help us escape - sometimes domesticate our imaginations and our performances.

The Centre national de la danse (CN D) is a national art center dedicated to dance. It’s an instititution dependent on the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and devoted to dance in all its aspects: the promotion of shows and choreographers, the dissemination of choreographic culture, artistic creation, and pedagogy.