Histoires condansées
2015 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Foofwa d'Imobilité (Switzerland)
Present in collection(s): Centre national de la danse , CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Histoires condansées
2015 - Director : Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Choreographer(s) : Foofwa d'Imobilité (Switzerland)
Present in collection(s): Centre national de la danse , CN D - Spectacles et performances
Video producer : Centre national de la danse
Integral video available at CND de Pantin
Histoires condansées
In addition to being an exceptional dancer and famous choreographer, Foofwa d'Imobilité is a peerless instructor. He loves to transmit his passion for movement, for all movement. In Histoires condansées, convinced that a performer is above all an imitator, he uses his talent for replication on a journey into 20th century history. From Isadora Duncan to Merce Cunningham, Rudolf Laban and Vaslav Nijinsky, he dances, mimes, sings, recounts, constructs and deconstructs the aesthetics, techniques and concepts of the dancing body through time. Each section of the performance evokes another kind of tale. The challenge of this danced lesson, which is as funny as it is fascinating, is to spark the interest of the uninitiated and the younger generations just as much as connoisseurs and professionals of dance.
Updating: April 2015
Foofwa d'Imobilité
Born Frédéric Gafner in Geneva in 1969, son of Brazilian prima ballerina and dance teacher Beatriz Consuelo and solo dancer turned theatre photographer Claude Gafner, Foofwa d’Imobilité studied at the Geneva Dance Centre and worked with the Ballet Junior (1981-1987) under his mother’s direction. He then danced professionally with the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany (1987-1990) before joining the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York (1991-1998).
He began working as a choreographer in 1998, creating three multimedia solos.
In 2000, he established the Neopost Foofwa Association in Geneva, with which he produced several group performances. Foofwa has worked in association with mix-media artists Alan Sondheim; artist Antoine Lengo; musicians Fast Forward, Jim O’Rourke, Christian Marclay, Elliot Sharp, Polar, Brice Catherin, Claude Jordan, Nicolas Sordet and Séni; visual artists Nicolas Rieben and Alexia Walther; video makers Pascal Magnin, Nicolas Wagnières and Pascal Dupoy; choreographers Thomas Lebrun and Corina Pia; author Mathieu Bertholet; lighting designers Liliane Tondellier, Jean-Marc Serre, Marc Gaillard, Yves Godin and Jonathan O’Hear; scientists Olaf Blanke and Vincent Barras; dance researcher Annie Suquet and journalist-critic Christina Thurner.
He has studied the relationship between dance and sport and invented the “dancerun”, a hybrid activity between dancing and running over several kilometres, either on stage with « Perform.dancerun.2 » (2003) or outside with « Kilometrix.dancerun.4 » (2003). He then studied the relationship between public and choreographic work in « The Making of Spectacles » (2008) and « Quai du Sujet » (2007); the digital body in « Media Vice Versa » (2002), « Avatar dance series », « Second Live series » (videos), and « Body Toys » (2007); the historicity of the dancing body in « Descendansce » (2000), Le Show (2001), MIMESIX (2005), Benjamin de Bouillis (2005), « Musings » (2009), Pina Jackson in « Mercemoriam » (2009) and « Histoires Condansées » (2011). Foofwa has been commissioned by the Nederlands Dans Theater II, the Bern Ballet, the Ballet Junior de Genève, the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) and the Festival d’Avignon in 2010 for « Au Contraire » (à partir de Jean-Luc Godard). He has received the financial backing of the Geneva and the Swiss authorities every year since 2002 and received awards from the Leenaards Foundation in 1999 and the prestigious New York Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2009. He was also awarded the Prix de Lausanne in 1987, the New York Bessie Award in 1995, the Swiss Dance and Choreography Prize in 2006 and the first Swiss Prize for Dance in the “dancer” category in September 2013, among other prizes.
His most recent performances include « Uterus, pièce d’intérieur » (2014), « L’engage » (2014), and « Soi-même comme un autre » (2014).
Source: The company Neopost Foofwa s website
More information
Centre national de la danse, Réalisation
Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).
histoires condansées
Artistic direction / Conception : Foofwa d'Imobilité
Interpretation : Foofwa d'Imobilité
Text : Foofwa d'Imobilité
Duration : 130 minutes
Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis
Exposition virtuelle
Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis
Exposition virtuelle
Une traversée de l’histoire des Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, depuis le Concours de Bagnolet jusqu’aujourd’hui.
Western classical dance enters the modernity of the 20th century: The Ballets russes and the Ballets suédois
Parcours
Western classical dance enters the modernity of the 20th century: The Ballets russes and the Ballets suédois
Parcours
If the 19th century is that of romanticism, the entry into the new century is synonymous of modernity! It was a few decades later that it would be assigned, a posteriori, the name of “neo-classical”.
LE FESTIVAL VAISON DANSES
Exposition virtuelle
LE FESTIVAL VAISON DANSES
Exposition virtuelle
Depuis plus de 20 ans, Vaison Danses accueille les plus grands noms de la danse. La scène du majestueux théâtre antique va à nouveau vibrer en juillet 2019 avec des compagnies internationales prestigieuses et des chorégraphes de renom. L’occasion pour Numeridanse de faire découvrir ce festival !
40 ans de rock et danse
Exposition virtuelle
40 ans de rock et danse
Exposition virtuelle
Chic planète, dansons dessus, oh oh oh
Chic planète, dansons dessus, oh oh oh
Chic planète, dansons dessus...
Et mettons-nous tous nus
> Chanson de l’Affaire Louis Trio (1987)
Indian dances
Parcours
Indian dances
Parcours
Discover Indian dance through choreographic creations which unveil it, evoke it, revisit it or transform it!
Body and conflicts
Parcours
Body and conflicts
Parcours
A look on the bonds which appear to emerge between the dancing body and the world considered as a living organism.
LES CENTRES CHORÉGRAPHIQUES NATIONAUX
Exposition virtuelle
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Exposition virtuelle
Comment sont nés les centres chorégraphiques nationaux (CCN) ? Que représentent-ils aujourd’hui ?
The contemporary Belgian dance
Parcours
The contemporary Belgian dance
Parcours
This Parcours presents different Belgian choreographers who have marked history and participated in the creation of a "Belgian" style.
COLLECTION BAGOUET
Exposition virtuelle
COLLECTION BAGOUET
Exposition virtuelle
La collection Dominique Bagouet sur Numeridanse présente les œuvres les plus emblématiques de son répertoire et s’enrichit au fur et à mesure de films liés à la transmission de son répertoire grâce au travail mené par l’association Les Carnets Bagouet.
Arts of motion
Parcours
Arts of motion
Parcours
Generally associated with circus arts, here is a Journey that will take you on a stroll through different artists from this world.
The committed artist
Parcours
The committed artist
Parcours
In all the arts and here especially in dance, the artist sometimes creates to defend a cause, to denounce a fact, to disturb, to shock. Here is a panorama of some "committed" choreographic creations.
Genres and styles
Parcours
Genres and styles
Parcours
Dance is a rather vast term, which covers a myriad of specificities. These depend on the culture of a country, on a period, on a place. This Journey proposes a visit through dance genres and styles.
Contemporary techniques
Parcours
Contemporary techniques
Parcours
This Parcours questions the idea that contemporary dance has multiples techniques. Different shows car reveal or give an idea about the different modes of contemporary dancer’s formations.
Rituals
Parcours
Rituals
Parcours
Discover how the notion of ritual makes sense in various dances through these extracts.
Genesis of work
Parcours
Genesis of work
Parcours
A dance show is created in multiples steps between the enunciation of an initial desire which launch the project and the first representation. This parcours presents diff
Artistic Collaborations
Parcours
Artistic Collaborations
Parcours
Panorama of different artistic collaborations, from « couples » of choreographers to creations involving musicians or plasticians
Meeting with literature
Parcours
Meeting with literature
Parcours
Collaboration between a choreographer and a writer can lead to the emergence of a large number of combinations. If sometimes the choreographer creates his dance around the work of an author, the writer can also choose dance as the subject of his text.
When reality breaks in
Parcours
When reality breaks in
Parcours
Dance and performance
Parcours
Dance and performance
Parcours
Here is a sample of extracts illustrating burlesque figures in Performances.