Choreography by Josette Baïz  
A choreographic extract remodelled by the L’Autre Nous choreographic group (Privas), artistic coordinator Émilie Blache, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2013) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group

The association L’Autre Nous has worked towards the development of dance in Ardèche since 2004, through training, creation and dissemination activities. Émilie Blache, a dancer and teacher, wished to propose choreographic workshops to her most motivated students. In 2009, the L’Autre Nous choreographic group was the result of these workshops and of a desire to live out the adventure of creation and the show. Over these years, the dancers have created choreographic works, in a contemporary approach, combining a variety of aesthetics and techniques (classical, jazz, tap dance, body percussions, etc.). The ten dancers (all female) in the group are aged eleven to seventeen. 

The project

The chosen work is an ensemble of three pieces paying tribute to the choreographer Trisha Brown, who, through their meeting, greatly marked Josette Baïz’s work. These three pieces were created for three groups of dancers: the duet for experienced dancers, a Line Up for children, and a Line Up for teenagers. Félix Heaulme, a dancer from the company Grenade, danced the duet Hommage à Trisha for the creation of the show Grenade, les 20 ans ! At the age of ten, he joined the group Grenade and thus, at the same age as the youngsters concerned by the project, discovered one of Josette Baïz’s works. Through its evocation of Trisha Brown’s work and the specificity of Josette Baïz‘s choreographic work, this piece guided the dancers towards the notion of improvisation during the rehearsal sessions scheduled around the transmission times.

The choreographer

Trained by Odile Duboc, Josette Baïz has taught contemporary dance since 1978 in Aix-en-Provence, the city where she created her first choreographies. In 1989, a milestone in her artistic career, she moved for a year’s residency into the northern suburbs of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence where she met young people from different origins and cultures. The work they carried out together led her to radically rethink her approach. With them she developed a style, which she called “Grenade” like the group of young dancers that she set up in 1992 and the company of professional interpreters derived from this group, created in 1998. This offshoot around a bright fruit with its tasty juice is also the emblem of long, generous work around cross-culture. A cultural mosaic that, each time, comes to life in her shows in new outlines.  

Josette Baïz, who was trained by Odile Duboc, has been teaching contemporary dance since 1978 in Aix-en-Provence, where she created her first choreographies for young dancers who took part in her classes.

In 1982, when she was a dancer for Jean-Claude Gallotta, Josette Baïz won first prize in the 14th edition of the Bagnolet International Choreographic Competition, as well as the public prize and the French Minister for Culture's prize. She went on to found her first company: The Place Blanche, and has since created over 40 works, for her own companies and for an array of national (Toulouse, Jeune Ballet de France of the Lyon Conservatory, etc.) and international ballets (Boston, Royal Ballet of Phnom Penh, Germany, Venezuela, The Netherlands, etc.).

In 1989, the French Minister for Culture invited her for a year as artist in residence for a school in the Northern districts of Marseille. This encounter with young people, from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, led her to reconsider the signification of her work and to radically modify her artistic approach.
The confrontation with proposals as diverse as breakdance, smurf, hip-hop, oriental, gypsy, Indian and African dance, obliged her to totally reappraise the physical and mental skills she had acquired.
She was totally unacquainted with the supports, the way the ground was used, the circular movements of the hips, the sharp strikes of flamenco and the loosened pelvis of African dances.

And so, a process of mutual exchange was initiated: Josette Baïz taught contemporary, classical dance and composition in research workshops; the young dancers taught her their way of asserting their origins and feelings.

It was, therefore, only natural for Josette Baïz to create the Groupe Grenade, which brought together over thirty young dancers, in 1992. In 1998, Josette decided to perpetuate the cross-cultural work undertaken with the Groupe Grenade, whilst continuing to pursue an intensely contemporary perspective. She created the compagnie Grenade which comprised five key dancers from the Groupe Grenade.

Josette Baïz's wish is to continue to enhance this choreographic repertoire by continuing to partner artistically with French and international choreographers; by taking part in cutting-edge and original multidisciplinary projects and, as such, initiating encounters and exchange.

Source : Grenade - Josette Baïz Cie 's website

More information

josette-baiz.com

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
+33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme