2026 – Lecture series on dance, at the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin, Paris (20th district):
In collaboration with Georgey Souchette and dancers studying at the Georges Bizet Conservatory (Paris 20th district):
- Thursday, April 2, at 7:00 pm: “Who am I?” – Interpretation in dance
The performer plays a major role in choreographic creation. The way each individual dances gives a personal tone to movement. How does the same choreography vary depending on the performer? Kontakthof was first created by Pina Bausch for her company of dancers in their thirties, then restaged with “ladies and gentlemen aged 65 and over,” and finally with “young people aged 14 and over.” How do performers initiate movement? How do they make it their own?
The dancers of the Georges Bizet Conservatory (Paris 20th district) will embody this lecture through movement, in collaboration with Georgey Souchette and in dialogue with Geisha Fontaine.
- Thursday, March 12, at 7:30 pm: Balance, imbalance: on the verge of tipping!
Choreographer William Forsythe states that “balance is only a suspended moment within movement.” For Merce Cunningham, “movement begins when the body loses its balance.” Doris Humphrey, in turn, emphasizes fall and recovery in the organization of movement, describing it as “moving away from a position of balance and returning to it.” Balance, especially on one leg, is a familiar figure in dance. Yet imbalances are just as important. Falls, tilts, suspensions, rebounds, shifts… dance delights in them. Life does too!
Under the guidance of Georgey Souchette, young dancers from the Georges Bizet Municipal Conservatory will present multiple reversals of movement. Geisha Fontaine will introduce several perspectives on the interplay between balance and imbalance in choreographic creation.
Lectures – May and June 2025 – Carré de Baudouin
Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 7pm: Dance and architecture – Movement and solidity! Dance and architecture create assemblages, play with levels and volumes, and invite movement through spaces, encouraging their diversion and transformation. Dance takes on different styles depending on whether it unfolds in traditional proscenium theaters or in outdoor settings. It dialogues with architecture, responds to it, escapes from it, and inhabits it in its own way.
Thursday, June12, 2025 at 7pm: X-Y – Dance and its genders – X–Y – dance and its genders / What images and representations of men and women emerge in choreographic creation? Today, professional dance appears to be largely female (even though positions of power remain predominantly male). And yet, throughout history and across the world, male dancers have always been an integral part of dance. All genders lift their legs, spin, and unfold movement.
…and from October 2024 to February 2025
Saturday, October 19, 2024: Dance and visual arts, interweavings – The visual arts and dance observe each other! Each of these arts engages materials, colors, and movements that meet, converse, and complement one another. Let’s explore choreographic works that reveal multiple worlds, the fruits of unexpected collaborations. A hundred years ago, Matisse, Picasso, and Léger created for dance. More recently? Luc Boltanski and Dominique Bagouet, Andy Goldsworthy and Régine Chopinot have collaborated. Théo Mercier and François Chaignaud blur the boundaries. Sometimes, choreographers themselves exhibit in art centers…
Saturday, November 16, 2024: The times of dance – Dance is a living art form. While the present moment of meeting the audience is crucial, multiple temporalities are also at play in choreography : beginnings and endings, durations, repetitions, speeds, traces, suspensions. Linear time, cyclical time…Each artist creates their own time. Let us weave together the hours of dance and intertwine the moments – of the dancer, the choreographer, and the spectator. What an infinity!
Saturday, January 25, 2025: Dance goes to the movies Filming dance ? Dancing in films? These two arts go hand in hand. Let’s take a look ! From the “recordings” of choreographic performances to the captivating dance scenes in films, from early images of Loïe Fuller to musicals, from choreographer-filmmakers to filmmaker-dancers , so much movement ! Onstage, on the big screen, everywhere.
Saturday, February 22, 2025: When dance dresses, costumes itself, undresses… Throughout the history and techniques of dance, clothing has played an important role. From long gowns to short tutus, from small-heeled sandals to bare feet, from costumes created by Picasso or Jean-Paul Gaultier to jeans–t-shirts–sneakers, garments parade across the stage, sometimes discreetly, sometimes disappearing altogether. Costume is a visual element, but it also affects the dancer’s mobility : it is a partner in performance. From Antiquity to today, let’s celebrate dance through balls, bacchanals, carnivals, or fashion parades…
In 2024, between February and May – Four Conferences
Tuesday, February 6, 2024: A dance performance? What are the Stakes? – Dance is a living art realized through the moving body. Some choreographers see movement as dance’s primary material, others use it to serve a theme; yet others blur the lines between the arts… What are the stakes of a dance performance? On what perceptions does it rely? Must it necessarily “mean” something?
Tuesday, March 5, 2024: Choregraphic composition – The way a choreographic creation is structured is decisive. There are many ways to build dance – by composing in fragments, through a linear development, or by relying on chance or repetition… Various compositional processes will be discussed, with a particular focus on the organization of a performance’s temporal structure.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024: Dance and the other arts – What relationships does dance maintain with other art forms? In what ways is it unique? What influences can be observed across different artistic fields? Choreographers often collaborate with composers, visual artists, writers, and others. What forms of collaboration do they favor ?
Tuesday, May 28, 2024: Space in dance, the space of dance – Space is a major element in dance. We will first explore the uses of space in choreographic creation, then move on to discuss the venues where dance is performed and how they interact with the shows they host. We will journey from the Italian-style theatre to a garden, from the street to an airport runway, from a museum to a swimming pool, spaces for dance are many and varied.
All conferences are illustrated with excerpts from videos of shows.