Following theatre and visual arts studies, she created her first production in 1998 in stone quarries of Pont-du-Gard. The site’s materials, usages and specificities are at the origin of her work. She asserts her contextual approach by applying it to a number of modern and contemporary architectures. Her choreographies are written and presented in the buildings, whose spatial, historical and human characteristics guide her dramaturgical, plastic and choreographic choices. She advocates applied dance (like “applied art”), where the body serves as a tool to measure the spaces built. Her aim is to give visibility to the movement of places.

 Her love of the gestures taken from the places she occupies has led to her interest in working gestures. She frequently associates with her creations the people she has met in these places (140 inhabitants and tradespeople from the Gratte-ciel in Villeurbanne, 192 amateurs and employees from the Opéra de Lyon). While her performances take place in public places, she develops adaptable projects, based on landscapes and agriculture or on the theme of the funfair.

 She has set up an “Atelier de création radiophonique”, a programme for the radio station France Culture and produced three films: Autour du parc at La Villeneuve in Grenoble with Louise Narboni, Cinq points de vue autorisés on Les Courtillières, with Vladimir Léon and L’Architecte de Saint-Gaudens, with Serge Bozon. She has mounted a number of projects overseas, inviting native dancers, and has written Manuel d’entraînement régulier du danseur urbain and Danser l’architecture (2017).

Source : Cie Despraires