Pierre Lacotte born 1932. 

I trained at the Opera School. In 1946 I joined the Corps de  Ballet and Serge Lifar chose me as soloist in "Septuor". Promoted to  PREMIER DANSEUR in 1951, I frequently partnered Yvette Chauvire, Lycette  Darsonval and Christiane Vaussard. 

One of my first choreographic works ("The Night is a Sorceress"  to music by Sydney Bechet) was shown on Belgian television in 1954, and  this led me to leave the Opera in order to continue with choreography.  In 1955 I formed my own company, Les Ballets de la Tour Effel, who  appeared at the Theatre des Champs Elysees with the following works:  "Solstices", to music by Daniel Wayenberg, "Gosse de Paris" to music by  Charles Asnavour and "Concertino" to music by Vivaldi. 

At the same time I was pursuing my dancing career and I was  invited to perform in New York with Melissa Hayden, in London with  Violette Verdy and in Benelux, Germany and Switzerland. Several  Festivals commissioned ballets from me: "Such Sweet Thunder" (Duke  Ellington) in Berlin, "Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) for the Festival du  Marais and "Le Combat de Tancrede" (Monteverdi) for Aix-en-Provence.  Following my appointment as Director of Ballet of the Jeunesses  Musicales de France in 1963, I created 35 ballets in 7 years, including  "Bifurcations", "Hamlet", "Penthesilee" and "La Voix" in collaboration  with Edith Piaf. 

It was in 1968 whilst writing a book on romantic ballet that I  discovered documents about Philippe Taglioni‘s "La Sylphide" (1832)  which enabled me to reconstruct the work. Produced originally for  television, "La Sylphide" was subsequently transferred to the stage when  the Paris Opera invited me and the dancers (Ghislaine Thesmar and  Michael Denard) to repeat the performance at the Palais Garnier on 9  June 1972. 

After that I sort of became a "specialist" in the reconstruction  of works from the romantic repertoire: "Coppelia" and the pas de six  from "La Vivandiere" (Arthur saint-Leon) as well as the pas de deux from  "Papillon" (Marie Taglioni) for the Paris Opera (I danced this pas de  deux with Dominique Khalfouni in 1976), Taglioni‘s "La Fille du Danube"  for the Buenos Aires Colon Theatre, "Giselle" by Jean Corelli and Jules  Perrot (set and costumes based on the original 1841 production) for the  Ballet du Rhin, the Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Ballet National de  Nancy, "Nathalie or the Swiss Milkmaid" for Ekaterina Maximova in Moscow  (1980), "Marco Spada" by Joseph Mazilier at the Rome Opera in 1981 and  at the Paris Opera in 1985, "La Gitana" at the National Ballet of WARSAW  and "L‘Ombre" at the Ballet National de Paris, both in 1993, Le Lac des  Fees" at the Berlin Staatsoper in (1995) and "Le Lac des Cygnes" at  Nancy (1998). 

Having taught at the Conservatoire National Superior and at the  Paris Opera, I was appointed, with Ghislane Thesmar, Director of the new  Ballets Monte-Carlo where I put on "Te Deum" by Georges Bizet and "24  Hours in the Life of a Woman" based on the work by Stefan Zweig to a  score by Herve Niquet. I left in 1988 for the Verona Opera Ballet. From  1991 to 1999 I was Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Nancy and  Lorraine. 

Master of Arts and Literature, I co-authored with Jean-Pierre Pastori a book entitled "Tradition". 

Michel Fokine, original name Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokine,  (born April 23 [April 11, old style], 1880, St. Petersburg, Russia—died  Aug. 22, 1942, New York City), dancer and choreographer who profoundly influenced the 20th-century classical ballet repertoire. In 1905 he composed the solo The Dying Swan for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. As chief choreographer for the impresario Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes from 1909 to 1914, he created L’Oiseau de feu (1910; The Firebird) and Petrushka (1911).

Fokine was born of a prosperous middle-class family and entered the Imperial Ballet School at the Mariinsky  Theatre in 1889, where he distinguished himself for the breadth of his  interests and studies. Fokine was talented not only as a dancer but also  as a student of music and painting. He had a fresh and inquiring  attitude toward everything connected with the ballet and began quite  early to plan choreography,  to seek appropriate music in the school library, and to sketch designs.  His development as a dancer—he made his debut with the Imperial Russian Ballet on his 18th birthday—was paralleled by his development as a choreographer and designer.

In 1904 he wrote the scenario for his first ballet, which was based on the ancient Greco-Roman legend of Daphnis and Chloe.  He sent it to the director of the Imperial Theatre with a note about  reforms he wanted to see adopted by choreographers and producers. His  crusade for artistic unity in ballet had already begun, but at this  stage it made little impact. He was not encouraged to produce Daphnis et Chloé (he created it later, in 1912, for Diaghilev).

All the same, although at St. Petersburg he had no power to implement his beliefs, he began to work as a choreographer. His first ballet, created in 1905 for performance by his pupils, was Acis et Galatée,  based on an ancient Sicilian legend. Fokine’s enthusiasm for antiquity  owed nothing in origin to the “free dance” ideas of the American dancer Isadora Duncan, although her appearance in Russia in 1905 greatly consolidated his own views. In 1905 he also composed the brief solo The Dying Swan for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.  He continued to create ballets and three of his Mariinsky works were  included in revised versions in the momentous season of the Ballets Russes that Diaghilev arranged in Paris in 1909: Le Pavillon d’Armide, Une Nuit d’Égypte (Cléopâtre), and Chopiniana (Les Sylphides).

Fokine was an integral  part of the Ballets Russes’s Paris triumph. Diaghilev’s genius for  bringing artists together in successful collaboration made Fokine, as  his chief choreographer, the link between the dancers Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Adolph Bolm; the designers Alexandre Benois and Léon Bakst; and the composer Igor Stravinsky, in such superbly unified creations as L’Oiseau de feu and Petrushka.

Fokine’s  relationship with the Diaghilev ballet deteriorated when Diaghilev  launched Nijinsky as choreographer; but he remained with the company  until 1914, when he returned to Russia. Also in that year, he set down  his manifesto on ballet in a letter to The Times  (London), advocating the creation in each ballet of a new form of  movement corresponding to the subject, period, and character of the  music; that dancing and mime  have no meaning unless they express dramatic action; that conventional  mime should be used only when the style of the ballet requires it;  otherwise, meaning should be expressed by the movement of the whole  body; that this expressiveness should extend from the individual to the  group, to ensembles as much as to solos; and that there should be  complete equality in the alliance of the component arts that make up a  ballet—dance, music, and scenic and costume design.

Fokine left Russia in 1918 and made his home in New York City from 1923. He worked with various companies in the U.S. and Europe, creating new ballets, such as L’Épreuve d’amour (1936) and Don Juan (1936). None of these later ballets, however, had the impact of his earlier work. He began his last ballet, a comedy, Helen of Troy, for the American Ballet Theatre shortly before his death. It was completed by David Lichine and was premiered at Mexico City on Sept. 10, 1942. His wife, the dancer Vera Fokina, who had performed in many of his ballets, survived him until 1958.

One  of the few choreographers to come to a first rehearsal with clear and  complete ideas for a ballet, Fokine had great facility and speed in  choreographic invention, intense musicality, and the ability to memorize  an orchestral score. He was by no means equable at work. Tamara Karsavina wrote in her autobiography Theatre Street that “he was extremely irritable and had no control of his temper,” but she emphasized that dancers became devoted to him.

The  vocabulary of classical ballet has been enormously extended since  Fokine’s day, and subsequent audiences sometimes feel that his  choreography is dated. Those of his ballets remaining in production have  inevitably suffered distortion. He himself was conscious that this  would happen. “The longer a ballet exists in the repertoire,” he wrote  in his Memoirs, “the further it departs from its original  version. . . . After my death the public, watching my ballets, will  think ‘What nonsense Fokine staged! ”

Source: Kathrine Sorley Walker, Encyclopedia Britannica

Jean-Paul Gravier was director of the Rhin National Opera in 1990, in Mulhouse. He succeeded Peter Van Dyk, and his direction was followed by Bertrand d'At's in 1997.

Source: Rhin National Opera

At the end of his teenage years, José Montalvo began studying history of art and plastic arts. He was fascinated by the Dada period and its countless inventions. Whilst continuing his university studies, he took dance classes with Jerome Andrews and Françoise and Dominique Dupuy – and joined their company, the Ballets Modernes de Paris – and continued his dance training with Carolyn Carlson, Lucinda Childs, Alwin Nikolais and Merce Cunningham.

José Montalvo's first creations were short fun-filled pieces, types of choreographic aphorisms, mini danced novels filled with emotions, for which he was honoured with a variety of international awards. One of his performers was called Dominique Hervieu: it was the beginning of an artistic adventure and profound complicity that would result in the creation of the compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu in 1988. In 1989, José Montalvo moved on to an innovational path with the creation of “in situ” events: Dances to see and to dance. In July 1993, invited to the Paris Quartier d'été Festival, he was one of the first choreographers to be associated with the Bal Moderne which was created at the Théâtre National de Chaillot at this time.

Another decisive moment the same year: “Double Trouble”, created with the complicity of the video artist Michel Coste, inaugurated a cycle of works where technological images and the physical presence of dancers were confronted with each other. This period led to the creation of a series of works that intertwine with each other and that, whilst being self-sufficient, could, one day, be applied together, like a great baroque-style fresco. This led to great success. In 1998, José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu were appointed as directors of the Centre chorégraphique national (National Choreographic Centre) in Creteil, Val de Marne. In 2000, José Montalvo was also appointed as dance director of the Théâtre National de Chaillot which was then directed by Ariel Goldenberg.

In 2001, “Le Jardin io io ito ito” was awarded the Laurence Olivier Prize. In 2004, the choreography and the production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera “Les Paladins” won unanimous critical acclaim. The performance was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Prize and obtained the prize for the best live recording of an opera for the film produced by François Roussillon. It was also shown in Shanghai, Athens, Paris and Tokyo. Next followed “On danse”(2005) and a diptych devoted to George Gershwin in 2008, with a production of “Porgy and Bess”for the Opéra de Lyon and, echoing this, a luminous choreographic work created for the Biennale de la danse in Lyon: “Good Morning, Mr. Gershwin”.

In 2006, he was awarded the SACD Prize for all of his works. In June 2008, José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu accepted the proposal to direct the Théâtre National de Chaillot. “Orphée” and “Lalala Gershwin” were created in 2010 and sealed their last joint creations before Dominique Hervieu left to become director of the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale de la danse in Lyon. José Montalvo continues his missions at the Théâtre National de Chaillot alongside Didier Deschamps, around his own creations and privileges events that contribute to renewing the relationship of the theatre with the public. In June 2013, he will be, in particular, the creator and coordinator of an event focusing on amateur activities.

Sources:  Théâtre National de Chaillot ; Maison de la Danse show program

Born in 1962 in Coutances (Normandy, France), Dominique Hervieu has had a voracious appetite for every form of movement since she was six years old. After her first love, gymnastics, she elected dance as the new object of her passion : classical dance, at first, which she practised for a dozen years, mainly with Michèle Latini; and then contemporary dance, with Peter Goss, Alwin Nicolais and Hervé Diasnas.

In 1981, she met José Montalvo and with him developed an original gestural language – fluid, rapid and precise – that would impart a singular style to their works. In 1988, their close artistic bond yielded Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu, which performs at the leading venues in France and beyond. Ten years and five new pieces later, the duo were appointed to head the Centre Chorégraphique National de Créteil et du Val-de- Marne. Since 2000, Dominique Hervieu has co- devised all the pieces by Compagnie Montalvo- Hervieu, which ranks among the most popular and recognised contemporary-dance companies in France and abroad.

In 2000, they specially created Variation au Paradis for the opening ceremony of the Cannes International Film Festival. That year, Dominique Hervieu became artistic adviser to the Théâtre National de Chaillot and was appointed director of the venue’s youth programme. She conducted original arts-education actions, drawing on connections between dance works and artistic practices on the one hand, and on those between the arts on the other hand, in partnership with the Musée du Louvre and several other Paris institutions. She notably conceived a choreographic trail at the Louvre in 2004, attracting 5,000 spectators.

In 2001 she created "Mosaïque... Danse(s) d’une ville", a piece for 180 amateur dancers aged 15 to 85: a multicultural portrait in dance of the town of Créteil, which involved residents in the creative process. In 2002 and 2003 she devised two pieces on her own: "Intervallo Brio" at the Mettre en scène festival, a work for two virtuoso dancers, a grandfather and two little girls; and "Le Corbeau et le renard", a dance version of La Fontaine’s fable.

In 2006 she created "La Bossa Fataka" de Rameau with José Montalvo. With Montalvo she also choreographed and directed two operas : "Les Paladins", under the musical direction of William Christie of Les Arts Florissants, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (2004); and George Gershwin’s "Porgy and Bess" at the Opéra National de Lyon (2008).
Also in 2006, Dominique Hervieu created L’artde la rencontre - Cartes postales chorégraphiques for " Les Francophonies ! " festival, in conjunction with four choreographers from the Francophone world. These collaborations gave rise to 12 filmed duos and provided the material for a documentary for Arte. In June 2008, Hervieu was appointed director of the Théâtre National de Chaillot. The duo’s most recent work, "Orphée", was staged in 2010. In July that year she initiated Imaginez Maintenant, a national event to promote young artists, in conjunction with France’s High Commissioner for Youth and its Council for Artistic Creation.  In July 2011, she succeeded Guy Darmet as general manager of La Maison de la Danse and as artistic director of the Lyon Dance Biennial.

Since 2014, Dominique Hervieu has been developing the international part of the Lyon Dance Biennial parade by inviting groups of major European cities (Turin and Barcelona). In 2018, she will be the Artistic Director of the Triennial of Yokohama Dance, Dance, Dance.

Source: Maison de la Danse

La Ribot, born in Madrid, lived and worked in London between 1997 and 2004. Today she lives and works in Geneva. Under her diva’s name, La Ribot, she has created dance pieces that have received numerous awards, and that are placed at the crossroads of contemporary dance, the performing arts, performance and video. 

Over the last ten years, La Ribot has created a demanding but humorous vocabulary, exploring the field of geometry through her famous Distinguished Series pieces. 

La Ribot’s work forms a system allowing her to conduct research and to develop and question the temporal, spatial and conceptual limits of dance, as her work rests on the confluences of the performing arts, performance and graphic arts. 

Since 2000 La Ribot has shown a strong interest in video and its basic functions. This is what led her to construct pieces filmed live from the viewpoint of the body in movement. By presenting her work in internationally renowned galleries, theatres, festivals of dance, the performing arts and performances, La Ribot uses dance in a pertinent and logical manner as a means of challenging disciplinarity.

www.laribot.com