The director of the Centre Chorégraphique d'Aix-en-Provence since 1996, Angelin Preljocaj develops a repertoire work that mixes classical works and contemporary creation. Undoubtedly why he has been called on a number of times by various ballet companies and particularly by the Opéra de Paris. This process has affected his gestural technique that combines these two types of language with a style hovering between fiction and abstraction.

Settings designed by Enki Bilal, watchtowers and armed gangs, it is in this bloody, violent and chilling universe that Angelin Preljocaj imagines Romeo and Juliet. The choreographer explains that he has recourse indifferently to classical dance or contemporary dance that he works on according to the result he wishes to obtain. He then reverts to the value of transmission, that duty of remembrance that keeps barbarity at bay. Other elements present in his reflection are dynamism, corporal architecture and physical laws. For Angelin Preljocaj, the issues of rhythm, energy and speed are also a means of transforming emotions and energies in order to redeploy his approach onto the stage as directly as possible.

Source : Irène Filiberti

Angelin Preljocaj was born in the Paris region, in France, and began studying classical ballet before turning to contemporary dance, which he studied with Karin Waehner.
In 1980, he went to New York to work with Zena Rommett and Merce Cunningham, after which he resumed his studies in France, there his teachers included the American choreographer Viola Farber and the French one Quentin Rouillier. He then joined Dominique Bagouet before founding his own company in December 1984.

His productions are now part of the repertoire of many companies, many of which also commission original production from him, notably La Scala of Milan, the New York City Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet. He has made short films ("Le postier", "Idées noires" in 1991) and several full-length films, notably "Un trait d’union" and "Annonciation" (1992 and 2003). In 2009, he directed "Snow White", featuring his own piece, and in 2011 he signed, for Air France, the commercial "L’Envol", based on the choreography of "Le Parc".
Since then he has collaborated on several films of his own choreographic work: « Les Raboteurs » with Cyril Collard (based on the painting by Gustave Caillebotte) in 1988, « Pavillon Noir » with Pierre Coulibeuf in 2006 and « Eldorado/ Preljocaj » with Olivier Assayas in 2007.

Since October 2006, the Ballet Preljocaj and its 24 permanent dancers have resided at the Pavillon Noir in Aix-en-Provence, a building entirely dedicated to dance, with Angelin Preljocaj as its artistic director. Made with Valérie Müller, the first full-length feature film by Angelin Preljocaj, « Polina », danser sa vie, adapted from the graphic novel by Bastien Vivès, came out in cinemas on November 2016.

Source: Ballet Preljocaj 's website

More information

preljocaj.org

This collection dedicated to contemporary French choreographers is presented as a series of encounters around a creation. These portraits, which alternate interviews and extracts from performances, propose an approach to dance through thought and the issues of the body, while making visible the link existing between reflection and representation.

 In the early 1980s, a new generation of choreographers emerged on the French scene. Occupying theatres with a radically different conception of dance, they won over a public and ensured their work and ideas would last. Today, most of them direct a national choreographic centre (CCN) or a recognised company. In the course of their career or in their work processes, they all ask questions linked to the world – whether focused on the body, writing, dance components (in particular space and time) or the relationship to other artistic forms.

Angelin Preljocaj - Centre chorégraphique national d'Aix-en-Provence (1996) 

Catherine Diverrès - Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne (1996) 

Charles Cré-Ange, compagnie Cré-Ange (1997) 

Claude Brumachon - Centre chorégraphique national de Nantes (1998) 

Jean-Claude Gallotta - Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble (1996) 

Josef Nadj - Centre chorégraphique national d'Orléans (1997) 

Mathilde Monnier - Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier (1998) 

Odile Duboc - Centre chorégraphique national de Franche-Comté (1997) 

Philippe Decouflé, compagnie DCA (1998) 

Régine Chopinot - Centre chorégraphique national de La Rochelle/Poitou-Charentes (1998)