Keep dancing – Danser Encore
The Lyon Opera Ballet will perform soli all over the CN D, in a choreographic circuit resulting from the meeting between one different dancer and one different choreographer for each solo. “Danser Encore” wishes to reflect the diversity of contemporary creation and immerse us into a living creative process for contemporary dance. Initiated in 2020 by Lyon Opera Ballet director Julie Guibert, the “Danser Encore” cycle relies on a desire to showcase the individuality of the company’s dancers and to support choreographic creation in the difficult context of a global pandemic by banking on the fertile dialogue between choreographers and performers. From the creation of tailored soli, “Danser Encore” exposes the team work of two people and highlights how diverse contemporary creation is. After conceiving 13 original soli, the Lyon Opera Ballet will continue the project by creating more pieces that will use all the resources of the body, image and movement. Occupying the entire space of the Centre national de la danse over the course of two days, over 10 soli will be performed in the studios and the Atrium, revealing the fragility, lightness, density and particular grain of each performer and the magnitude of their desire to dance.

Komm und birg dein Antliz 

“When I told my martial arts instructor, Akira Hino, about a radically transformative experience in my life (the first one that had nothing to do with dance), he smiled and told me in his thick Japanese accent: “At beginning, everything same”. A clear, simple answer, without pretensions or preconceptions. His words resonated deeply with me when it came to creating this solo for Yan Leiva, a solo which is more like a collaboration than a piece created for him. I thought: “what is the most important and profound thing I could share with Yan during this time? A transformation like the one I experienced a long time ago in Japan? The long process of exploration which led me to develop a method for improvisation and instant choreography? And if so, why? After talking with Yan, I decided to share my most precious knowledge and techniques, not for the sake of consistency, but out of common interest. These techniques focus not only on the piece itself, but also the mental and physical work that goes into it. In a solo, creating space for bodily intelligence and intellectual explorations is just as important as the final piece. The idea is to break the conventions of stage choreography in order to unveil the dancer’s transparent presence, rather than their ability to project presence. There is a kind of verticality, like a thread hanging in the air, ready to fall into the void at any moment. Precision of movement, gaze and presence in the space are essential elements of this method. I thought, sharing them with Yan would be a joyful experience, so why not create a solo based on joy?” 

Source: programme of the CND

Born in Israel in 1984, May Zarhy created her first piece for the National Choreography Biennale Shades in Dance 2001 directed by Neomie Perlov in the Suzanne Dellal Centre Tel Aviv, before moving to the Netherlands in 2002 to study dance at the Rotterdam Dance Academy. In 2005, she assisted William Forsythe in the creation 3 Atmospheric Studies. May was a member in ex.e.r.ce07 in Montpellier France, directed by Mathilde Monnier and Xavier Le Roy. Before working with Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah she created short pieces which were shown in the ITs festival Amsterdam, Korzo theater Den Haag, Tanzdentenzen festival Greifswald etc.

In 2009 she formed together with Fabrice Mazliah and Ioannis Mandafounis the collaborative trio Mamaza and created together ZERO (2009), Cover Up (2011) and Pausing (2012) which have been shown and co-produced by numerous venues and festivals, such as the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, kunstlerhaus mousonturm Frankfurt, The Forsythe Company, Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, PACT Zollverein Essen etc.

May is actually creating her own project with the choreographer Elpida Orfanidou. Parallel to this, May choreographs and teaches contemporary dance and theory seminars.

Ioannis Mandafounis. Born in Athens in 1981, Ioannis Mandafounis studied dance at the National School of Athens and at the Conservatoire de Paris. Before becoming a freelance choreographer, he was part of the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater II and in 2005 became a member of the Forsythe Company where he’s still a guest on a regular basis. In 2004 he formed the Lemurius Company together with Katerina Skiada and Anastasis Gouliaris in Athens with whom he created the pieces Provalondas tin Skia (2005), Anthropines diastasis (2007), Crosstalk (2009) and Yperparagogi (2011), that have been presented in international and national festivals.

He creates P.A.D. (2007), commissioned by the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, and the group work HUE produced by the Forsythe Company, at the Bockenheimer depot in Frankfurt. In 2009 he formed together with Fabrice Mazliah and May Zarhy the collaborative trio Mamaza and created together ZERO (2009) and Cover Up (2011), which have been shown and co-produced by numerous venues and festivals, such as the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, kunstlerhaus mousonturm Frankfurt, The Forsythe Company, Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, PACT Zollverein Essen etc.

During the period 2011-2013 Ioannis is named Artiste associated for one year at DeSingel in Anwerp where he shows most of his works and created the project Songs & Poems with the contemporary music ensemble Nikel. He is currently supported by RESO Swiss as well as the modul-dance project from the European Union with the project Pausing that was commissioned by the Théâtre de l’Usine in Geneva and tours around Switzerland and Europe. Finally Ioannis is also supported by the Bundes Kultur Schtiftung (Germany) under the frame of the Doppel Pass Program and is resident artist at Mousonturm Kunstlerhaus Frankfurt from 2012 till the end of 2014.

Parallel to his chorographical work Ioannis teaches improvisation workshops from the point of view of the ancient martial art Budo, as well as making choreographic works for other companies and schools like: Greek National Opera, Ballet Junior de Geneva, P.A.R.T.S. Bruxels, Palucca Schule Dresden, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and others.

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).

As early as 1969, when arriving at the head of the “Opéra Nouveau de Lyon”, Louis Erlo gave a key place to dance. For the first time, an opera house outside of Paris consecrated to its ballet company entire events devoted to dance.
Ever since, it has never stopped opening up to every kind of source, be it a stream or a river, close or far, harmonious or stormy. But, whatever the case, always talented. Right from the start, the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon has lived out this vivifying opening to the world, with its first directors, the Italian Vittorio Biagi, then the Yugoslav Milko Speremblek and the New-Zealander Gray Veredon, who were all in the neo-classical, Béjartian movement of the times. 

But, as of 1985, it was Françoise Adret who gave the company a resolutely plural turn. “Mère Adret” as her dancers affectionately called her, had an eye, the gift of the gab and a large address book. Above all, Française had travelled widely and her mission was to give the troop a national and international dimension. She built up a repertory based on a twofold spectrum: great international choreographers who were still little demanded, (and not the least of them, including Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, Nacho Duato or William Forsythe) and an opportunity given to “young French dance” (Mathilde Monnier, Maryse Delente, or Angelin Preljocaj)… In any troop, there are moments of grace. But, in Lyon, a lightning bolt was to change the course of history. In 1985, no one imagined that a magical doll (Maguy Marin’s Snow White) would provide the company with a world tour, with no fewer than three trips to the USA in just 1987… Three years later, Lyon did it again by creating the famous rereading of Romeo and Juliet by Angelin Prejlocaj. This was a fresh challenge (and, for the choreographer, his first important commission), and another memorable piece. The die was now cast …
When, in 1991, the Greek ballet-master and director Yorkos Loukos replaced Françoise Adret, the trend was set and has continued to thrive until today, with an extremely open-minded “choreographic” palette. Maguy Marin, who had become resident choreographer, set off even more sparks when, in 1993, she inaugurated the new Opéra de Lyon with an offbeat version of Coppélia set in a popular bar in the suburbs of Lyon. With turnings-back towards the history of dance, views of the contemporary scene, visions of what it will be tomorrow, a plurality of styles, the ages of the choreographers, their origins, and backgrounds, the strength of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon comes from the very absence of any particularity, except if it is the highly diverse repertory as sought out by Yorgos Loukos. It goes without saying that it attracts the public (who love novelty) and today’s young dancers, who like and are used to changes of style. Even the teachers are in constant motion, changing every month, so as to avoid any routine.

Today, the company has a repertory of 117 pieces, over half of which are creations. A list of the choreographers who have worked in Lyon is a reminder of the importance of the pioneers of new French dance (Mathilde Monnier, Jean-Claude Gallotta) and its young cousins (from Jérôme Bel to Christian Rizzo, Alain Buffard or Rachid Ouramdane). It also means meeting the guiding lights of modern American dance (Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, Lucinda Childs), from post-classic energy (William Forsythe, Benjamin Millepied) to the "next wave" (such as Otto Ramstad). It means exploring Belgian musicality (de Keersmaeker) Swedish theatricality (Mats Ek), Czech lyricism (Jiří Kylián), or Israeli power (Ohad Naharin, Emanuel Gat). It means getting used to seeing new talents (Tania Carvalho, Alessandro Sciarroni, Marina Mascarell..). It means… being at the confluences of a dance that has never been so open to the world.

Source: Opéra de Lyon 's website

More information : opera-lyon.com