Dance as construction and combat
Interview with Françoise Dupuy [extract #1] / 2002

In the course of a filmed interview, Françoise Dupuy recalls the difficult post-war years she lived through as an artist ambassador for German dance. She also remembers the urgent need she felt to run an artistic project after the confinement and isolation which accompanied the conflict.

Updating: November 2010

This dancer and choreographer founded the Ballets modernes de Paris (1954-1979) with Dominique Dupuy (whom she met while working for Jean Weidt), and the International Contemporary Dance Encounters (1969). Appointed as Dance Inspector at the French Ministry of Culture in 1987, Françoise Dupuy worked to set up the State Diploma and initiate dance in schools. In 1990 she became director of the IFEDEM Danse, which in 1996 became the Paris teaching department of the APCND (Preliminary Association for the National Dance Centre). In 1997 she created and ran, with Dominique Dupuy, the Mas de la Danse, a study and research centre for contemporary dance which operated until 2008. Since then, they have concentrated on arranging their archives, while continuing with stage appearances and teaching.

Active on all fronts – as choreographer, animateur, director of a company, researcher and teacher – Françoise Dupuy has also performed, among others, Jean Weidt's “La Cellule” (1949), Deryk Mendel's “Epithalame” (1958), Dominique Dupuy's “La Femme et Son Ombre” (1968) and Jerome Andrews' “Capture Ephémère”. She has been an associated artist at the Ballet Atlantique Régine Chopinot and choreographed “Paso”, “Visage de Terre”, “Antigone”, “Ana non” and “Eclats”. Her dancing and teaching are marked by Hellerau-Luxembourg, her “choreographic cradle”.

Updated: November 2010

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.).