In 1981, choreographer José Montalvo met dancer Dominique Hervieu and began to create short playful works, like choreographic aphorisms, for her to perform. Together, they invented a unique vocabulary, fluid, rapid and precise. They formed the Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu in 1988. At once experimental and poetic, they created a hybrid world as a rampart against xenophobia, questioning the history and geography of dance in highly exuberant and imaginative works. This film takes us to Mali, Cambodia and Tunisia, where choreographers and dancers are asked to create duets at a symbolic site in their respective cities. From one continent to another, performance sequences are combined with documentary footage and the dreamlike images and poetic reflections of José Montalvo. The film focuses on the particular role of dance in each of the countries, underscoring the relationship between identity and cultural diversity. The result is not, strictly speaking, a documentary but rather a joyful collage in which dance becomes a focal point for encounters, and a mirror of our time.

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