"Naturally Close", a video-dance directed by Jérémy Tran for the Malandain Ballet Biarritz and the brand Schiesser.

Born on the 13th April 1959 in Petit-Quevilly, Thierry Malandain followed the usual path of a classical dancer but with a strong taste for the unconventional and an unusual tenacity. Violette Verdy, who chaired the Prix de Lausanne at which Thierry Malandain competed in 1978, hired him to join the Paris Opera Ballet for the season 1977-1978. There, he met Jean Sarelli, who was then "The" ballet master, and followed him when Sarelli took over the direction of the Ballet du Rhin. Thierry Malandain stayed in Mulhouse until 1980 and then joined the Ballet Théâtre Français de Nancy, directed by Hélène Traïline and Jean-Albert Cartier, until 1986. He successfully made his first experiences as a choreographer during the six years he stayed in Lorraine. In 1984, he won the 1st Prize of the Volinine competition with Quatuor op3, to a score by Guillaume Lekeu. In 1985 and 1986, he succeeded Maguy Marin as winner of the 1st Prize of Nyon choreographic competition in Switzerland with Sonatine, to a score by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Métamorphosis, to the music of Benjamin Britten. 

In 1986, Thierry Malandain made a bet. He left the Ballet Théâtre Français de Nancy with eight dancers and set up the Compagnie Temps Présent in Elancourt (78), in the suburbs of Paris. He deliberately chose to get off the beaten track and undertake a mammoth task. The following season, he was awarded by the Fondation de la Vocation and the Fondation Oulmont and won the 1st Prize of La Baule choreographic competition, the 1st Prize of Vaison-la-Romaine choreographic competition and the Prix de la Nuit des Jeunes Créateurs in Paris with Angelin Preljocaj and Claude Brumachon. Thierry Malandain began to make himself known as a promising young talent thanks to several works: ­­L'Homme aux semelles de vent (1986), created to the music of Benjamin Britten and staged again under the title Les Illuminations (1989) for the dancer Patrick Dupond and the Ballet National de Nancy, Edgar Allan Poe (1988), to scores by Claude Debussy and André Caplet, and especially Folksongs (1986), choreographed to the music of Benjamin Britten and performed by several companies, including the Ballet de Tours of Jean-Christophe Maillot. As people only talked about the “jeune danse française” in 1988, Thierry Malandain, like his colleagues, contributed to the development of dance in the suburbs while proclaiming his attachment to the vocabulary of classical dance. He even created ballets for opera house companies, such as Danses qu'on croise (1987), choreographed to the music of Johannes Brahms for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Nantes. His unique positioning was confusing for the French choreographic community but not for the international audience. On the contrary, people, especially in Belgium, started to talk about the French choreographer who achieved the feat of creating Les Sylphides, to the music of Frédéric Chopin for the Ballet royal de Wallonie, and Petite Lune, to a score by Dmitri Shostakovitch for the Royal Ballet of Flanders, in the same year (1990).

In 1991, Thierry Malandain created Pulcinella by Igor Stravinsky on the stage of the previously called Maison de la Culture in Saint-Etienne. At this time, the director Jean-Louis Pichon was trying to turn the institution into an Opera Theatre—named L’Esplanade in 1994. He needed a choreographer who would be sensitive to music and able to have a strong presence on the ground. He invited the Compagnie Temps Présent for a residence in Saint-Etienne. This event marked the beginning of a collaboration that lasted six years.

In 1997, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and the City of Biarritz offered Thierry Malandain to set up the first classical Centre Chorégraphique Contemporain in the Basque coastal resort of Biarritz. It happened so fast that the Centre Chorégraphique National - Ballet Biarritz opened in September 1998 in the Gare du Midi, a large building abandoned by trains and whose two big square towers overlook Biarritz pleasant gardens.

In 2003, Ballet Biarritz took a major creative step with Les Créatures, choreographed to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. This powerful, graphic and ambitious work engendered a feeling of maturity and poise that earned the Ballet greater recognition. For the first time in its history, the troupe officially performed in Paris (Théâtre national de Chaillot) thanks to Dominique Hervieu and José Montalvo, while Les Créatures were nominated at the Benois de la Danse in Moscow and received the Critics Prize at the 19th International Ballet Festival of Havana in Cuba. In 2004, Le Sang des Etoiles confirmed the company’s success. The CCN then became one of the most productive choreographic centres, with the biggest number of performances per year and a strong international presence. The institution also grew in strength. 

In August 2009, Thierry Malandain was made an “officier” in the Order of Arts and Letters. The new name of the company, "Malandain Ballet Biarritz", heralded a new era for the choreographer. Two new creations followed: Magifique (2009), to the music of Piotr Illitch Tchaikovsky and Roméo et Juliette (2010) by Hector Berlioz. Both found favour with audiences and critics. For the second time of his career, Thierry Malandain collaborated with a composer, Guillaume Connesson, resulting in the ballet Lucifer (2011). The score was interpreted by the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn, conducted by Fayçal Karoui, who is also the musical director of the New York City Ballet. 

In 2013, as Malandain Ballet Biarritz gave more than hundred performances per year, Thierry Malandain created Cendrillon to the music of Sergei Prokofiev to the request of Laurent Bruenner, the director of the Opéra royal de Versailles. The performances of this ballet were given on the wonderful stage of the Royal Opera of the Palace of Versailles with the accompaniment of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi from Donostia-San Sebastián, conducted by Josep Caballé-Domenech. A triumph of humanity, Cendrillon was unanimously acclaimed by the press and audiences. In 2014, Thierry Malandain was named “Best Choreographer” at the Taglioni European Ballet Awards, organised by the Malakhov Foundation in Berlin.

Source : Malandain Ballet’s website

More on : http://malandainballet.com/

His artistic and professional career was built through hybrid and multidisciplinary projects and collaborations, at the confluence of dance, performance, photography and video. Through creation, Jérémy Tran attempts to capture, amplify and transform the energy and presence of the body — based on choreographic and cinematographic research — in order to reveal its essences and instincts.

After starting classical dance at the age of 8, Jérémy Tran, student at the Conservatoire Régional de Lille, decided in 2009 to move towards contemporary dance. It is strong these years and the rewards obtained — triple gold medalist at the French National Confederation of Dance — he joined in 2010 the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon. In 2014, he obtained the National Superior Professional Dancer Diploma, the ADAMI scholarship and the Talent prodij trophy from the city of Lyon. He directed many short films, including Artificial Landscapes, gathering 140 people, which he presented in September 2014 at the International Lyon Dance Biennale, and Dissection of the 60secondsdance Denmark international festival.

In 2015 he was selected to participate as a videographer and performer at the Watermill Center Summer Program in New York and work under the direction of director Robert Wilson. He also choreographed the performance Lagune for 6 dancers and a marionnetist, in collaboration with the visual artist Denis Savary on the occasion of the centenary of the DADA.

In 2016, he obtained the Master 2 Development of International Artistic and Cultural Projects (with highest honors) from the Université Lumière Lyon 2, in which he wrote a dissertation on The participations of amateur artists in the creations of the world of dance: the impacts and issues related to these interpreters.

After having worked as a project monitoring officer at the Centre National de Lyon, he continued his training by integrating the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in Project Management in Information Architecture and at the same time held the position of Project Manager/Administration in an art production office in Lyon.

In 2018, he created his company and became artistic director and freelance artist, specialized in dance and video production. He is also admitted for the oral exams of the selection contest for residents of the Académie de France in Rome - Villa Medici, which take place at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Today Jérémy Tran participates both as a professor, choreographer-director, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon and CinéFabrique - National School of Cinema to deal with the articulation between choreographic and cinematographic language, and ardently pursues the design of new hybrid projects.

He devotes himself to creating a choreographic piece, What is left for us, that will be presented and performed in June 2020 by the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

With more than eighty works to his credit, Thierry Malandain developed a very personal vision of dance. Deeply linked to the concept of "Ballet" as an aesthetic movement, he gives priority to the dancing body and the celebration of its sensuality and humanity.

Men and Dance are in the heart and soul of Malandain Ballet Biarritz.

Deep human values underpin Thierry Malandain’s approach, as he leads a troupe of performers who master the grammar of classical dance with a contemporary expression. His search for meaning and aesthetics led to a timeless tough energetic and sober style, which draws its wealth from the roots of dance as well as a dynamic vision of this art. 

"My culture and my genetic heritage come from classical dance and I assuredly remain attached to it. While I gladly admit that some of classical dance’s artistic and social codes are from another time, they give me the information I need to run and develop this company as an organism. As DNA found in all living cells and passed down through generations, this information might be altered over time to result in species diversity and evolution. That is why my dancing style leaves room for variation. Considered as a classical choreographer for some, a contemporary one for others or even seen as hereditarily neoclassical, I am simply on the lookout for a dance I like. A dance that would not only leave traces of pleasure but that would also revive the essence of the Sacred as an answer to the difficulty of being."

Throughout his creations that might be both serious and bold, Thierry Malandain is committed to developing a writing whose goal is to find harmony between classical and contemporary dance and between history and today's world. He then alternates between his own versions of classical ballets, like Roméo et Juliette, Cendrillon, Casse Noisette or L’Après-Midi d’un faune, and pure creations, such as Magifique, Une Dernière Chanson, Estro, and Lucifer, choreographed to a previously unreleased score composed by Guillaume Connesson. 

Thierry Malandain is also open-minded towards the works of his contemporaries, as evidenced by the numerous aesthetically different choreographers he supports through the Centre Chorégraphique National in the framework of the Accueil Studio or Le Temps d'Aimer festival in Biarritz, for which he works as artistic director.