What do the life of Peer Gynt, the anti-heros of Henrik Ibsen’s youth, and that of a choreographer have in common? An unstoppable need to travel the world, for a start.  Approaching his fiftieth year, the choreographer and Nerderlands Dans Theatre alumnus

Johan Inger brilliantly experiments with this adaptation of this travelled road - from its classical roots to the earthy and powerful dance of Mats Ek.

In a fantastical world in a strange land, Ibsen’s existentialist tale leads Peer Gynt to a series of women, the ladies of the princess of the Trolls at Sloveig, who will await his return until the very end.  The visual and brilliant dance brings to light the relationship between softness and exaggeration.  Johan Inger creates an expressive and theatrical ballet to Evard Greig’s music, written for the first staging of the piece in 1876, which is fiercely conveyed by thirty dancers from the Ballet de Bâle.

Source : Programme de la Maison de la Danse de Lyon

Johan Inger made his breakthrough as a choreographer in 1995 after a very successful dancing career at the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT). Inger’s choreographies have won numerous prestigious awards. Between 2003 and 2008 he was the artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet, and between 2009 and 2015 he held the position as Associate Choreographer with NDT.

The Swede Johan Inger (Stockholm, 1967) had his dance training at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and at the National Ballet School in Canada. From 1985 to 1990 he danced with the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm, the last year performing as a soloist. Fascinated by the works of Kylián, Inger was convinced that the next step in his dance career should take him to Nederlands Dans Theater. In 1990 the hour had come. He joined Nederlands Dans Theater I and was a high-profile dancer in this company until 2002.

When Inger tried his hand at Nederlands Dans Theater’s annual Choreography Workshops (now Switch), Jiří Kylián noticed his talent for choreography. After four workshop pieces Inger was asked in 1995 to make his first choreography for Nederlands Dans Theater II. The resulting « Mellantid » marked his official debut as a choreographer. It was part of the Holland Dance Festival and was immediately a resounding success. It brought him the Philip Morris Finest Selection Award 1996 in the Contemporary Dance category. In 2001 Mellantid was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award in the Best New Dance Production category.

Since his debut, Inger has made various works for Nederlands Dans Theater. For his ballets « Dream Play » and « Walking Mad » he received the Lucas Hoving Production Award in October 2001. « Walking Mad » as it was later performed by Cullberg Ballet was awarded the Danza & Danza’s Award 2005. Inger himself was nominated by the VSCD Dance Panel for the Golden Theatre Dance Prize 2000 and received the Merit Award 2002 of Stichting Dansersfonds ’79.

Inger left Nederlands Dans Theater for the artistic leadership of Cullberg Ballet in 2003. Over the next comming five years he made various choreographies for this company. In 2013 Inger received the prestigious Carina Ari medal in Stockholm for his worldwide promotion of Swedish art and dance.

Source: Johan Inger 's website

More information :

johaninger.com

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr

Led by Richard Wherlock, the Ballett Theater Basel consists of thirty dancers from different countries, and is one of the most influential creation companies in Switzerland. The british choreographer has boosted this troupe whose technical sophistication and excellence continue to capture growing audiences both in Switzerland and on an international scale.  The Ballett Theater Basel is a dynamic, versatile and multicultural group at an international level, and one of the leading contemporary dance companies in Europe.  Its dancers perfectly master the vocabulary of ballet and modern dance, combining the highest standards of dance with a genius dynamism and fantastic expressivity.  The Ballett group is exceptionally skilled in both narrative and abstract ballet.

Many contemporary choreographers have been their guests: Mauro Bigonzetti, Christopher Bruce, Claude Brumachon, Joëlle Bouvier, Stijn Celis, Patrick Delcroix, Nacho Duato, Alexander Ekman, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jirí Kylián, Blanca Li, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, Angelin Preljocaj, Hofesh Shechter...

Source : Maison de la Danse de Lyon