A recording of Dominique Boivin’s choreography, created with the collective Beau Geste. Film location: Théâtre de Val de Reuil. 

Remark by the Videographer (2019): 

 "I met Dominique Boivin in the wake of Annie Sellem, who is in charge of dance at the IFOB. While I no longer remember this recording, shot on location at Val de Reuil, over two days, he undoubtedly asked me to do this in order to keep a record. However, I just can’t find its references, either on the company’s site or elsewhere…  

The film was screened as part of the Centre Pompidou’s Vidéodanse festival, undoubtedly the year after, in 1996, but I’ve kept no record of it." 

Dominique Boivin followed a classical training before turning to contemporary dance. Carolyn Carlson and the dancers of the GRCOP (Choreographic Research Group of the Paris Opera) introduced him to the teaching of Alwin Nikolais. His first piece, “Quelle fut ta soif?”, won the Humour Prize at the Bagnolet Contest in 1978. In the summer of 1979 he created the solo “L'homme cheval” for the Avignon Festival, which consists of minute, mathematically-orchestrated gestures. In 1979 he obtained a bursary to study in New York for a year, where he trained with Merce Cunningham, Douglas Dunn, Lucinda Childs and Meg Harper.

When he was invited to join the company of the CNDC (National Centre for Contemporary Dance), Angers, directed at the time by Alwin Nikolais, he met many of the dancers with whom he went on to form the Beau Geste company in 1981.

Dominique Boivin danced with a number of companies (Grand Magasin / P. Murtin, F. Hiffler, DCA/P. Decouflé, Astrakan/ D. Larrieu) in between choreographing his own works: "Belles de Nuit“ in 1991, “Carmen” in 1992, “La Belle Etoile” in 1993, “Cabaret Pataphysique” (Pataphysical Cabaret) in 1993. His solo “La danse, une histoire à ma façon...“ (Dance – a history told my way) from 1994, revived in 2000, is a brilliant presentation of the culture of subtle gesture which underpins his choreography. He has choreographed for the operas “Orphée aux Enfers” in Geneva (1997) and "Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne” in Rouen and Paris (2002), as well as a reworking of the ballet “The Nutcracker” for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon (2001). At the same time, he continued composing for the Beau Geste company: "Petites histoires au-dessus du ciel” in 1996, “Conte sur Moi” in 2000 and “Miniatures de l'Émoi” in 2003.

He collaborated with La Petite Fabrique to choreograph the duet “The Lion and The Rat” as part of the “Les Fables à La Fontaine” project in 2002 and with the Non de Nom/Pascale Houbin company, with whom he composed “Bonté Divine” in 2003 and "Ni d'Ève, ni d'Adam” in 2007.

He ventured into street theatre with the composition of “Transports Exceptionnels” in 2005, a duet for a dancer and a mechanical digger, then, in the same year, he explored the relationship between dance and theatre in "À quoi tu penses?”, using monologues by the writer Marie Nimier.

Further information

Digital resource by the Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse
http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003944

Company website
Beau Geste

Last update : November 2010

Arnold Pasquier was born in Paris in 1968. After studying visual arts and cinema, he made tests in Super 8 and video, in which he developed a world of filmed newspapers and fictions. At the age of twenty, he approaches contemporary dance and collaborates with choreographers as documentarist and dancer. This experience marks the realization of a work where dance holds an important place.
From 1997 to 1999, he was received as a resident artist at the Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France) where he designed the installation "C'est ici que j'avais des baisers" (1997-1999) and produced about twenty short films, four radio design workshops For France Culture and dance performances capturing. In 1999, he presented the show "C'est merveilleux" in the Grande Nef du Fresnoy. He is the author of numerous films (fiction, documentary, video art), staged shows, scenographies, radio broadcasts. His work is articulated at the crossroads of these different disciplines. Winner of a residence Villa Médicis Hors les Murs (outside the wall) in Sao Paulo in 2004, he dances for Julie Desprairies in "La danse en accès accès", "Vue sur la mer" and "Là commence le ciel". He co-signs with her the video-dance installation "Les 3 contents", the result of the residence of the choreographer at the Manufacture de Sèvres (France). 

Source: Website of the Compagnie des prairies  
More information https://arnoldpasquier.com