A creation by Odile Duboc and Françoise Michel
An extract remodelled by the group Trajectoires (Caen), artistic manager Florence Divert Issembourg, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2015) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
The group Trajectoires brings together eight young girls and five adults with the same desire to further and chisel complex body states. Based in Caen (Calvados) and directed by Florence Divert Issembourg, the group advocates openness, a sense of sharing and the joy of working together by tackling all the facets nurturing a dance show, from music to painting not to mention texts. 

The project
The desire to plunge into Odile Duboc’s choreographic material and writing is stimulated by the fact that she had a profound influence on Florence Divert Issembourg’s dancing career. The latter was won over by the former’s pleasure in transmitting, her generosity and the way with which she inspired trust in her interpreters. She also appreciated Odile Duboc’s richness of vocabulary and finesse. When she discovered the piece Rien ne laisse présager de l’état de l’eau, in 2007, she decided to renew and share her passion with her students. Blandine Minot-Stora was the person who transmitted the various show materials. 

The choreographer
A key figure of French contemporary dance, a choreographer and pedagogue, Odile Duboc (1941-2010) founded her company Contrejour in 1983 with her associate and light designer Françoise Michel. Between 1990 and 2008, she directed the Centre chorégraphique national de Franche-Comté, Belfort. Out of her flagship shows, the following should be cited: Insurrection (1989), Projet de la matière (1993) with the visual artist Marie-Josée Pillet, Trois Boléros (1996), Rien ne laisse présager de l’état de l’eau (2005), to name but a few. Each of her shows is created in close collaboration with Françoise Michel. Over time, she has developed a profound and organic set of gestures in relation with water, air, earth and fire. Her sense of gentle abstraction is driven by a strange physical density and a precise knowledge of the body. A pedagogue who loves to share, she has federated the energies of interpreters and choreographers such as Boris Charmatz, Emmanuelle Huynh, Alban Richard, and Brigitte Asselineau.

A classical  dancer and self-taught teacher in Aix-en-Provence, Odile Duboc created her own school Les Ateliers de la danse in the 1970s. In 1983, she created  the association Contre jour, with her partner and lighting designer, Françoise Michel. In  1990 and until the end of 2008, she directed the Franche-Comté National Choreographic Center in Belfort, where she succeeded Joanne Leighton. In 1993, she created the work Projet de la matière, a milestone in the history of the new French dance. She  will be recognized as an important choreographer of French dance, and  will stage many shows and operas for various institutions, including the National Center for Contemporary Dance in Angers. She died of cancer on April 23, 2010 at the age of 69.

From live stage images to life in images, the  director and video artist Karim Zeriahen seems to have found the  shortest way. Since the beginning of the 90s, when he worked in close  relationship with choreographer Philippe Decouflé, he learned how to put  the art of stage in motion, contemporary dance most of the time. Karim  Zeriahen then starts a fruitful collaboration with Montpellier based  choreographer Mathilde Monnier. Stop, Videlilah, day of night, short  films adapted from her stage creations. Each time, Karim Zeriahen's   camera takes over the place with movement, the body language is not  frozen but magnified. Choreographer Herman Diephuis also joins this  gallery of dancing portraits. Documentaries on figures such like Albert  Maysles or Hubert de Givenchy and from Joe Dalessandro to Paul  Morrissey, he sets a signature, a camera always in action with  confidence.

Today the director goes further with a new  project and tracks the subtle movements of the body language beyond the  physical appearance. A collection of living portraits as unique pièces  reminding us of the master portraitists of renaissance. These living  natures consists in filming the subject in a certain amount of time,  almost still, with signs of respiration, eye blinks, as if it were  posing for a painting. They are then displayed on a flat screen with a  memory card. With this collection starting, Karim Zeriahen, with his  documentary and artist vision, interrogates himself about the virtual  world filled with images. By taking a pause, and his models with him, he  questions the way we look at things, the way we look at life.

Source: Philippe Noisette 

En savoir plus: www.karimzeriahen.com

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
+33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme