At the heart of the international tour of the choreographic fable "Babelle Heureuse", the film presents the work of the tandem of choreographers and their group of virtuoso dancers of all origins, by recreating the creative process as closely as possible, during rehearsals, backstage and on stage, but also outside of work and during rest periods. This is the first time that a camera has been accepted by all the dancers, José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, as part of a documentary.

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

Etienne Aussel is a director of documentary films, multi-camera recordings, dance films. Videographer for performing arts and digital arts, he directs audiovisual projects. Trained as a shooting operator, he entered professional life in 1999 through contemporary dance and until 2008 worked as a video collaborator with choreographers José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu on creations and international tours of shows (Paradis, Babelle Heureuse, On danƒe, Les Paladins, Porgy and Bess).
Tour de Babelle A first documentary on dance of which he is the author was broadcast in 2004 on the Mezzo channel.
In 2009 he followed the training course in documentary cinema at the Ateliers Varan in Paris.
Two of his films made in French-speaking West Africa, Mowa and Autour de Tassiga, are distributed by Éditions l'Harmattan.
Between 2013 and 2015, he directed with Valérie Gabail the film SACRES, a feature documentary in official competition at FIPADOC in Biarritz and awarded at various international festivals.
He collaborates in video with artists such as the painter Guy Oberson, the choreographers Nasser Martin-Gousset, Aïcha M'Barek and Hafiz Dhaou, or the Nobel Prize for Literature Gao Xingjian whose latest feature film Le Deuil de la beauté is edited. .
In 2012 and 2016, he co-signed with choreographer Claire Jenny the staging of two pieces: Effigies, interactive video installations and performances broadcast at the National Center for Dance in Pantin, at the Abbaye de Noirlac and Echo, a piece choreography for 5 dancers (shown at the Atelier de Paris, at the CDA d'Enghien-les-Bains, at the Théâtre de Vitry)
At the same time, he teaches video creation for live shows at the 3IS film school and edits 52-minute films for various production companies. Holder of a Master 2 D2A in Law, Economics and Audiovisual Management and 2017, he is involved as assistant to the coordination and in the selection committee of the International Documentary Film Festival Après Varan for the edition 2019.
He works regularly as a director or chief editor at the Théâtre National de la Danse - Chaillot, at the CN D Cinémathèque de la danse or at the Atelier de Paris - CDCN, with the production companies 24 Images and Films d'un jour / OPSIS TV.

Personal website with extracts of his achievements: etienneaussel.wixsite.com