A lover of concepts, yet voluptuous in the way he approaches the body, Hervé Robbe endorses the all that is delicate, sensitive and illustrates his keen sense of space. In this duo, his incisive, sculptured gestures invite the public to enter an intimate and improbable tale.

“They were desperately attempting to be alike, so that they could affirm their differences even more. It was only out of rebellion that they cynically imagined being able to come together. They didn't speak. They observed. Perhaps they sent messages to each other, contorted enigmas that they transmitted from a distance. Onlookers, who believed they were sister and brother, occasionally used them as go-betweens. That added a bit of spice, and incomprehension. One day, when the wind was blowing intensely, he issued her with a challenge, a race on slippery ground facing the sea. But she didn't want to. She didn't like the waves which, with their violent surf, reminded her of terrible memories. Yet she accepted even so. In the middle of the race, she fell. He didn't laugh or cry ‘victory'. He took the defeat upon himself, he didn't want to lose her. He helped her to her feet, feigned a fall and lay down on the damp ground. She watched him do it, then in turn helped him back to his feet. They didn't say a word. They just shared a vague certainty that, in the end, this was what was supposed to happen to them. After all, the elements would take charge of separating them rather sooner than later. »

Hervé Robbe

Updating: 2012

Born in Lille in 1961. After studying architecture for a few years, Hervé Robbe set his sights on dance. He was principally trained at Mudra, Maurice Béjart's school in Brussels. He began his performing career dancing the neo-classical repertoire, then went on to work with various modern dance makers.

In 1987 he founded his company: le Marietta secret.

The course of his career is clearly founded on a constant renewal of his choreographic writing. Supported by loyal artistic collaborators, his work has become increasingly sophisticated over the years, associating the dance presence with visual, sound and technological worlds. His projects, polysemic works, take many forms: frontal performance, ambulatory shows and installations.

The place of the audience, its presence and view is decisive; the stage space is regularly called into question.

His arrival at the CCN (National choreographic Centre) of Le Havre Haute-Normandie offered more opportunities for his research.

In 1999 he composed his autobiographical solo Polaroïd. Within it, video images of places associated with his childhood appear and coexist with an uninterrupted physical display.

In 2000 he explored the theme of home with Permis de construire – Avis de Démolition, a diptych consisting of an installation and a performance. He went on to tackle the theme of the garden in 2002 with Des Horizons Perdus.

In a world constructed with screens – virtual containers for the body, evokers of death – in the duet REW he engaged in a dialogue between man and woman on the theme of suicide. In 2004, with the group piece Mutating Score, he returned to the idea of the performance area being a common space occupied by both audience and dancers. This installation-dance, while reaffirming this conviction about the force of movement, marks the culmination of a project on the use of new technologies, which are integrated into the show in real time.

In 2006 he designed the installation So long as baby...love and songs will be, a kind of manifesto of the preoccupations which underlie his work. The device is a containing structure in which the audience is invited to watch and listen to the dancer-singers present on screen. Hervé Robbe distanced himself from the stage with this, then returned to it in the works Là, on y danse in 2007 and Next days in 2010.

While maintaining his personal approach in his own productions, he regularly accepts commissions from the Opéra de Lyon, the Gulbenkian Ballet, the CNSMDP (Paris Conservatoire) and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Source: Centre Chorégraphique National du Havre Haute-Normandie

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).