Raimund Hoghe was born in Wuppertal and began his career by writing portraits of outsiders and celebrities for the German weekly newspaper "Die Zeit". These were later compiled in several books. From 1980 - 90 he worked as dramaturge for Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal which also became the subject matter for two more books. Since 1989 he has been working on his own theatre pieces for various dancers and actors. 1992 started his collaboration with the artist Luca Giacomo Schulte, who is till now his artistic collaborator. In 1994 he produced his first solo for himself, "Meinwärts", which together with the subsequent "Chambre séparée" (1997) and "Another Dream" (2000) made up a trilogy on the 20th century.
 Since 2002, Raimund Hoghe works also on group pieces : "Sarah, Vincent et moi" (2002), "Young People, Old Voices" (2002), "Tanzgescchichten" (2003), "Swan Lake,4 Acts" (2005), and the duo "Sacre - The Rite of the Sprin" (2004) with Lorenzo De Brabandere. He went back to the solo form in 2007 with "36, Avenue Georges Mandel" created in Seoul and presented during the Festival d'Avignon. Raimund Hoghe follows his cycle on classical and history of dance pieces with "Boléro Variations" in 2007 ( creation for the Centre Pompidou / Festival d'Automne in Paris) and the solo "L'Après-midi", for the dancer Emmanuel Eggermont, on Claude Debussy "Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune" and Gustav Mahler "Lieder" (creation in Festival Montpellier Danse 2008 /Théâtre du Hangar).

Hoghe frequently works for television on projects such as "Der Buckel", his 1997 hour-long self portrait for WDR (West German Radio and Television). His books have been translated into several languages and he has presented his performances all over Europe, as well as in Japan and Australia. He lives in Düsseldorf and has been awarded several prizes including the "Deutscher Produzentenpreis für Choreografie" in 2001, the French Prix de la Critique in 2006 for "Swan Lake, 4 Acts" (in the category "Best Foreign Piece"). Critics from the magazin ballet-tanz awarded him "Dancer of the Year" for 2008.

Source : Raimund Hoghe 's website

More information : raimundhoghe.com

Robyn Orlin was born in 1955 in Johannesburg and obtained bursaries to study in London (London Contemporary Dance School) and then in Chicago (School of Art Institute).

Since her first performance in Johannesburg in 1980, she has attempted to redefine choreography and the art of theatre in her country and has become one of the most committed anti-apartheid choreographers. She starts from the principle that “dance is political”, and in her pieces she examines the social and cultural situation in South Africa: its influences, its history, its rifts and its disintegration. The choreography then creates “an iconoclastic dance which puts its foot in it”, a dance-chronicle of today's South African society, skilfully handling irony and derision; a dance that shamelessly stirs up references and identities, blending traditional popular culture with the radical avant-garde, a dance that is capable of breaking down the artist-audience barrier by putting the audience at the centre of the event.

Robyn Orlin came to France for the first time in April 2000 at the invitation of La Filature Scène Nationale, Mulhouse, with “Daddy, I've seen this piece six times before...”

She achieved immediate recognition: Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Montpellier Dance Festival, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, followed by tours all over the world.

In 2004, Robyn Orlin took part in the inauguration of the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin and composed a solo for Sophiatou Kossoko as part of “Vif du Sujet”.

In 2005 she created “When I take off my skin and touch the sky with my nose, only then I can see little voices amuse themselves...”, a piece with 6 singers from the South African Opera, then, during the summer, “Hey dude... i have talent... i'm just waiting for god...,” a solo for the dancer-choreographer Vera Mantero.
  From September 2005 Robyn Orlin was in residency for two years at the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin. In April 2007 her “L'Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato” was premièred at the Paris National Opera.

Source : 

Digital resource - Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse
http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003887

 More information :  robynorlin.com

Born in 1972, Olivier Dubois created his first solo “Under Cover” in 1999. In 2005, he performed the duet “Féroces” with Christine Corday for the Théâtre de l'Esplanade, St Etienne. The SACD (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers) and the Avignon Festival invited him to compose a piece in 2006 in the context of “Vif du Sujet”, “Pour tout l'or du monde”.

In 2006 and 2007 he composed the first two parts of the Bdanse project: “En Sourdine” and “Peter Pan”. He has taught and led numerous workshops for companies and schools abroad. In June 2007 he was awarded the special jury prize by the Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique (Professional Critic's Union for theatre, music and dance), for his achievements as a performer and for “Pour tout l'or du monde”. He presented his new creation “Faune(s)” in 2008 at the Avignon Festival. At the ImpulsTanz Festival in 2008 in Vienna (Austria), he was awarded the Jardin d'Europe prize. In January 2009 he choreographed Offenbach's “La Périchole”, directed by Bérangère Jannelle at the Lille Opera.

He also held an exhibition in 2009, “L'interprète dévisagé”, at the Centre National de la Danse and in November 2009 he premièred “Révolution”, a piece for 14 female dancers set to variations on Ravel's Boléro. The Ballet Monte-Carlo commissioned a piece from him based on “Le Spectre de la Rose” for April 2010. He has performed for many choreographers and directors (Sasha Waltz, Nasser Martin-Gousset, Dominique Boivin, Jan Fabre, Emilio Calcagno, Charles Cré-Ange, Angelin Preljocaj, Karine Saporta, Elio Gervasi, Andy Degroat, Laura Simi...).

Sources : Biennale de la Danse press file ; the Company Olivier Dubois 's website

More information : sites.google.com/site/olivierduboiscod

Christian Rizzo was born in 1965 in Cannes. His artistic career began in Toulouse, where he started a rock band and designed a line of clothing, after which he studied fine arts at the Villa d'Arson in Nice, then unexpectedly branched out into dance.

In the 90s he performed with a number of contemporary choreographers including mathilde monnier, herve robbe, mark tompkins and georges appaix, and sometimes created soundtracks and costumes for them as well.

He also worked with choreographers with a different artistic approach, such as vera mantero, catherine contour, emmanuelle huynh and rachid ouramdane.

In 1996 he founded l'association fragile and began presenting events, dancing objects, solos and group pieces, as well as various projects and commissioned work in fashion and the visual arts.

Since then, over thirty projects have borne fruit, not counting his pedagogical activities. Christian rizzo teaches on a regular basis in art schools in France and abroad, as well as in establishments devoted to contemporary dance.

On January 1st, 2015, Christian Rizzo takes the lead of the National Choreographic Center of Montpellier. Now called ICI (International Choreographic Institute), the CCN offers a transversal vision of creation, training, artistic education and openness to the public.

Source : Website of ICI, CCN of Montpellier

More information :

http://ici-ccn.com/

http://www.lassociationfragile.com/

Born in Catania, Maria Donata D'Urso studied architecture and contemporary dance in Rome. She studied at Merce Cunningham Studio and the Nikolais-Murray Louis Dance Company.

Since 1988 she lives in Paris where she follows a training in Chinese energy and works among others with Marco Berrettini, Christian Rizzo, Hubert Colas, Paco Decina, Jean Gaudin, Francesca Lattuada, Arnold Pasquier, Wolf Ka. In 1999, she created Pezzo 0, outdoor installation, inspired by the meeting with Laurent Goldring.

In 2004, she formed the structure, DisOrienta, to develop her personal projects: minimalist solos, where the usual spatial components are interrogated and reinvented. His attention is focused on the limit places, absence / presence, inside / outside and the ambiguous surfaces, those of the skin, those  touched by the look.

She then begins a poetic and composite project, which she calls the Triptych of the skin. After Pezzo 0 (due) will follow Private Collection and its translucent table, Lapsus is its circular scenography. His latest creation Strata.2 extends this enigmatic journey into the world of bodies.

Maria Donata D'Urso is a laureate at Villa Kujoyama, Kyoto, Japan in 2012.

Source : Disorienta's website

More information : disorienta.org

Born in 1982 in Seattle, Daniel Linehan developed his choreographic art for four years in New York, notably with Miguel Gutierrez and the Big Art Group, Mark Haim and Wil Swanson. He partnered with Michael Helland for a myriad of duos presented in New York, Philadelphia and Montreal. In 2007-2008, he was resident artist at Movement Research (New York). Directly admitted to the P.A.R.T.S. Research programme, he has since established himself in Brussels. In his work, Daniel Linehan leans on language resources to enrich his questioning on movement. The sense emerges from a stream of disparate information – narrative, emotional, textual, visual and physical – brought together on stage.

Daniel Linehan created the solo “Digested Nois” in 2004 (Dance Theater Workshop, New-York), the quintet “The Sun came” (Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn) and “Human Content Pile”, for four dancers (The Kitchen, New-York), in 2006.

With his solo “Not About Everything” created in 2007 (Dance Theater Workshop, New York) he was acknowledged by the French audience. In 2009, his duo “Montage for Three” was presented during the “Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales” (International Choreographic Encounters) of Seine-Saint-Denis. “Zombie Aporia” is his latest creation.

More information

http://hia-tus.org/
 

Last update : September 2011

Choreographer, performer and researcher of dance, Geisha Fontaine began her career as a ballet dancer, then trained under Merce Cunningham and Alwin Nikolais in New York and Hideyuki Yano in Paris. She then set up the centre de danse contemporaine (Centre for Contemporary Dance) Le Dansoir in Toulouse and worked as a dancer for several contemporary dance companies. In 1998, she founded the Mille Plateaux Associés dance company with Pierre Cottreau. She was the winner of the Villa Médicis – Hors les murs residence in Japan in 2010.

Awarded her art PhD from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Geisha Fontaine was published by the Centre national de la danse (National Dance Centre) in 2004 (a book which has been translated into Spanish and Japanese), while “Tu es le danseur”, 2008 and “Là”, 2009, were published by Micadanses. She has collaborated on several joint publications, notably those published by CNRS. She is invited regularly as an artist and a researcher to various universities in France and abroad (Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Santiago…).

Further information

Mille plateaux associés website

Updated : june 2013

Graduate of La Fémis (the French state film school), Pierre Cottreau began his artistic career as a producer and cinematographer and collaborated on several full-length films in this capacity. He explores the possible connections between the filmed image and dance. Having also studied art history, he experiments with image and film and where they overlap in different media: cinema, dance and photography. Since the creation of Mille Plateaux Associés, he has choreographed the company's pieces with Geisha Fontaine and produced several films and documentaries, in particular the evolutive film “Millibar”.

Further information : Mille plateaux associés website