During the Jazz evening at the CND, Géraldine Armstrong and Rick Odums question in a festive manner the notion of roots and identity, filiation and imprints, through short pieces, unusual choreographic writings and musical choices at the sources of jazz dance. The Armstrong Jazz Ballet revived for this occasion Matt Mattox’s Basie’s Instinct, a work created in 2003.    

Source: programme of the CND

(1921-2013)

An actor, a singer, a dancer and a choreographer, he started to dance at the age of 11. Aged 22, he joined the Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios before appearing, at the age of 24, in his first musical on Broadway.

1958: Oscar Dance Master of America for the best contribution to the world of Dance.
1967: Oscar for the best Television choreographer
1987: Nominated Doctor Honoris Causas for Dance by the Fédération Française de la Danse. Internationally acknowledged as one of the “Fathers” of Jazz dance and for the creation of his teaching method (Matt Mattox Jazz Art Technique). He has taught this method in many countries including the USA, Finland, Italy, Spain and Australia, as well as in England and France, where his students teach his system or apply its rules.
1988: Awarded the Jazz Dance Master Golden 8
1994: Decorated with the Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture
1998: Received the ADM Balasaraswati Award as a Distinguished Teacher of Jazz Dance (American Dance Masters) for his outstanding career as Dancer and Choreographer and an internationally recognised teacher.

After studies of mathematics preparatory class and medecine studies, Luc Riolon begins to make films within the framework of his Faculty of Medicine, then met the famous choreographers of the 80s (Maguy Marin, Mark Tompkins, Josef Nadj, Daniel Larrieu Daniel, Odile Duboc, Josette Baiz, Angelin Prljocaj, etc.) with whom he shoots numerous films (re-creation for the camera, the illegal securements). In the 80s with the American choreographer Mark Tompkins he introduces the video on the stage, broadcasting live on big screens the images which he shoots with his camera by being on the stage with the dancers, mixing live images and pre-recorded images. With Daniel Larrieu he participates in the creation of the famous show WATERPROOF, the contemporary choreography which takes place in a swimming pool, by filming live) the dancers dancing in the water and mixing the live images with pre-recorded underwater images. This choreography has been shown in many countries (USA, Canada, Spain, England…)
Then he collaborates during 10 years with the famous french TV producer Eve Ruggieri for her programs" Musics in the heart ". He shoots with her of numerous documentaries about classical music, opera singers and dance. From 1999 he directs documentaries of scientific popularization, by following researchers attached to the resolution of a particular ecologic enigma. These two artistic and scientific domains which can seem separated are nevertheless, for Luc Riolon, connected by the same approach : the deep desire to understand the world, by the art or by the scientific research, and to restore it to the largest number. Among his recent scientific documentaries, we can quote for example " The Enigma of the Black Caiman ", Living and dying in the swamp " or " The Nile delta: The end of the miracle ". “Chernobyl, a natural history ? “ These documentaries of scientific popularization recently have been awarded in international festivals.

Source: Vimeo