The relationship between man and nature fascinates and  worries Martin Harriague. Which he already evoked in his recent  choreographic creations (Sirènes, Fossile, Serre) – the rebirth  of the living, its power, the struggle for its survival – Stravinsky’s  iconoclastic and brilliant work for the Ballets Russes contains  everything, and more. In many ways, The Rite of Spring was revolutionary  progress, both in its choreography by Nijinksy and the score. Harriague  decided to use the myth while respecting the composer’s original  intention illustrated by a pagan rite, “it is an obscure and immense  sensation when nature renews its shapes, and it is the vague and  profound disorder of a universal impulse,” Stravinsky explained in an  article that Martin Harriague uses as a reference (CND, Montjoie  magazine, May 29, 1913). Jacques Rivière, the NRF’s insightful director,  spoke at the time of a “biological ballet”, “spring in its effort, in  its spasm... one would believe we were attending a drama under a  microscope”. The complex rhythmic hammering that gives the work its wild  and threatening force suits Martin Harriague’s explosive and earthy  body language. This time he renounces all physical lyricism because the  music makes him do so; he concentrates on the expressive power of  primitive movement and fractal figures through which the group coils,  unfolds, contracts as the living reappears, and makes its way everywhere  before exploding. To Nijinsky, who had dared to make this transgressive  break with classical language, Harriague borrows the trampling of the  spring Augurs who “mark the pulse of Spring with their footsteps”. The  quotes from the original ballet stop there, but the entire piece shows a  willingness to draw on the music’s expressiveness, which was  particularly brilliant under the baton of Teodor Currentzis, to bring  Stravinsky’s vision to life. One physically feels the wild energy and  timeless fear that inhabits this group confronted with the violence of  the living, purified by the rite. We perceive the savagery and the  necessity of the final offering of the chosen one, a feminine principle  embodying the energy of spring, the sap, pure and healthy, which rises,  an allegory of the living that rises towards the light.

Special thanks to Nuria López Cortés, Choreographic Artist. 

Source: Malandain Ballet Biarritz

More information: malandainballet.com

Born in 1986 in Bayonne, France, Martin Harriague started classical and contemporary dancing at the age of 19.

​He  joined the Malandain Ballet Biarritz Junior (France) in 2007,  the Ballet National de Marseille (France) in 2008, and Noord Nederlandse  Dans (Netherlands) from 2010 until 2013.

He danced with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (Israel) from September 2013 until december 2018. 

He is now a freelance choreographer and artist-in-residence at the Malandain Ballet Biarritz. 

Martin  has worked with Itzik Galili, Thierry Malandain, Emmanuel Gat, Roy  Assaf, Rami Be'er, Keren Levi, Stephen Shropshire, Frederic Flamand.

In  parallel to his dancing career, he is choreographing his own work and  composing his own music. His work has received international recognition  and awards in competitions: Stuttgart, Hanover as well as in  Copenhagen. He has created for the Malandain Ballet Biarritz (France),  Leipzig Opera (Germany), Scapino Ballet (Netherlands), Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Metz Opera (France), Project Sally  (Netherlands) and Dantzaz Konpainia (Spain).

Source: Artist's website

More information: www.martinharriague.com

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr

With more than eighty works to his credit, Thierry Malandain developed a very personal vision of dance. Deeply linked to the concept of "Ballet" as an aesthetic movement, he gives priority to the dancing body and the celebration of its sensuality and humanity.

Men and Dance are in the heart and soul of Malandain Ballet Biarritz.

Deep human values underpin Thierry Malandain’s approach, as he leads a troupe of performers who master the grammar of classical dance with a contemporary expression. His search for meaning and aesthetics led to a timeless tough energetic and sober style, which draws its wealth from the roots of dance as well as a dynamic vision of this art. 

"My culture and my genetic heritage come from classical dance and I assuredly remain attached to it. While I gladly admit that some of classical dance’s artistic and social codes are from another time, they give me the information I need to run and develop this company as an organism. As DNA found in all living cells and passed down through generations, this information might be altered over time to result in species diversity and evolution. That is why my dancing style leaves room for variation. Considered as a classical choreographer for some, a contemporary one for others or even seen as hereditarily neoclassical, I am simply on the lookout for a dance I like. A dance that would not only leave traces of pleasure but that would also revive the essence of the Sacred as an answer to the difficulty of being."

Throughout his creations that might be both serious and bold, Thierry Malandain is committed to developing a writing whose goal is to find harmony between classical and contemporary dance and between history and today's world. He then alternates between his own versions of classical ballets, like Roméo et Juliette, Cendrillon, Casse Noisette or L’Après-Midi d’un faune, and pure creations, such as Magifique, Une Dernière Chanson, Estro, and Lucifer, choreographed to a previously unreleased score composed by Guillaume Connesson. 

Thierry Malandain is also open-minded towards the works of his contemporaries, as evidenced by the numerous aesthetically different choreographers he supports through the Centre Chorégraphique National in the framework of the Accueil Studio or Le Temps d'Aimer festival in Biarritz, for which he works as artistic director.