What happens when museums close their doors?
And if the paintings came to life, began to dance to fill the spaces now empty of the public.

In this film, the dancers take us on a choreographic stroll going from the exhibition rooms to the basements of the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours.
The four dancers evolve throughout the film, from graceful muses to animal creatures retreating into the darkness of the underground.
The music, the choreography and the scenario make this film a real sensory journey where the camera dances for a stunning experience.

"The living paintings" were filmed during the residence of the Nawel Oulad Company at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours.

During this residency the choreographer created 4 performances entitled "Inspiring Women".

For more than 10 years Nawel Oulad has been developing choreographic and musical writing in direct dialogue with works from the field of plastic arts.

For "Inspiring Women" she wished to pay tribute to the women without whom many of the museum's masterpieces would not have been produced. From figures of Saintes to Greek deities through orientalist nudes, each canvas has given rise to a singular gesture that is so epic, sometimes contemplative, sometimes virtuoso, sometimes minimalist.

The film "the living pictures" directed by Antonin Sgambato was shot at the beginning of the residency before the performances are elaborated also it constitutes a distinct work with a cinematographic scenario punctuated by the discovery of the museum of its exhibition rooms in the underground .

Nawel grew up between her mother’s painting studio and the film sets where her father worked. In addition to pictorial universe, dance, theater and music, which she has been practicing for six years at the Conservatoire, have led her to nourish a sensitive thought that expresses itself through art. Curious to understand the history of her ancestors, she completed her dance training with university studies in sociology and visual arts.

 Convinced of the importance of creation and bodily awareness in the development of the human being, she obtained her Diploma of Psychopedagogy of the danced movement at Freedancesong. There, she will also complete her training in contemporary, classical and jazz dance, and the discovers African dances and Dunham technique. 

It is the meeting with the choreographer Christian Bourigault, then in residence at the University Paris Nanterre, which will be decisive for her career. She will find in his contemporary dance the committed body she sought, the possibility of reconciling the humanities and art. She will perform in 6 of Christian Bourigault’s creations, then joins the RIDC - Rencontres Internationales de Danse Contemporaine - where she obtains her State Diploma of contemporary dance teacher in 2012. She then participates as a dancer-interpreter to the resumption of Sans objet (“Irrelevant») with Mie Cocquempot , Co. K622, to Vertige délicieux («Delightful Vertigo») in Claire Jenny’s Point Virgule Company, Aublick by the Impact Company, and various creations of the Théoréma Company.

 In 2010 she founded the dance department of the association L’Envolée Bleue where she gave workshops, set up photo dance outings and created her first performances mixing dance and painting as well as her solo «Métis, terre damnée». 

The foundations of her work arise and the artistic and educational projects are linked together, leading her to set up her company. The history of art and sociology are at the heart of her work. Identity research, urbanity, memory and the place of the individual in the group are all recurring themes in her creations. 

She does not hesitate to go and meet other arts during performances in the most diverse places, in an always renewed dance. From the production of video-dance films to the installation of filmic devices, this medium accompanies and complements her choreographic and scenographic design research as well as En corps hors cadre («Embodied, out of frame») exposed in the month of the photo Off 2010 at La Fonderie de l’Image, or with the CINEMADANSE cycle inaugurated in 2015, by making the film Quitter le bitume (“Leaving concrete”) presented in various festivals. 

She works with several theater companies as well as a coach in the preparation of the actor as an actress (Cie Aziadé, KOTB collective, Guillaume Segouin, collective Theôrema.) 

In 2014, she created the annual festival L’Appel de la Lune («The Call of the Moon»), inviting artists and researchers to meet on a topic related to women. In 2015 she became a member of the UNESCO International Dance Council.

director

Created in 2011, the Nawel Oulad Company conducts contemporary dance projects in close connection with the visual arts and the humanities. The troupe federates around hybrid artistic projects, shows but also performances, installations, and films. Today the company has created and performed 5 shows, 5 performances and many video-dances including two movies.
 

website www.naweloulad.com .
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Partenaires de la compagnie:
Conseil départemental de Seine Saint Denis /
Centre National de la Danse Pantin Mad /
Ménagerie de Verre StudioLab /
La Belle Orange bureau de production et diffusion /
Maison du théâtre et de la danse /
Centre Louis Lumière /
Ville d'Epinay Sur Seine
Pleine image /
​Palais de la Femme /
Sur les toits production