When a performer chooses her choreographer…

You decided to work with Christophe Haleb. How did you make this choice?

Isabelle Boutrois: Being able to choose one's choreographer is already a very seductive idea. I really enjoy watching Chrisophe's shows from the audience: he combines different forms of artistic expression with dance, such as fashion design, visual and plastic arts, live music, etc. I had wanted to work with him for a while and this materialized thanks to this project.

As a performer, what previous experience had you had of solos?

Isabelle Boutrois: I had had the opportunity to compose a solo, but I found the experience difficult: the solitude, no external view of my work… The chance to come back to the solo form with the eyes of Christophe Haleb was more interesting as I have been able to experience the composition process without it weighing so heavily. Solo work is an opportunity to put myself back into context as a performer, to continue exploring what dance means to me today.

When a choreographer responds to a performer…

Can you talk about the move from “choreographing a solo for oneself” to “creating a solo for someone else”? How did you go about this?

Christophe Haleb: The solo is a way of focusing one's desire to dance. The performer has his own tools, his sensitivity, his intelligence, his imagination, his intimacy. He has his way of relating to others, to the world. It is a part of all this that is called into question. One of the points that we both have in common is that we have, at one time, been through the creation of a solo “in solitary isolation”.

Updating : March 2010

Christophe Haleb began studying classical dance in 1970 aged 6, at the Conservatoire de Vincennes. In 1979 he tried out the work and communal lifestyle of the Physical Dance Theatre - Theatre in Transition, an artists' collective, directed by actor and producer Richard Thomas Cianci, in Avignon.

Up until 1982 he took part in workshops with Twyla Tharp in Châteauvallon, Odile Duboc in Aix-en-Provence, Peter Goss and Dominique Bagouet in Montpellier. In Marseilles he took up classical dance training again with Isabelle and Gérard Thaillade (Roland Petit). During his first period of study in New York in the summer of 1982, he was awarded a bursary to study at the Lester Horton Studio with Milton Myers. He also took lessons with Christopher Pilafian - Jennifer Muller Company, Douglas Wassel of the American Ballet, Patricia Soriero (Steps Studio) and Ann Reinking (Bob Foss).  He discovered modern dance through the St Mark's Church workshops. On his return to Marseilles, he followed the teaching of Michelle Mottet (Maurice Béjart). With Anne Koren and Lisa Nelson, he experimented with work on perception and movement. The practice of the Feldenkrais Method and Body-Mind Centering ® as well as sessions of contact dance improvisation with Gilles Musard, Mark Tompkins and Steve Paxton, nourished his relationship with movement. From 1983 onwards, he was a performer for Rui Horta, Anne Dreyfus, Andy Degroat, Angelin Preljocaj, Daniel Larrieu and François Verret, before founding his own company La Zouze in 1993.

Among his recent works: Shoe in modern time and De-camping (Dé-camper), in situ creations in the display windows of the Printemps de la Mode shop in Paris (2006), the solo Yes, Yes, Yes written for Isabelle Boutrois (2004), Strata and Spheres (Strates et Sphères) at the Théâtre National de Chaillot (2003), Idyllique, produced at the Théâtre de la Ville – Les Abbesses (2001)... In 2008-2009 he worked on Evelyne House of Shame, a project of soirées based on the concept of the salon and art cabaret which invite the audience to get involved and to temporarily take over architectural heritage sites in Marseilles, and Marseilles Diversions (Déviations Marseillaises), a chronical of relationships across the city of Marseilles.

Alongside the creation of his shows, the company also orients its work towards the crossover of disciplines and runs various projects in collaboration with actors, singers, musicians (electronic music), plastic artists, film and video producers, photographers, architects and sociologists. For him, the field of choreography extends beyond that of dance.

Further information

www.lazouze.com

Updating: November 2010

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.).