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FranceDance UK
2 minAmala Dianor, Emanuel Gat, Dorothée Munyaneza, Gisèle Vienne… The greatest artists of contemporary Francophone dance are coming to the UK for the FranceDanse UK festival, from August to November 2019. 14 artists and companies are visiting Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham, Salford and, of course, London. See it in pictures.
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2/11La Spire, by Chloé Moglia (2019)
In La Spire, a unique installation and aerial work, five female trapeze artists are suspended from a huge steel spiral, at once light and monumental, which measures more than 6 metres high and 18 metres long. A musician accompanies their ascent.
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3/11Hommage à Trisha Brown, by Josette Baïz (2015)
Hommage à Trisha Brown is an ensemble of three pieces celebrating the great postmodernist choreographer Trisha Brown, who strongly influenced the work of Josette Baïz.
As part of FranceDance UK, the choreographer, founder of the Granada Group, is working with ACE Dance and Music to teach this work to young dancers from diverse communities in Birmingham.
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4/11Plubel de Clémentine Vanlerberghe and Fabritia D'Intino (2018)
Plubel is an odyssey which interrogates collective choreographic work and women’s bodies – overexposed or, on the contrary, hidden. What do we see in these women's bodies as they perfectly execute group movements or, conversely, reveal moments of discord and error?
Clémentine Vanlerberghe, a French-German dancer-choreographer, is based in Lille; Fabritia D’Intino, an interpreter and choreographer, lives in Italy.
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5/11Unwanted, de Dorothée Munyaneza (2017)
Born in Rwanda, Dorothée Munyaneza left Kigali as a refugee at the age of 12, living in the UK before moving to France.
In Unwanted, she focuses on the stories of women trapped by genocide. Widespread rape begot children traumatised by their own history and ostracised because of their taboo origins.
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6/11Crowd, by Gisèle Vienne (2017)
This piece for 15 dancers against a backdrop of techno-trance music transposes the club scene to the theatre. This is the first time Gisèle Vienne has shown her work in the UK.
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7/11Another Look at Memory, by Thomas Lebrun (2017)
In Another Look at Memory, the artistic director of the National Choreographic Centre in Tours revisits ten years of choreography with some of his most faithful dancers to create a new memory of the past. Over a powerful choral score by Philip Glass, together they deliver a dance of rare precision.
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8/11Dumy Moyi, by François Chaignaud (2013)
A multilingual recital enriched by Ukrainian, Filipino and Sephardic melodies, Dumy Moyi exists in total opposition to the rituals of Western theatre, with its boundaries, strict temporality and power relations. In close proximity to the audience, François Chaignaud, wearing a sculptural suit, performs dances and songs inspired by the Theyyam rituals of Malabar, India.
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9/11Queen Blood, by Ousmane Sy (2019)
In Queen Blood, Ousmane Sy channels the energies and gestures of seven young dancers who deploy their virtuosity to interrogate the possibilities of femininity. They do this from within two very different musical worlds – one acoustic, the other electro.
The French choreographer created the piece based on each of these women’s personal lived experiences.
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10/11Quelque part au milieu de l’infini, by Amala Dianor (2017)
This piece is built from encounters between African dances, contemporary dance and hip-hop. Working with this radiant trio, the young Senegalese-born choreographer savours the interactions of three men who poetically interrogate their own freedom and push their individual boundaries.
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The Institut français and the project
Organised by the Institut français, the FranceDanse editions showcase French choreography. Launched in Europe in 2007, they were then rolled out in Asia, Oceania, North America and Latin America. Learn more about the FranceDanse programme