Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen en Normandie.
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CANCELLATION: As part of the mobilization against the pension reform, the public opening of Latifa Laâbissi and Antonia Baehr around their next creation "Colors and Numbers" will not take place on Thursday March 23 at 7 p.m.

Alban Richard

About – repertoire

Alban Richard was already pur­su­ing lit­er­ary and music­al stud­ies when he decided to switch to dance with the cer­tainty that he had found his true mode of expres­sion, soon fol­lowed by the desire to cre­ate shows. He went on to per­form for cho­reo­graph­ers as var­ied as Odile Duboc, with whom he worked from 2002 to 2010, Olga de Soto or Ros­alind Crisp among others.

He foun­ded Ensemble l’Ab­rupt in 2000, for which he cre­ated more than thirty works with the stated ambi­tion of invent­ing, with each new pro­ject, a new body and a new lan­guage. Alban Richard is a research­er who does not impose an eas­ily iden­ti­fied ges­tur­al sig­na­ture, meth­od and style, but exper­i­ments with each new piece, in close inter­ac­tion with a music­al score that is most often played live. Each pro­ject devel­ops into a schol­arly and sens­ory labor­at­ory, delving into struc­tur­al and form­al issues relat­ing to music, writ­ing and com­pos­i­tion. Nev­er repro­du­cing, always start­ing from scratch, even if it means mov­ing from expres­sion­ism, with a piece such as Luis­ance (2008), to more abstract objects such as Breath­is­dan­cing (2017) or Vivace (2018).

Invest­ig­at­ing form­al music­al struc­tures, peri­ods and works inev­it­ably leads to a very dif­fer­ent per­spect­ive”, states the cho­reo­graph­er. “One does­n’t dance in the same way to Xena­kis (Pléi­ades, 2011), medi­ev­al music (Nom­brer les étoiles, 2016) or Arnaud Rebotini (Fix Me, 2018). The pla­cing of the flows, the rhythmi­city, or even the body tech­nique, the rela­tion­ship to the beats, to weight, all this must be ques­tioned every time.” At the end of a fre­quently long and dense pro­cess, each new piece asserts itself as an autonom­ous object, con­struct­ing its own logic, its own life and its own organ­i­city. Alban Richard devises his pro­duc­tions in part­ner­ship with dif­fer­ent col­lab­or­at­ors, wheth­er old or new, weav­ing togeth­er dif­fer­ent par­ti­tions – ges­tures, music, light, cos­tumes – and thus edi­fy­ing a unique piece of work. The way he works with the per­formers, using restric­ted impro­visa­tions to devise the work dir­ectly on stage, allows every­one to devel­op their own dance through an act­ive presence.

Main­tain­ing a con­stant dia­logue with the world of music, the cho­reo­graph­er col­lab­or­ates with the Alla francesca ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Per­cus­sions de Stras­bourg, the Ensemble inter­con­tem­po­rain, IRCAM and the Cairn, Instant Don­né and Altern­ance ensembles, as well as with com­posers Arnaud Rebotini, Sebasti­an Rivas, Erwan Ker­avec, Jérôme Com­bi­er, Laurent Per­ri­er, Raphaël Cendo, Robin Leduc, Paul Clift, Wen Liu and Mat­thew Barnson.

A pro­lif­ic cho­reo­graph­er, Alban Richard is reg­u­larly invited by bal­lets and com­pan­ies to cre­ate com­mis­sioned works, both inter­na­tion­ally (Canada, Lithuania, Nor­way) and in France. He also works out­side tra­di­tion­al per­form­ance ven­ues – in places such as the Louvre, the Musée d’Art mod­erne de la Ville de Par­is, the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chir­ac and the Musée Guimet – to cre­ate in situ per­form­ances. A curi­ous and ver­sat­ile artist, Alban Richard con­siders his work as a craft that is nour­ished by encoun­ters and daily ques­tion­ing. Each new com­mis­sion gives him the oppor­tun­ity to search in unex­pec­ted dir­ec­tions, to dis­cov­er, and to keep learning.

Ensemble l’Ab­rupt has been in res­id­ence in some ten ven­ues (Théâtre de Vanves, Centre nation­al de la danse in Pantin, For­um du Blanc-Mes­nil, Théâtre Louis Aragon in Trem­bay-en-France, Scène nationale d’Orléans, Prisme centre de dévelop­pe­ment artistique in Saint-Quentin-en-Yve­lines, Chail­lot — Théâtre nation­al de la danse, Théâtre Paul Elu­ard in Bezons, Théâtre 71 in Malakoff) work­ing on very dif­fer­ent issues and contexts.

It was on the strength of all these exper­i­ences in res­id­ence that Alban Richard was appoin­ted artist­ic dir­ect­or of the centre choré­graph­ique nation­al de Caen en Nor­man­die in 2015, with a pro­ject based on both his prac­tice as an author and on con­nect­ing with the ter­rit­ory, centred on reach­ing out to a range of audiences.

List of works

2023

Come Kiss Me Now | show | centre choré­graph­ique nation­al de Caen en Nor­man­die, avec le théâtre de Caen

2021

3 Works for 12 | show | La Fil­ature — scène nationale de Mul­house, Fest­iv­al Musica

2020

La Belle et la Bête (can­celled) | com­mis­sion | théâtre de Caen

2019

the depar­ted Heart | com­mis­sion | Stu­dio Carte Blanche, Ber­gen (Nor­vège)
Bolero ReCom­posed | com­mis­sion | Le Quai, CDN Angers Pays de la Loire
For ever Now | devised with loc­al res­id­ents | Opéra de Rouen Normandie
His­toire du sold­at — Strav­in­ski| com­mis­sion | Phil­har­monie de Paris
Egon Schiele, mis à nu | com­mis­sion | Théâtre de la Pépin­ière, Paris

2018

Touch Me Lightly | com­mis­sion | La Scène nationale d’Orléans, les 20 ans de l’ensemble Cairn
Fix Me | show | Le Car­gö, scène de musiques actuelles de Caen, Fest­iv­al Nördik Impakt
Vivace | show | Théâtre muni­cip­al d’Av­ranches et Salle du Rex à Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët
Pareiškiu – Brandir | com­mis­sion | Klaipe­dos Dramos Teat­ras (Litu­anie)
The Loss of Your Embrace | com­mis­sion | Le Mer­lan — scène nationale, Marseille

2017

Une Fantôme-Danse | devised with loc­al res­id­ents | Le Tri­dent — scène nationale de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin
Breath­is­dan­cing | com­mis­sion | La Pop, Paris

2016

INSANE | devised with loc­al res­id­ents | Comédie de Caen – CDN de Normandie
Buées | activ­a­tion-per­form­ance | Cluny — Musée nation­al du Moy­en-Age de Paris
Prac­tice opus 1 / Prac­tice opus 2 / Prac­tice opus 3 / Prac­tice opus 4 | com­mandes | Théâtre 71 – scène nationale de Malakoff
Nom­brer les étoiles | spec­tacle | Théâtre 71 – scène nationale de Malakoff et Théâtre Paul Elu­ard (tpe) – scène con­ven­tion­née de Bezons

2015

Suites dansées | show | Phil­har­monie de Paris
HOK — solo pour ensemble | com­mis­sion | CCN – Bal­let de Lor­raine / Opéra de Nancy
Dawnlight/Night:Light | re-création |

2014

Trick­sters | com­mis­sion | Josette Baiz – Groupe Gren­ade / Grand Théâtre de Provence
Forever­more | devised with loc­al res­id­ents | Théâtre Nation­al de Chail­lot, Paris
Et mon cœur a vu à fois­on | show | Théâtre Nation­al de Chail­lot, Paris
Some­how myself sur­vived the night | activ­a­tion-per­form­ance | Musée d’Art mod­erne, Paris
Com­bus­tion | activ­a­tion-per­form­ance | Musée d’Art mod­erne, Paris

2013

From afar | devised with loc­al res­id­ents | Prisme d’Elancourt

2012

For each extat­ic instant | devised with loc­al res­id­ents | Scène nationale d’Orléans
The weird sis­ters’ pro­ject | activ­a­tion-per­form­ance | Abu Dhabi Art Fair (EAU)
Boire les longs oub­lis | show | Espace des Arts – scène nationale, Chalon-sur-Saône
Night:Light | com­mis­sion | IRCAM, Fest­iv­al Mani­feste

2011

Pléi­ades, un con­cert de musique et de danse | show | Cité inter­na­tionale de la danse, Mont­pel­li­er Danse
It can’t be dying, it’s too rouge | com­mis­sion | Toronto Dance Theater

2010

Shake that Dev­il ! | activ­a­tion-per­form­ance | CDC Par­is Réseau

2009

With my limbs in the dark | com­mis­sion | IRCAM
Trois études de sépar­a­tion : Loin­tainLuis­ance – Lacis | spec­tacles | Fest­iv­al Automne en Normandie

2008

A Con­spir­acy | com­mis­sion | Vif du Sujet SACD / Château de Vil­le­bois Lavalette
Luis­ance | show | For­um du Blanc-Mes­nil – scène conventionnée

2007

as far as | show | MC93 Bobigny Ren­contres Choré­graph­iques de Seine-Saint-Denis
Loin­tain | show | For­um du Blanc-Mes­nil – scène conventionnée

2005

dis­perse | show | MC93 Bobigny Ren­contres Choré­graph­iques de Seine-Saint-Denis

2004

Down­fall | show | CND / Fest­iv­al Faits d’hiver

2002

Sous Sur­veil­lance | show | Fest­iv­al Faits d’hiver

2000

Häft­ling | show | Théâtre de l’Étoile du Nord, Fest­iv­al Mouve­ments d’automne

1999

Blood Roses | show | Fest­iv­al de Sus­cinio
Come Out | in situ | Théâtre de Chartres