Last conferences by Geisha Fontaine
Six conferences about dance, at the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin, in Paris (20th arrondissement) : https://www.pavilloncarredebaudouin.fr/universites2/
Coming
Thursday, M ay 22 at 7:00 p.m : Danse et architecture – Le mouvant et le solide / Dance, like architecture, creates assemblages, plays with proximities, levels, and volumes, and invites us to move through spaces, to divert them, to transform them. Dance differs depending on whether it takes place in proscenium theaters or outdoors. It dialogues with architecture, responds to it, escapes it, inhabits it in its own way.
https://www.pavilloncarredebaudouin.fr/evenements/danse-et-architecture-le-mouvant-et-le-solide/
Thursday, June 12 at 7:00 p.m : X-Y – La danse et ses genres / This lecture explores various perspectives on images of men and women in choreographic creation. Today, professional dance seems predominantly female (even though leadership positions are still mostly held by men). Yet, throughout history and around the world, male dancers have been deeply involved in dance. All genders lift their legs, twirl, and unfurl movement.
https://www.pavilloncarredebaudouin.fr/evenements/x-y-la-danse-et-ses-genres/
This Season
Saturday, February 22, 2025, at 3:00 p.m : When Dance Dresses, Costumes, or Undresses…Throughout dance history and technique, clothing has played an essential role. From long robes to short tutus, from heeled sandals to bare feet, from costumes designed by Picasso or Jean-Paul Gaultier to jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers, garments parade on stage, blend into the scene, or sometimes vanish. Costumes are visual elements but also affect performers’ mobility – they become partners in dance. From Antiquity to today, let’s explore balls, bacchanals, carnivals, and parades.
Saturday, January 25, 2025, at 3:00 p.m : La danse se fait son cinéma / Filming dance ? Dancing in films? These two arts complement each other beautifully. From the recording of stage performances to captivating dance scenes in cinema, from Loïe Fuller’s early film experiments to musicals, from choreographer – filmmakers to dancer-directors, so much movement across stage and screen !
Saturday, November 16, 2024, at 3:00 p.m : Les temps de la danse / Dance is a living art. While the present moment shared with the audience is crucial, many temporalities are also at play : beginnings and endings, durations, repetitions, speeds, traces, suspensions. Linear time, cyclical time – each artist creates their own sense of time. Let’s intertwine the hours of dance, and weave together the moments of the dancer, the choreographer, and the spectator. What an infinity!
Saturday, October 19, 2024, at 3:00 p.m : Danse et arts visuels, tissages / Visual arts and dance observe and enrich each other ! Both involve materials, colors, and movements that meet, dialogue, and complete one another. Let’s wander through choreographic works revealing multiple worlds born of unusual collaborations. A century ago, Matisse, Picasso, and Léger contributed to dance. More recently, Luc Boltanski with Dominique Bagouet, Andy Goldsworthy with Régine Chopinot have created jointly. Today, Théo Mercier and François Chaignaud blur roles between artist and performer. Sometimes, even the choreographer exhibits their work in art centers…
Lectures – 1st Semester 2024
Tuesday, February 6, 2024 : Un spectacle de danse ? Quels enjeux ? / Dance is a living art, materialized through the moving body. Some choreographers treat movement as the primary material of dance; others use it to serve a theme, while others blur the boundaries between different art forms… What are the stakes of a dance performance? What perceptions does it rely on ? Must it necessarily “say” something ?
Tuesday, March 5, 2024 : La composition chorégraphique / How a dance creation is structured is decisive. There are multiple ways of constructing a piece : through fragments, in linear development, through chance, or by repetition… Various compositional processes will be explored, with a focus on the organization of a performance over the course of its presentation.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 : La danse et les autres arts / What relationships does dance maintain with other art forms? How is it unique? What influences can be observed across different artistic fields ? Choreographers often collaborate with composers, visual artists, writers, and more. What forms of collaboration do they favor ?
Tuesday, May 28, 2024 : L’espace dans la danse, l’espace de la danse / Space is a major element of dance. First, we will discuss how space is used in choreographic creation. We will then explore the venues where dance is performed and how these spaces interact with the works they host. From proscenium theaters to gardens, from streets to airport runways, from museums to swimming pools – dance finds its stage everywhere.
All conferences are illustrated with videos excerpts from performances.