GEISHA FONTAINE
Choreographer, performer and dance researcher, Geisha Fontaine started out as a classical dancer, then trained with Merce Cunningham and Alwin Nikolaïs, in New York, and Hideyuki Yano, in Paris. She then created the Contemporary Dance Center Le Dansoir, in Toulouse, and danced for several companies. In 1998, she founded Mille Plateaux Associés with Pierre Cottreau. Their creations never cease to question, with humor, the art of dance, which fascinates them. Geisha Fontaine was awarded the Villa Médicis-Hors-les-Murs residence in Japan in 2010.
Doctor in philosophy of art at the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, she wrote Les 100 mots de la danse (PUF, collection Que sais-je?) in 2018. She also wrote Les danses du temps (Center national de la danse, 2004, translated into Spanish in 2012), Tu es le danseur and Là (Micadanses editions, 2008 and 2009). She contributes to several journals and collective works, in particular to the editions of the CNRS. She is regularly invited as an artist and researcher in universities and art centers in France (Bordeaux, Paris) and abroad (Japan, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, etc.).
It collaborates with the National Dance Center for projects relating to the development of choreographic culture; In particular, she is the artistic and scientific advisor for the exhibition Contemporary dance in questions, produced by the National Center for Dance and the French Institute.
She also gives lectures and conducts internships combining practice with the exploration of an aesthetic issue.
PIERRE COTTREAU
After graduating from the FEMIS (French state film school), began his artistic career as a director and director of photography. He collaborates on several feature films. He is currently focusing his research on the possible links between the filmed image and dance.
Also trained in art history, he is involved in experimentation around image and film at the crossroads of several artistic fields: cinema, dance and photography.
Since the creation of Mille Plateaux Associés, he has designed the company’s various choreographic projects with Geisha Fontaine and has directed several films and documentaries.