Quai d’Angers

The École supérieure of the National Centre for Contemporary Dance (CNDC) offers two courses. One of these, an experimental program entitled Essais, attracts the points of view and the strong orientations linked with the current artistic sphere in dance. It is an intense factory of works derived from contemporary choreographic thought, liberal and linked with cinema, visual arts, literature and allied arts.

It has to do with encouraging the capacity for autonomy in defining the content of a project, of knowing how to situate oneself in the contemporary arts scene and thus taking the risk to be an author. The students have to present their supervised or personal "essais" to the pubic on a regular basis (production commissions and bids). Through over a thousand hours of training, the essayists complete one year of study and research, alternating between a work supervised by professional artists and a completely independent activity.

The creation of a performance by these students, future authors who have pursued their studies for one year at CNDC, is always a unique moment: the coming together of their professional universe and the influence of the artists who accompany them. With the aid of two personalities very present on the contemporary scene, the choreographer Loïc Touzé and the visual artist Jan Kopp, the students have confronted the questions underlying this performance: how to work together on the same project, in the same show? What common language will develop? What type of community will emerge?