Tag: Festival

The French company Retouramont takes to the air: Its choreographies celebrate the overcoming of gravity, all physical and regulatory boundaries of urban spaces disappear – high above while dancing over the heads of the audience.

Hisse Émoi is an invitation to the audience to rise above the city thanks to a collective and simply let go, to gain a new perspective, to let one's body drift in the wind or experience the possibility of the bottomless. Combined with a dance solo that hovers above the audience for a moment and draws from the complete freedom of movement, the experience of three-dimensional space becomes an astonishing moment.

The Retouramont company is considered a pioneer of vertical dance. Its artistic director, Fabrice Guillot, is a professional climber, which opens up an infinite variety of movements on the rope that play with the structure of the facades and connect them with the third dimension—airspace.

Artistic direction and choreography: Fabrice Guillot
Technical equipment: Olivier Penel
It dances: Nathalie Tedesco
Duration: SOLO (30 Min) – WORKSHOP for spectators and passers-by (90 Min)

Photo: © Cie Retouramont

With the kind support of the Institut Français and the French Ministry of Culture Germany

It is the encounter of two female dancers with matter. A matter that can be human, but also a wall or a tree trunk, even empty space—less tangible, yet equally real, visible, and concrete. First, a body emerges from the building, becomes visible, and detaches from it. It engages with hard elements such as walls and facades, but also with its counterpart—an equal yet fundamentally different presence. A playful and at the same time combative struggle unfolds between architecture, emptiness, and the body. The latter strives to break free—initially with impetuous determination, then out of vital necessity. Finally, the body becomes lighter, gains airy quality, and approaches weightlessness until it finally embraces it and enters into a lively, joyful interplay.

Fabrice Guillot and his team repeatedly question the environment and redraw it through choreographed lines, curves, and vibrations. In the field of vertical dance, the Compagnie Retouramont is considered a pioneer. It is not limited to a single discipline, but combines various art forms within a specific framework to create a unique work. Drawing on its expertise and incorporating the Pôle de Danse Verticale – a specialized institution for training and artistic residencies – it now advises companies that wish to integrate the element of verticality into their artistic work. Notable collaborations include the production Vertical (2018) with Mourad Merzouki as well as the piece Wings of Desire (2021) with Bruno Bouché of the Ballet du Rhin. Since 2014, she has also directed the Vertical Dance Forum, a network of seven choreographers from Europe and Canada specializing in the field of vertical dance.

Artistic direction and choreography: Fabrice Guillot
Technical equipment: Olivier Penel
Dancing: Nathalie Tedesco, Fanny Gombert
Duration: 30 min.

Photo: © Hervé Hauboldt

With the kind support of the Institut Français and the French Ministry of Culture Germany