New collections collected in 2018

Georges Appaix-La Liseuse archive

This rich set of audio-visual and photographic archives documents the creative work of the choreographer Georges Appaix and his company La Liseuse from 1984 until the 2010s, and provides the chance to rediscover the choreographic ABC which the artist put together over the years, from Bel été (1984) to What do you think (2017), without forgetting Affabulation (1984), F. (1992), L. est là (1999), Non seulement… (2003) or else Univers Light Oblique (2013).
 

The Beau Geste-Dominique Boivin Collection

The first instalment from the Beau Geste company is an important series of company archives, containing in particular a series of administrative and budgetary documents bearing witness to the life of the group from its beginnings in 1981 until 2002, while clearly bringing out the evolution of the conditions and means for production and creation of contemporary dance companies during this period.

The collection also contains a complete collection of the company’s communication documents and publications, which are often remarkable thanks to their graphic conception or tone, making it possible to retrace the creations which were either collective, or by Dominique Boivin, which have been staged by Beau Geste until quite recently. As a complement, itineraries containing very precise records of the diffusion of the pieces provide a trace of the circulation of the company’s work throughout its long history.


Geneviève Berthéas archive

This small archive bears witness to the different periods of the professional life of the dancer Geneviève Berthéas, born in 1927, a student of Carlotta Zambelli, and named a Grand Sujet at the Opéra de Paris in 1948. At the end of her career at the Opera, she devoted herself to choreography and teaching, and was the teacher of the first class of classical dance at the Conservatoire of the 19th arrondissement in Paris. The archive contains various photographs (including a souvenir album of an international tour with the Ballet of the Opéra de Paris in the 1950s), press cuttings about choreographic news from the 1940s to the early 1960s, personal papers as well as a series of programmes of shows and a few inscribed books.


Robert Crang archive

This Robert Crang archive (1932-2014), a pioneer of the introduction and development of dance research at university, especially in Nice where he led his entire career, brings together not just his documentation and work files linked to his teaching and research into movement and dance – above all old or traditional forms – but also systems of notation, and particularly the writing of movement developed by Pierre Conté which he practised intensely, as can be seen in the very large collection of scores which he wrote or collected.


Fonds Fabrice Dugied

An archive concerning the choreographic work of Fabrice Dugied and the activities of his company from the 1980s to the 2000s, including numerous communication and distribution documents, a few working notes and technical documents, as well as press cuttings and audio-visual documents.

The artist’s choreographic works have been broadly documented since his first solos in 1982 until his pieces in the 2000s, such as Tribulations, without forgetting the numerous teaching projects which he has constantly conducted alongside his creations. Projects organised as part of the Regard du Cygne are also present, such as “Mémoire Vive” from 2002-2004 around the figures of J. Andrews, J. Robinson and K. Waehner of the Planetary Dance of Anna Halprin, organised in 2015, as well as manuscripts of two of his writings dating from 1997: Sokolow l’oubliée and Jennifer Muller, conversations croisées.


Laurent Goldring archive

Laurent Goldring’s artistic work has been developed at the crossroads between visual arts, video, photography and cinema, while weaving and working on a close connection with dance. He thus draws from the dancer’s body the material for “body loops”, while inspiring the work of many choreographers such as Xavier Le Roy, Benoît Lachambre or Maria Donata d’Urso, or while collaborating with them on stage. This first delivery of his audio-visual archives concerns his artistic work on the representation of the body, from 1995 until the early 2000s. In particular it brings together preparatory video-graphic elements and the materials of his exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Gulbenkian foundation in Lisbon in 2002, or else his productions for the shows Self Unfinished (Xavier Le Roy, 1998) and Pezzo Zero Due (Maria Donata d’Urso, 2002).
 

Groupe Lolita archive

The archives of the Groupe Lolita make for a remarkable set of traces, which are mainly visual, providing a view of the creativity and breadth of the visual and scenographic work that accompanied the choreographic reflexions in pieces by ten artists (dancers, visual artists and musicians) brought together by this collective after they had met at or were in relation with the CNDC of Angers, at the time directed by Alwin Nikolais. From 1981 to 1989, then occasionally during revivals of flagship shows such as Qui a tué Lolita? (1983, revived in 1996 then in 2015), the Groupe Lolita has illustrated itself at much in stage pieces as in the creation of events, alternating between major productions and more modest projects: Bla bla in 1981, Les Indolents Délires de Dolorès Dollar in 1984, Mouse Art in 1987, Les K in 1989, in particular, without forgetting the flamboyant Zoopsie Comedi created with the company Beau Geste (1985, revived in 2009). These various productions are all extremely well documented thanks to Arnaud Sauer’s work as a photography, designer and scenographic researcher, who paid attention along with Dominique Rebaud, but also Catherine Langlade, to safeguarding, identifying and digitalising all the documents that had been conserved (thus including films, personal notes, posters, programmes and communication or production documents) so as to transmit the memory of an artistic adventure which is at once generous, singular and typical of a period.


Dominique Petit archive

These archives retrace the artistic and pedagogical career of the dancer and choreographer Dominique Petit, through a large number of audio-visual documents, files around his choreographic pieces (background notes, programmes, press), since his first solos Variations (1979) and Igor Urstark (1980) then in the context of his company (1981-1996) in particular with Jade (1984) and Nuits (1991), duets performed with his partner Anne Carrié, or else with such group pieces as Kindertotenlieder (1985), Les Tournesols (1988) or else Salsita (1996).

His important pedagogical activity is also documented as is his teaching at the CNDC in Angers from 1984 to 1987, then from 1996 to 2000 or else the creation and leading of a cycle of professional training for dancers in the Pays de Loire (1994-1996). The administrative files about the management of the company complete these archives.