Romaeuropa: "Passages" by Noé Soulier

Noé Soulier ‘s work involves choreography and dance in performance and theater, moving from the stage to museums, and finally to writing and theory.

His series of choreographic pieces including Removal (2015), Faits et gestes (2016) and The Waves (2018) aim to activate viewers’ bodily memory with movements directed towards absent objects or events, and which therefore suggest more than they show. In projects such as the book Actions, Movements and Gestures (2016) and the performance Movement on Movement (2013), the choreographer has analyzed different approaches to the conception of danced movement, suggesting multiple ways of experiencing the body. The choreographic exhibition Performing Art (2017), created at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, reverses the usual position of dance in the museum by bringing it onto the stage, transforming museum professionals into artists, and the exhibition into choreography. In this way, Soulier pursues a practice that is both conceptual and intimately linked to choreographic practice.

Born in Paris in 1987, the choreographer studied dance at the CNSMD in Paris, the National Ballet School of Canada and PARTS – Brussels, and holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Sorbonne (Université de Paris IV). He participated in the Pavillon residency program at Palais de Tokyo. In 2010, he won first prize in the Danse Élargie competition organized by the Théâtre de la Ville and the Musée de la Danse. From 2015 to 2019, he was artist-in-residence at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin.

His work has been co-produced by, among others, the Festival d’Automne à Paris, Kaaitheater Brussels (BE), Tanz im August /HAU Berlin (DE), Théâtre National de Chaillot (FR), Centre Pompidou ( FR), PACT Zollverein Essen (DE), Tanzquartier Vienna (AU), Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT), and CDCN Toulouse. He has also received choreographic commissions for Ballet du Rhin (D’un pays loin, 2011), Ballet de Lorraine (Corps de ballet, 2014), Fondation Louis Vuitton (Movement material, 2014), Los Angeles Dance Project (Second Quartet, 2017) and Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon (Self Duet, 2021).

In July 2020, he was appointed director of Cndc – Angers, a national center for contemporary dance founded in 1978 and characterized by the combination of a contemporary dance high school with a program of dance performances.