Dance and image
The performative and immersive dimension of their practice leads Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot to produce and collect many images, shot with the same momentum as dance. Many of these images are at the very heart of the company’s works, acting as starting points. Also, since the very beginning, the company has collaborated with video and filmmakers. Images and dance intertwined… Anne Le Batard also films and edits short films, images, landscape, and dance intertwined…
Terschelling
This film is the result of a writing/residency on the island of Terschelling. The company was invited several times by Joop Mulder, artistic director of the Oerol festival, to create pieces on specific sites on the island. Joop’s vision and the trust he placed in the company have had a profound effect on the company’s work and have inspired pieces in dialogue with nature. This film is dedicated to him.
“In wintertime, the animals leave their usual pastures for the wilderness of the island to maintain the landscape and preserve the natural balance. Terschelling is a dreamlike journey of a half-man/half-animal character between dunes and polders.”
Editing/direction Anne Le Batard
Performance Jean-Antoine Bigot
Sound Charles-Henri Despeignes
Selections 20th European Short Film Festival of Nice / Festival In Shadow, from the Vo’arte association, screened at the Merces Cultural Space in Lisbon / Rollout Macau Festival, in the “ecoculture” category, screened in venues in Macau (China) and online.
De Belsunce à Seoul, with Laurence Rebouillon
Filmmaker and friend. In 2002, they made Rue des Petites Maries, a short fiction film in which she shows dance interventions in the streets of Belsunce, made during the creation of Passants. In 2008, Calle Obrapia #4 became the material for a fiction that takes us from Lisbon to Marseille, followed by West Point, a 35 mm feature film. Later, she accompanied the company to Korea for the creation of Nal Boa. Her images are once again the material for two fictions: a film, La Saison des Pluies, and an installation, Traversée 576, shown at the Festival des cinémas différents et expérimentaux de Paris. All these films have been selected for numerous festivals.
Jusqu’en Palestine, with Martine Derain
Anne Le Batard and Jean Antoine Bigot have co-written Trajets de Vie Trajets de Ville, using images from the show shot by Jean-Christophe Maestracci and Jérôme Hughenin-Virchaux. TVTV is one of the three best films of the Pool Festival of Berlin/2009. Selected for the Dança em foco – Festival Internacional de Vídeo & Dança 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The installation A l’abri du vent shows the Trajets de Vie filmed in Seoul, South Korea, La Défense and Valladolid (Spain).
A l’abri du vent was created for the Hôtel des Arts in Toulon in December 2008 and restaged for the Company in Belsunce-Marseille in November/December 2010. The 4-screen model was selected at the Dança em Foco/South America Festival in 2011.
More recently, Martine Derain has also invited the company to participate in her upcoming film project in Palestine, Les chemins par ailleurs, shot at the Ramallah Festival in 2019. Released in 2021.
Au musée, with Jean-François Neplaz
Picardia, shot in 16mm. During a residency at the Musée de Picardie in February 2020, hosted by the Cirque Jules Verne-Pôle National Cirque et Arts de la rue d’Amiens, the dancers of Ex Nihilo were given carte blanche to film solos in this museum undergoing renovation. The digital recordings were shown in the entrance hall during the performances Iskanderia leh ? as part of the festival La rue est à Amiens. At the same time, the choreographers called on Jean-François Neplaz to make a film in cinema format on the dialogue between painting and dance: “Filming dance in this museum construction site meant playing with the imbalance between time and space, even more than elsewhere, and not being afraid of falling”. Released in July 2021.
