The long-term team
An international team of dancers and multidisciplinary artists contributes to the spirit of the company.
PASCAL FERRARI
He composes and performs music for theatre and contemporary dance, and has been collaborating with the Générik Vapeur company since 1990, as well as with the Groupe F. In 2000, he began a collaboration with Ex Nihilo and has since composed most of the creations in association with other artists such as Rui Owada, Régis Boulard and Yves Miara or more recently Tom Honnoré and Vincent Sermone.
Listen Dehors encore, musics composed for Ex nihilo and follow his personal work on Band Camp.
CORINNE PONTANA
She trained from 1981 to 1984 at Mudra Brussels under the direction of Micha Van Hoecke, Flora Cruchman and Yann Nuyts; after a spell with Maurice Béjart’s Compagnie du XXe siècle, she worked with Maryse Delente, Philippe Découflé (JO), Florence Girardon, Samuel Mathieu, Georges Appaix… For the past 13 years, she has been a member of the companies Propos (Lyon)-Denis Plassard and Abdel Blabla (Marseille)-François Bouteau. In 2006, she joined Ex Nihilo and works closely with the choreographers on all the creation,engagement, and cooperation projects.
She develops her own work in Abdel Bla Bla company. See more on her website.
ANNE REYMANN
She danced mainly with Ex Nihilo between 1996 and 2005. Based in Nantes since 2006, she has been a performer for Nathalie Béasse and David Rolland and an outside eye and choreographer for several theatre companies. Since 2018, she has been collaborating with Atelier Marie et Alphonse on creative projects combining digital, video, sound, and choreography, particularly for young exiles.
Passionate about engagement, she develops projects in schools (EAC) and with vulnerable audiences and teaches at the Pont Supérieur and the Studio de la danse in Nantes. Since 2020, she has been involved in DAM, an informal group of dancers in Nantes, where she performs for Laurent Cebe and Julie Nioche.
ROLANDO ROCHA
He was interested in the practice of kung-fu before entering the fields of theatre, modern and contemporary dance. In Peru, he joined various local troupes from 1989. Invited to France for the Ateliers du Monde during the 20th edition of the Montpellier Dance Festival, he trained at the CNDC in Angers from 2000 to 2002. Subsequently, in parallel with his personal approach, he has performed with companies such as Unterwegs Theater, Pal Frenak, Chatha, La Baraka, Kubilai Khan Investigations, Maguy Marin, Humaine… He works in France and Peru on exchange and engagement projects and joined Ex Nihilo in 2009 to collaborate on numerous creation and cooperation projects.
CHANDRA GRANGEAN
Franco-Venezuelan, trains in contemporary dance at the CNSMD in Lyon and collaborates with various choreographers (Ambra Senatore-CCN de Nantes, Dikie Istorii Company, François Veyrunes, Ali Moini, Maud le Pladec -CCN Orléans) and more recently with Maguy Marin for revivals of May B and the Duo d’Eden. She cultivates her interest in theatre with Mélina Despretz (In Carne), in street art with La Fabrique Fastidieuse and in performance art with Katell Hartereau and Léonard Rainis (Le Pôle). In parallel, she develops her own research work and collaborates with Ex Nihilo on various laboratories and performances.
LISA DA BOIT
Dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Lisa Da Boit first trained as a gymnast. She began her dance studies in Italy and continued them at the Rosella Hightower International Centre in France. She also holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Cà Foscari University in Venice. She was part of the Corte Sconta company in Milan for 4 years. In 1998, she collaborated with Ariella Vidach and then moved to Paris with the Laroche-Valieres company. She joined the company Karin Vyncke (Bruxelles) in 1999 and then joined Ex Nihilo in 2002.
In 2001, she created the GIOLISU company, of which she is the artistic director. She gives workshops in Europe, Mexico, and the United States. See more on Giloisu company.
JULIA DIDIER
She is costume designer.
After training in plastic and applied arts and obtaining a diploma in costume design (DMA), she worked with Métalovoice (Fragile), Opposito, Compagnie Laï Laï, and the Paris Opera. She regularly participates in film shoots for make-up, hair, and costumes. She joined Ex Nihilo in 2007.
JEAN-MARC FILLET
Since his training at the conservatory of dramatic art in Marseille from 1989 to 1991 he has never stopped looking elsewhere. He started out as an actor (L’Égrégore, la Commune, Begat Theater) and then, in 1994, took his first steps in contemporary dance after meeting William Petit (Cie Rialto). He trained in various courses and joined Ex Nihilo in 1999. He joined G. Appaix’s Cie La Liseuse for M encore, took part in dance performances with F. Ruckert and Lynda Gaudreau, and worked in the circus with Jutta Knöder’s Cie Nö. In 1997 he discovered object theatre with the Cie Théâtre de Cuisine. In perpetual questioning between body language and verbal language, he made his first production in 2003 with Just Hamlet by Serge Valetti and signed his first solo dance Bellua Videns in 2004. In 2009, he created Opus Time, where he now develops hybrid projects between dance, performance, and theatre.
MOHAMED FOUAD
Choreographer, dancer, and performer, he graduated from the Faculty of Theatre Arts in Alexandria in 2006. He joined the Cairo contemporary dance workshops, a program run by Studio Emad Eldin and the Descent-danse association in 2008-2011. Since 2012, he has been a performer in several major creations: Tubes, by Philippe Jamet (Théâtre de Chaillot), To be a Real Tragedy by Germana Civera (Festival Montpellier Danse), Traffic by Tomeo Vergas (International Festival D-Caf in Cairo). Since 2011, he regularly presents his own pieces at Nassim el Raqs (Alexandria). He shares his dance practice on several Arab and European platforms.
JI IN GOOK
Studied traditional dance at the National School of Traditional Arts in Seoul and then turned to contemporary dance. She met Ex Nihilo with Nal Boa in 2010 and has been collaborating with the company since then on different creation or territory projects. She danced with the company Brotha from Another Motha between 2011 and 2015 and created her own company, Project Sang, in 2013. In 2015, she moved to France to follow the FAI-AR (Formation supérieure d’art en espace public) education program in Marseille. There she met the musician Christophe Eard with whom she created a duet presented at the Fête de la danse festival in Switzerland, as well as Hervé Lelardoux who accompanied her in her personal projects, in particular her end-of-study project SA-ï[espace-entre], an “indisciplinary show”.
TOM GRAND MOURCEL
Comes from the Hip Hop culture. At the age of 17, he went to New York to meet the underground Hip Hop world and rubbed shoulders with the greatest, including Dister Rondon (dancer and choreographer for the singer Common) and the Rock Steady Crew (New York breakdance group founded in 1977). Back in France, he joined the Académie Internationale de la Danse in Paris and in 2012, attended the CNSMD de Lyon where he created several pieces including Ascension Electrique with Vera Gorbatcheva and Jazz Barbe.
In 2016, following the 3rd year course at the CNSMD, he joined Ex Nihilo then joined Plan K company, La Fabrique Fastidieuse, La Vouivre company. He creates with Vera Gorbatcheva Dikie Istorii in which they developed their own work. See more on their website.
SATYA ROOSENS
Trained in contemporary dance in Ghent, Belgium at the School of Arts and then in the Netherlands (University of the Arts in Arnhem). She is interested in Yoga and Shiatsu, practices Aikido, and trains in aerial dance in England and Argentina. She collaborates as a dancer with Nir de Volff (Israel/Berlin), David Lakein (USA), Wies Merkx (NL), Jan Stroeve (NL), Rodolfo Rivas Franco (GB), and Hassan Khayoon. In 2007, she met Ex Nihilo in Utrecht and collaborated on the pieces Trajets de Ville, Nal Boa, and In-Paradise/Paradise is not enough.
See more on her own work in Studio Eclipse company.
CAMILLE SANCHEZ
Video engineer in charge of the computer universe, she trained at the TNS in Strasbourg, from which she graduated in June 2017. Although she was trained as a versatile stage manager, she turned to video management where she could put into practice her taste for hacking and fiddling. Since graduating, she has worked with Julien Gosselin on 1993 by Aurélien Bellanger, Laurent Guttman on De la Démocratie d’après Alexis de Tocqueville and with Vladimir Steyaert on Looking for Quichotte de Charles-Eric Petit.
CHRISTOPH SCHÜTZ
Met Ex Nihilo in 2000 and participated in Salida, Loin de là, and Passants. In 1999, he co-directed a dance-music duet with Eric M Hétéradelphe, co-produced by the Dansem festival. In 1995, he founded the company Dance Disection with Sonja Seng and has since developed his own choreographic work. He regularly meets up with Ex Nihilo, most recently for Paradise is not enough, performed in Germany