^{© Marc Ginot}

Trisha Brown

Trisha Brown (Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer) was born and raised in Aberdeen, Washington . After graduating from Mills College in Oakland, California, studying with Anna Halprin and teaching at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Trisha Brown moved to New York City in 1961. Instantly immersed in what was to become the post-modern phenomena of Judson Dance Theater, her movement investigations found the extraordinary in the everyday and challenged existing perceptions of what constitutes performance. In this “hotbed of dance revolution”, Brown, along with like-minded artists, pushed the limits of choreography thereby changing modern dance forever.

In 1970, Brown formed her company and explored the terrain of her adoptive SoHo making Man Walking Down the Side of a Building (1970), and Roof Piece (1971). Her first work for the proscenium stage, Glacial Decoy (1979), was also the first of many collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg. Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503 (1980), created with the fog designer Fujiko Nakaya, was followed by Son of Gone Fishin’ (1981), which featured sets by Donald Judd. The now iconic Set and Reset (1983), with original music by Laurie Anderson and visual design by Robert Rauschenberg, completed Brown’s first fully developed cycle of work, Unstable Molecular Structure. This cycle epitomized the fluid yet unpredictably geometric style that remains a hallmark of her work. Brown then began her relentlessly athletic Valiant Series, best exemplified by the powerful Newark (1987) and Astral Convertible (1989) – pushing her dancers to their physical limits and exploring gender-specific movement. Next came the elegant and mysterious Back to Zero cycle in which Brown pulled back from external virtuosity to investigate unconscious movement. This cycle includes Foray Forêt (1990), and For M.G.: The Movie (1991). Brown collaborated for the final time with Rauschenberg to create If you couldn’t see me (1994), in which she danced entirely with her back to the audience.

Brown turned her attention to classical music and opera production, initiating what is known as her Music cycle. Choreographed to J.S. Bach’s monumental Musical Offering, M.O. (1995) was hailed as a “masterpiece” by Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times. Brown continued to work with new collaborators, including visual artist Terry Winters and composer Dave Douglas, with whom she created El Trilogy (2000). She then worked with long-time friend and artist, Elizabeth Murray to create PRESENT TENSE (2003), to music by John Cage.

Brown stepped into the world of opera to choreograph Carmen (1986) and again to direct Claudio Monteverdi's L’Orfeo (1998). Since then, Brown has gone on to direct four more operas, including, Luci Mie Traditrici (2001), Winterreise (2002), Da Gelo a Gelo (2006) and most recently, Pygmalion (2010).

Continuing to venture into new terrain, Brown created O zlożony/O composite (2004) for three étoiles of the Paris Opera Ballet, working with long-time collaborators Laurie Anderson and Jennifer Tipton. Forays into new technology created the witty and sophisticated I love my robots (2007), with Japanese artist and robotics designer Kenjiro Okazaki. Her work with Pygmalion produced two dance pieces L’Amour au théâtre (2009) and Les Yeux et l'âme (2011). Brown’s last work, I’m going to toss my arms- if you catch them they’re yours (2011), is a collaboration with visual artist Burt Barr, whose striking set is dominated by industrial fans. The original music is by Alvin Curran.

As well as being a prolific choreographer, Brown is an accomplished visual artist, as experienced in It’s a Draw (2002). Her drawings have been seen in exhibitions, galleries and museums throughout the world including the Venice Biennale, The Drawing Center in Philadelphia, The New Museum, White Cube, Documenta XII, Walker Art Center, Centre Georges Pompidou, Mills College, Musée d'art Contemporain de Lyon, and Museum of Modern Art. Brown is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in NYC.

^{© Aurélien Avril}

Tatiana Julien

Tatiana Julien is a french dancer and choreographer, graduate of the Paris National Dance Conservatoire and Paris University VIII. In parallel  to her work, she has performed and collaborated with Cie 7273, Nathalie Pernette, Thomas Lebrun and Sylvain Prunenec. Today she dances for Olivia Grandville and Boris Charmatz.

In 2011, she founded her company, INTERSCRIBO. At the crossroads of languages, the company explores spectacular hybrid forms for both theater and on-site performances, mixing professionals and amateurs, questioning the artist’s commitment to the world and the role of the spectator/citizen. These creations, often adapted to the architecture of the location, offer engaging devices for the audience and deploys a fantasy of dance that contaminates everywhere, all the time, a dance that creates empathy. Sound, light, and text are its essential elements. The body engages with these immersive landscapes like a piercing cry, crossed by its context, charged with a persistent and vital force.

The company’s first creations, La Mort & l’Extase, Douve, Ruines and Initio, opéra chorégraphique were forms on the outskirts of expressionism. With chiselled, verbal and embodied choreographies. Its more recent creations Turbulence – a choreographed installation for headphones in a non-dedicated space -, Soulèvement (Uprising) – a bi-frontal solo piece on resistance -, and A F T E R – piece for eight performers (postponed due to sanitary crisis) in a collapsing scenography-, continue the exploration of a dance manifest, full and committed, this time in more performative forms and with the integration of the audience within the scenography.

As part of the European Dancing Museums project she created a highlight for dance entitled La Cité (éphémère) de la danse. She invites various choreographers to perform the utopia of a city of dance that connects to its locals. Tatiana Julien created the Prière de ne pas détruire in Louvre Museum and Monumenta performance in the nave of the Grand Palais in Paris. She also performed at the National Gallery in London, the Boijmans museum in Rotterdam, the Gemälde Galerie in Vienna, the museo Civico, the Arte Sella museum in Italy, and at INHA in Paris.