Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh is a

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

and director of Le Phare, Centre Chorégraphique National du Havre

Haute-Normandie Upper Normandy (french: Haute-Normandie, ; nrf, Ĥâote-Normaundie) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Upper and Lower Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy. History It was created in 1956 from two d ...

Biography

After training to be a ballet dancer and also exploring the American dance tradition, Vo-Dinh expanded her learning experience at the Merce Cunningham School in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Back in France, she danced with

François Raffinot François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King o ...

from 1991 to 1996. In 1997, she founded the Sui Generis company. She was noticed early on for her distinctive style. In 1999, she was awarded a Villa Medicis Hors-les murs grant for her research in creating Texture/Composite, for which she was awarded the Prix d’Auteur at the Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Bagnolet in 2000. The piece was subsequently presented at Danspace Project in New York in 2002. Since then her productions have been presented on a regular basis both in France and abroad. In January 2012, Vo-Dinh became the director of Le Phare, Centre Chorégraphique National du Havre Haute-Normandie, ushering in a new artistic vision that has reached out to a diversity of choreographic styles. Vo-Dinh's wide-ranging choreography has been shaped through the process of creating new work. While she initially focused on choreographing in a more formal way, her methodology gradually evolved toward an open-ended process affording a prominent role to

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

in the studio. Surrounded by close collaborators, Vo-Dinh works with her performers on a long-term basis. Several pieces have been deeply rooted in scientific and anthropological research on human beings, romantic relationships, absence, the lack of emotion and schizophrenia. The art world has also informed her work: between figurative and abstract in the visual arts, as well as in the relationship between bodies in motion and the music of Beethoven, Dusapin, Zeena Parkins or Gérard Grisey. Although the choreographic structure often draws on

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

to the point of repeating and transforming a single motif, Vo-Dinh has mainly focused on time, how it is perceived and its relationship to memory and memories. After a long absence, fragmented narration has surfaced in her latest pieces – a new approach to time and point of view, as well as to the body and how it relates to others. Vo-Dinh readily accepts invitations, including Rainbow, her piece for amateur dancers in collaboration with David Monceau, and her work with the writer Jérôme Mauche for Concordanse. Beginning with Histoires Exquises in 2011, she has invited choreographers to create solos from oral testimonies, the starting point for opening up the creative process to audiences. That willingness to share and her curiosity about other approaches to dance were to be the

leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...

in her vision for the CCN du Havre. Since 2012, Vo-Dinh has endeavored to make Le Phare a platform for many different kinds of choreography – during key moments such as the Pharenheit festival, as well as throughout the year, bringing the CCN to life in order to showcase dance in all it vibrancy. Since 2014, she has been the president of the Association des Centres Chorégraphiques Nationaux, a network comprising nineteen national choreographic centers in France. Vo-Dinh was awarded the insignia of Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in July 2014.

Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh's pieces

*1998 : ''Anthume ou le Membre fantôme'' *1999 : ''Texture/Composite'' *2001 : ''Sagen'' *2003 : ''Décompositions'' *2004 : ''Croisées'' *2005 : ''White Light'' *2006 : ''ici/Per.For'' *2007 : ''Aboli Bibelot... Rebondi'' *2007 : ''Eaux fortes'' *2008 : ''5'24'' *2008 : ''Rainbow'' en collaboration avec David Monceau (reprise en 2010) *2009 : ''Ad astra'' *2009 : ''Fractale'' *2010 : ''-transire-'' *2011 : ''Vortex'' *2013 : ''-insight-'' *2013 : ''Sprint'' *2013 : ''Eaux-fortes'' (re-création) *2015 : ''Tombouctou déjà-vu''

References

External links

* http://www.sui-generis.fr * http://www.lephare-ccn.fr * http://www.pharenheit.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Vo-Dinh, Emmanuelle Living people French female dancers French choreographers Year of birth missing (living people)