Artistic direction

  1. Home
  2. The festival
  3. Artistic direction
22 23 Gtg Skid Pg 20221117 Gregory Batardon 93a4092a Scaled 222 23 Gtg Skid Pg 20221117 Gregory Batardon 93a4092a Scaled 2
©22 23 Gtg Skid Pg 20221117 Gregory Batardon 93a4092a Scaled 2|Gregory Batardon

    The quality and diversity of the Cannes Dance Festival’s program are the fruit of the work of its artistic directors. Their role: to unearth talent, build bridges between cultures, and offer the public an artistic experience.

    Didier DESCHAMPS Artistic Director since 2023

    Didier Deschamps is a French dancer, choreographer and teacher born in 1954 in Lyon. After having directed Chaillot – Théâtre national de la danse until April 2021, he succeeds Brigitte Lefèvre as artistic director of the Festival de Danse – Cannes Côte d’Azur.

    Trained in dance in Lyon with Michel Hallet Eghayan, then in Paris at the Centre International de Danse, he then studied in New York at the studio of Merce Cunningham. Didier Deschamps is initially an interpreter in national and international companies, notably in that of Régine Chopinot or the ballet of the Opéra de Lyon, as well as in the United States at the Hawaii Dance Theatre (repertoire José Limón and Doris Humphrey).

    Contributing to the development of new French dance, he created his own company and became a choreographer for Régine Chopinot, the National Centre de danse contemporaine d’Angers, the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon, and for companies based in Copenhagen and London.

    In parrallel, Didier Deschamps devoted himself to teaching dance and worked in many companies, first in the Ménagerie de verre in Paris and then abroad, before being appointed in 1983, director of studies at the Centre national de danse contemporaine d’Angers, then under Viola Farber. From 1984 to 1990, he was director of the department of choreographic studies at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Lyon.

    In 1990, he joined the ministerial administration. He was appointed Inspector General of Dance by Jack Lang in 1992, then Delegate for Dance by Philippe Douste-Blazy in 1995, and finally Advisor for Dance to Dominique Wallon, then Director of Music, Dance, Theatre and Entertainment (DMDTS), in 1998.

    On 1 July 2000, he was appointed director of the Centre chorégraphique national – Ballet de Lorraine, succeeding Pierre Lacotte who had been running the centre since 1991. He was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honor, an officer in the National Order of Merit, a commander in the Order of Arts and Letters and a corresponding member of the Academy of Fine Arts.

    In 2016, he was named Personality of the Year by the National Association of Critics.

    In 2018, he received the «Menada Award» and became Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Skopje.

    In July 2011, he was appointed director of the Théâtre National de Chaillot. At the same time, the theatre becomes Chaillot – Théâtre national de la danse.

    In January 2022, he succeeds Brigitte Lefèvre and is appointed Artistic Director of the Festival de Danse Cannes – Côte d’Azur France.

    Didier-Deschamps.jpg
      Brigitte-Lefevre.jpg
        frederic-flamand-2-1.png

          Brigitte Lefèvre

          Artistic Director from 2015 to 2021

          “Opened in 1985, the Festival de Danse de Cannes is a privileged witness to the evolution of the art of choreography, becoming, over the years, an unmissable artistic rendezvous of the Ville de Cannes that has been able to make people love dance in its different aspects.

          I would like to pay tribute to my predecessors, in particular to the extraordinary commitment of Rosella Hightower, who so successfully combined her passion for dance with the Ville de Cannes by creating her École Supérieure and then presiding over the birth of this festival, which presented the art of choreography as she loved it, in all its diversity.

          Jean-Luc Barsotti, who was the first director, and in particular Yorgos Loukos, who directed the festival for sixteen years, then Frédéric Flamand, who succeeded him, have continued this open-minded approach to dance, and it was only natural that I should accept the offer to direct this year’s festival and the next in the same spirit in which it began. This means welcoming companies of different nationalities, key choreographers and new talents, bringing together masterpieces and daring to create new works for the Cannes public to discover.

          In this way, I hope to enable the public to travel poetically and aesthetically through the nuanced territories of today’s dance in all its vivacity. This program is a way of evoking the fluidity and strength of intersecting trajectories, which travel to different parts of the world, and meet here. Just as the sea lingers for a while on the rocks, before setting sail again to expand our breathing space and enrich our dreams. I would like to thank all those who have offered me this wonderful adventure, and in particular David Lisnard, Mayor of Cannes, who has given me the opportunity to forge these links in order to make life more beautiful.”

          – Brigitte Lefèvre

          Frédéric Flamand

          Artistic Director from 2011 to 2013

          “I was lucky enough to direct 2 editions of the Cannes Dance Festival (in 2011 “Les nouvelles Mythologies” and in 2013 “Traces/Reflets”). Cannes, the mythical city of cinema and image, gave me the opportunity to question the status of the modern body, confronted with the currents, desires and upheavals of our contemporaneity and the new mythologies it produces. A vision of dance as the bearer of man’s future, his vitality, his revolt, his freedom in the face of the technological mirror and the conflicts of time.

          Using a wide range of choreographic styles, we aim to provoke reflection on what is specifically human, on what will always differentiate us from machines and images. The body has regained a central place in art, a body that is restless, mutilated, changed, suffering or recreated, but which reflects the image of today’s man. A dance where the most interesting forms of interaction with other artistic fields are emerging, with a predilection for artists who bring out something new, who question the hidden sides of our personality and reaffirm primary freedoms.

          To refine the theme in 2013, I wanted to explore the notion of Traces/Reflections: traces of an ever-present body-memory that explain our behavior; traces of bodies in motion that create a veritable sensitive calligraphy. In these two editions of the Festival de Danse, I wanted to show that the body can be perceived as a synthesis of all artistic practices: theater, painting, sculpture, music, literature, cinema and, above all, dance”.

          – Frédéric Flamand

          loukos_yorgos@DR-1.png

              Yorgos Loukos

              Artistic Director from 1992 to 2009

              “When Rosella Hightower asked me to take charge of the Cannes Dance Festival, I was very surprised, to say the least. For all the dancers of my generation, Cannes was for a time the place to come for lessons. I knew a little about the Festival, but not very well. Shortly afterwards, I got a phone call from Igor Eisner, then Inspector of Dance at the French Ministry of Culture, and Paul Lepercq, Chairman of the Festival’s Board of Directors, whom I knew from New York. Very busy with my duties as Director of the Lyon Ballet, I wondered how I could also look after a Festival which, at the time, took place every year. It was Jean-Pierre Brossmann, Director of the Opéra de Lyon, who advised me to accept, saying that it would be good for everyone: the Festival, the Company and myself.

              Indeed, this experience in Cannes has been for me twenty years of pure happiness, an extraordinary opportunity to learn, meet people, evolve, mature and finally be happy. I quickly realized that I’d have to take an interest in a lot of things that weren’t necessarily shows that would have interested me as a company director, but to listen out for young creators who could bring something new to a Festival where creation and youth were part of its identity.

              It was thanks to Cannes and the Festival’s success that, a few years later, I was approached by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to organize a festival in New York and, a few years later, in London. I also believe that the proposal I received for the Athens Festival was partly due to the success of the Cannes Dance Festival. Twenty-three years on, Cannes remains in my heart and I’m delighted and moved every time I go back. In fact, it’s quite simple: this city has everything to please, the Mediterranean, the sun and the culture, a real joy.”

              – Yorgos Loukos

              Jean-Luc Barsotti

              Artistic Director from 1985 to 1991

              “When the Cannes cultural authorities and Rosella Hightower asked me to direct a dance festival they had decided to create, I immediately approved the idea of an event outside the tourist season, reviving the traditional Marquis de Cuevas seasons to which the people of Cannes had been so attached. However, we had to take into account new demands and a whole new generation of young people sensitized by the explosion of dance.

              A formula was needed: an international festival bringing together, in the space of a few days, a large number of companies, with two watchwords: Quality and Eclecticism.

              From the very first year, the challenge was met: our theaters and their excellent technical teams were able to accommodate the guest companies in alternation, leading the way with drumbeat beats, assembly and dismantling, rehearsals and performances; the public, in a month reputed to be slow, responded to the call and we were already giving sold-out shows. The word quickly spread throughout the dance world, and the biggest names agreed to take part in our Festival: Cullberg, Nederlands, Scala de Milan, Stuttgart; as well as lesser-known groups, who thrilled audiences with their talent and enthusiasm for dance.

              – Jean-Luc Barsotti