Odile
Duboc

Student in a classical course (...), the budding dancer  soon felt drawn to other steps. She was introduced to modern jazz before moving on to more styles. Upon meeting Madeleine Chiche and Bernard Misrachi, who would later form Groupe Dunes, Odile Duboc discovered a certain modernity marked by improvisation (...). Odile Duboc never studied contemporary dance. She developed her own choreographic principles that she carried in her body. She went on to establish the Ateliers de la Danse in Aix-En-Provence, a melting pot for a generation of dancers and creators, and then in the early 80s she embarked on the adventure of Contre Jour, her first company (...). With each new piece, Odile Duboc, assisted by her collaborator Françoise Michel, made her mark on young French dance. With polished writing and an evident musicality, her name, though only a whisper among the general public, was a key reference in the world of contemporary dance (...).

It was with the creation of Insurrection — "the only time I've ever used a theme, and, at that, one tied to the Bicentennial [of the French Revolution]," Odile quipped — that her talent was recognized. From this moment of welcome revolution, the choreographer created opuses of varying geometry. Playing with numbers, she moved from the Paris Opera corps de ballet, with Retours de scène, to the intimacy of Pour Mémoire, for the 10 year anniversary of her company Contre Jour. Odile Duboc unveiled her Maison d'Espagne, a joyful piece of rediscovered innocence, and her Projet de la matière, an ambitious, troubling, ballet of disturbing plasticity. She was where she was least expected, but always generous in her creativity, including with trois boléros, a multi-faceted retelling of Marcel Ravel's masterpiece, which graced the Théâtre de la Ville in 1996 and dozens of other stages across Europe.



Philippe Noisette for the Théâtre de la Ville