2024-04-21 03:00:49
“Show that creation, in dance, is not reserved only for the contemporary universe”: with his ballet “Dans les yeux d’Audrey”, presented Tuesday in Paris, the choreographer François Mauduit, ex-soloist of Maurice Béjart, imagines, on pointe, the “glitter” side but also the intimate side of Audrey Hepburn’s life.
The 40-year-old dancer, who has headed a neo-classical dance company that bears his name for 18 years, wanted to “combine the luminous and inspiring side of the icon, the star” of cinema with “his intimate life and her dream of becoming a ballerina too,” he confided to AFP.
To unfold some 60 years (the actress lived from 1929 to 1993) of an existence, “for a choreographer, as for the dancers, it’s fascinating. It allows you to work on many different eras and styles”, on music ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Léo Ferré, he said.
Choreographer François Mauduit, March 7, 2024 in Paris / JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives
In this show, “where we use pointe shoes, of course”, “there is something ‘very classic’, perfumes of Georges Balanchine (20th century choreographer, Editor’s note), but also passages which recall Maurice” Béjart, “even if I don’t have his talent”, smiles the one who was a soloist in the company of the famous dancer and choreographer based in Switzerland.
François Mauduit started dancing late, at the age of 14. Admitted to the Paris Conservatory, he joined the Paris Opera dance school, which he left in his final year. Quickly hired by Maurice Béjart, he stayed four years in his troupe, then left to create his own and choreograph.
“ballet everywhere”
“I like to prove that with any story, we can create creation using classical vocabulary. That creation is not just reserved for contemporary dance,” explains the dancer. “We can have living classical dance, which lives with its time, which deals with its time,” says the man who also likes to revisit standards like “Swan Lake”.
Another credo: “bring ballet on pointe everywhere”, including in small and medium-sized towns. In the beginning, he and his friends performed in the summer in village halls or outdoors in the seaside resorts of the Normandy coast.
Choreographer François Mauduit, March 7, 2024 in Paris / JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives
“Dans les Yeux d’Audrey” passed through Bollène (Vaucluse) and will reach Sens (Yonne) in June or Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) in September. His older creations (“Pluie d’Etoiles Story”, “Romeo et Juliette”, “Cléopâtre”) will be danced these coming weeks in Dax, Draveil (Essonne) or La Teste-de-Buch (Gironde).
According to him, the “large productions which are shown in the Zéniths (in metropolises, editor’s note), which are a little standardized, are not the most representative of classical dance in 2024”.
While the companies of prestigious houses – Operas of Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse… – “are at an excellent level but do not tour”, regrets the dancer with brown hair and dark eyes.
His troupe of twelve dancers based in Toulouse, who have performed some 80 ballets in 18 years, say they perform around fifty shows per season.
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