Gallotta
Gallotta
septembre 2023
Transmission of choreographic works for opera ballets
From the very beginning of my work, at a time I was engaging in the movement known as the Nouvelle danse française, I was thinking long and hard about ballet. In fact, my first major choreography was a ballet, Ulysse, created in 1981. In the decades that followed it became for me a landmark piece and remains so to the present day. In fact, it has been included in this season’s calendar of performances.
My involvement with ballet has been a constant feature of my career, from the Paris Opera in 1995 and 1999 to numerous other venues, including the operas of the Rhine and Lorraine, the Ballet Contemporaneo of the Teatro San Martín (Buenos Aires), and the Strut Dance in Perth, Australia (2013). The depth and breadth that these transmissions have provided my choreographies encourages me to continue adapting my repertoire to ballet troupes, to maintain the invaluable dialogue between my work and the performers of major companies.
In this dossier I propose several of my pieces for transmission, as well as shorter pieces for collaborative programs : duets, trios, group pieces, including variations that can be performed with a corps de ballet.
Jean-Claude Gallotta
Presentation file
The choreographic pieces intended for opera ballets are :
- Ulysse
- Doctor Labus
- Three Generations
- The Rite of Spring
- Yvan Vaffan
- Daphnis é Chloé
- Sunset Frattell or Sorrel
© Vera Iso
October 2012
Jean-Claude Gallotta biography
After a stay in New York at the end of the 1970s, where he met Merce Cunningham and discovered the world of post-modern dance (Yvonne Rainer, Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, etc.), Jean-Claude Gallotta founded the Groupe Émile Dubois in Grenoble in 1979 - with Mathilde Altaraz. In 1984 it became one of the first national choreographic centres, part of the Maison de la Culture in Grenoble, which he also directed from 1986 to 1988.
Ulysse (1981) brought him international recognition, as far afield as Shizuoka, where he directed a Japanese company from 1997 to 1999. Subsequent productions include Daphnis é Chloé (1982), Hommage à Yves P. (1983), Mammame (1985), Docteur Labus (1988), Presque Don Quichotte (1999), Nosferatu (at the Paris Opera, 2001). Keen to open the doors wide to contemporary dance, he has created a series of works about and with ‘les Gens’, including Trois Générations (2004), and Racheter la mort des gestes (Théâtre de la Ville, 2012), in which he mixes professional dancers with people of all ages, builds and backgrounds.
Over the years, his repertoire of over eighty choreographies has been enriched by the intersection of dance with other arts: film (he has directed two feature-length films himself), video, literature and classical music. In 2015, his Sacre et ses révolutions was presented at the Philharmonie de Paris; in 2016, he created Volver with singer Olivia Ruiz at the Biennale de la danse de Lyon; that same year, his Groupe Émile Dubois became an independent company once again. He is also working on rock figures with the triptych My Rock, My Ladies Rock and the re-creation of L’Homme à tête de chou in 2019 at the Printemps de Bourges festival.
In 2020, he will pay tribute to his first master, Merce Cunningham, with the creation of Day Dreamers, accompanied by musician Rodolphe Burger and visual artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. At the same time, he developed a form adapted to the public space, Climatic’ Danse, as well as its version for children, Danse, ma planète, danse!
In 2021, at the request of Le Volcan, Scène nationale du Havre, he will recreate Ulysse, 40 years after its creation.
In September 2022, he will create Penelope, a feminine and contemporary version of his original Ulysses. Jean-Claude Gallotta and his company are based at the MC2 in Grenoble.