Le temps d'aimer

1990 creation of the Festival by Biarritz Culture

With the idea of drawing a line between the good old days and the good old days, between the fires of a cultural past and the promising glow of a radiant future, Temps d’Aimer has for thirty years been carving out its niche among the great dance festivals. Created by Biarritz Culture and its president Jakes Abeberry, the festival’s first editions welcomed some of the world’s greatest companies: Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Kirov Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet with William Forsythe, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève with Ohad Naharin, Dance Theater of Harlem and Victor Ullate’s Ballet de Madrid, who set the pace for the festival. And then there’s Basque dance, with the repertoire, dancers from the seven provinces and the contemporary beginnings of all the choreographers who have reinvented the Basque pas de basque here.

A festival of national and international diversity

The result was a festival with a unique character, not one to give in to fashion or specialisation, refusing to be labelled and opening up even more to flamenco and hip-hop in its voracious appetite for the triumph of mixed experiences. Audiences followed, from the theatre at the Gare du Midi to those at the Casino and Colisée, before these theatres no longer contained the fervour that, from the early 2000s onwards, spread to squares, beaches and neighbourhoods, with infectious performances, public rehearsals and the emblematic Gigabarre.

Neo-classical dance has carved out its own niche here, alongside contemporary creation, and in 1998 the CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz was established, giving the festival its current artistic director, Thierry Malandain. This great freedom, which has contributed to the emergence of a well-informed, multi-generational audience, is also the hallmark of dance which, today more than ever, abolishes frontiers.
Le Temps d’Aimer has made a unique contribution to international creation. The strength of the festival lies in the diversity of its programming, a sine qua non for artistic expression that is inspired because it is free.

2021 A new impetus

With the integration of the festival into the CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz in 2021, the festival has embarked on its eco-responsible transition. The festival is also adopting a new territorial ambition; in 2022, it will cover 8 towns and 7 theatres in the Community of the Basque Country, while continuing to give priority to its international reach.
And while it’s a time of metamorphoses, Temps d’Aimer remains faithful to the plurality of choreographic vocabularies that are part of its DNA, while giving pride of place to ballets and large ensembles