Gigi Caciuleanu

Born in 1947 in Romania, of parents of Greek and Russian origin, Gigi Caciuleanu began dancing at the age of four. Five  years later, he joined the National School of Choreography in Bucharest  for an eight-year cycle, during which he discovered contemporary dance  with Miriam Raducanu. This  emblematic figure of the new Romanian dance in charge of the “Art of  the Actor” classes introduces its students to an alternative approach to  dance. At  the end of the official teaching cycle, he was admitted to the  Bucharest National Opera, where he quickly gained soloists’ roles after  having perfected the Bolshoi (Moscow). There he meets the soloist Ruxandra Racovitza, a faithful collaborator to come.
Taking  advantage of a flurry in the discipline of the regime that precedes the  hardening following the Spring of Prague (1968), Gigi Caciuleanu  performs in alternative clubs in Bucharest with Miriam Raducanu. It is in this period of underground excitement that he meets Dan Mastacan, another loyal collaborator.
He  began his career as a choreographer, obtaining in 1970 the first prize  at the Rencontres chorégraphiques de Varna with Mess around, a solo that  he never stopped dancing and which would be his “hit”. He  won the Concours des Jeunes Chorégraphes de Cologne for two consecutive  years, in 1971 and 1972. At the invitation of Pina Bausch he joined the  Folkwang Ballet Essen (1972-1973) and composed a dozen pieces for  students of the Folkwang Hochschule. He then moved to France, where he was granted political asylum.
In  Nancy, Gigi Caciuleanu created the Contemporary Dance Studio in 1973  alongside Rosella Hightower before succeeding him at the direction of  the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Nancy the following year in which he  invited choreographers such as Dominique Bagouet, Jacques Garnier or Maguy Marin. The same year 1974, he won the first prize of the choreographic competition of Bagnolet with his solo Joie.
Named  director of the National Choreographic Center of Rennes created under  the name of Choreographic Theater of Rennes in 1978, he is called to  constitute a permanent company, faithful interpreter of his creations  played around the world (Asia, North and South America, Europe ). Figure  of the choreographic surge that France experienced in the 1980s, the  choreographer combines a technique close to virtuosity to an  unprecedented theatricality and humor.
Thanks  in 1993, he left the direction of the CCN Rennes after fifteen years of  presence in this city, giving way to Catherine Diverrès and Bernardo  Montet. He then founds his own structure sitting in Paris, subsidized by the Ministry of Culture.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, G. Caciuleanu made many trips to Romania, solicited from all sides by the Romanian scene. In  2001, he invested the theatrical writing with the play “Jungle X” whose  staging is hosted by a puppet theater of the city of Targu Mures  (Romania), an art that he considers the equal of the dance and theater. In  2007, he founded the Gigi Caciuleanu Romanian Dance Company in  Bucharest, which performs his creations “OuiBaDa” and “The Fanstastic  Symphony”.
Invited  to choreograph for other companies, his international activity  gradually became dominant and, in 2001, Gigi Caciuleanu accepted the  artistic direction of the Ballet Nacional Chileno (Banch).
In  parallel, Gigi Caciuleanu publishes in 2002 an essay of “choreosophy”  entitled VVV: winds, volumes, vectors, first in Spanish then in Romanian  (2008) and French (2010) translation, a book in which he wishes to  convey his principles creators.
Distinguished  by numerous awards and decorations in France and abroad, Gigi  Caciuleanu was named Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 1984. His  creations are written in the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet, Lyon  Opera Ballet, Tanztheather Wuppertal-Pina Bausch, La Fenice, operas in Rome and Cardiff, the Bat-Dor Company (Israel), and the National Ballet of Chile.

Source : Centre national de la danse, Claire Delcroix (2013)