Régine Chopinot

Régine Chopinot, born in 1952 in Fort-de-l’Eau (today known as Bordj El Kiffan), in Algeria, was attracted to choreographic art from early childhood. After studying classical dance, she discovered contemporary dance with Marie Zighera in 1974. She moved to Lyon where she founded her first company in 1978, the Compagnie du Grèbe, which included dancers, actors and musicians. Here, she created her first choreographies. Three years later, she was awarded second prize in the Concours chorégraphique international de Bagnolet (Bagnolet International Choreographic Contest) for “Halley’s Comet” (1981), later known as “Appel d’air”. Her next pieces of work “Délices” (Delights) and “Via”, introduced other media including the cinema to the world of dance. In 1983 with “Délices”, Régine Chopinot began her longstanding partnership with the fashion designer, Jean Paul Gaultier, which would characterize the period, which included works such as “Le Défilé” (The Fashion show) (1985), “K.O.K.” (1988), “ANA” (1990), “Saint Georges” (1991) and “Façade” (1993). In 1986, Régine Chopinot was appointed director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Poitou-Charentes (Poitou-Charentes National Choreography Centre) in La Rochelle (where she succeeded Jacques Garnier and Brigitte Lefèvre’s Théâtre du Silence), which went on to become the Ballet Atlantique-Régine Chopinot (BARC), in 1993. Régine Chopinot made a myriad of artistic encounters: from visual artists like Andy Goldsworthy, Jean Le Gac and Jean Michel Bruyère, to musicians such as Tôn-Thât Tiêt and Bernard Lubat.

At the beginning of the 90s, she moved away from – according to her own expression – “ultra-light spaces” in which, at a young age, she had become acknowledged, in particular through her partnership with Jean Paul Gaultier. She then became fascinated with experimenting on confronting contemporary dance with natural elements and rhythms and on testing age-old, complex body sciences and practices, such as yoga. In 1999, as part of “associate artists”, Régine Chopinot invited three figures from the world of contemporary dance to partner with her for three years on her artistic project: Françoise Dupuy, Dominique Dupuy and Sophie Lessard joined the BARC’s troupe of permanent dancers and consultants-researchers, as performers, pedagogues and choreographers.

In 2002, she initiated the “triptyque de la Fin des Temps” (Triptych of the End of Time), a long questioning of choreographic writing and creation subsequent to her creation of a voluntary state of crisis of general notions of time, of memory and of construction. “Chair-obscur”, her first chapter, focused on erasing the past, the memory, whilst “WHA” was based on the disappearance of the future. “O.C.C.C.” dealt with the “time that’s left”, with what is left to be done, with what can still be done, in that simple, yet essential spot called performance. In 2008, “Cornucopiae”, the last work created within the Institution, concluded the end of a form of performance and opened the doors to another approach to sensorial perception.

Concurrently to her choreographic work, Régine Chopinot worked, as a performer, with other artists that she was close to: Alain Buffard (“Wall dancin’ – Wall fuckin’”, 2003; “Mauvais Genre”, 2004), Steven Cohen (“I wouldn’t be seen dead in that!”, 2003). In addition, she trained and directed Vietnamese dancers as part of a partnership with the Vietnam Higher School of Dance and the Hanoi Ballet-Opera (“Anh Mat”, 2002; “Giap Than”, 2004). In 2008, the choreographer left the CCN in La Rochelle and created the Cornucopiae – the independent dance Company, a new structure that would, henceforth, harbour creation and repertoire, all the works of Régine Chopinot. In 2010, she chose to live and work in Toulon, by its port.

Since 2009, Régine Chopinot has been venturing, questioning and intensifying her quest for the body in movement linked to the strength of the spoken word, through cultures organized by and on oral transmission, in New Caledonia, New Zealand and Japan. These last three years have been punctuated by a myriad of artistic creations: choreographies and films resulting from artistic In Situ experiences were created as part of the South Pacific Project. A privileged relationship initiated in 2009 with the Du Wetr Group (Drehu/Lifou) bore its fruits with the creation of “Very Wetr!”at the Avignon Festival in July 2012 and went on to be reproduced at the Centre national de la danse (National Centre for Dance) in February 2013.

In 2011, Régine Chopinot chose Toulon to live and work. Le Port des créateurs, Tiers Lieu Culturel et Citoyen welcomes her as an associate artist, then as a territory artist, and finally as a long-term resident until the end of 2026.
From September 2019 to April 2022, with the support of Myriam Mazouzi, director of the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris, Régine Chopinot plans and produces OUI, a transmission and creation project that aims to teach the French language through dance to people living in exile or in precarious situations, while questioning the relevance of choreographic art to our society. Three documentary films by Jean-Baptiste Warluzel retrace the adventure of this unique and powerful experience, and can be viewed on the Cornucopiae and Opéra national de Paris websites.

In 2019, Hortense Archambault – director of the MC93 in Bobigny – invited Régine Chopinot and her team, as part of the “fabrique d’expériences” program, for a long residency in research and choreographic creation, which will give rise to « top » in September 2021; « top » is supported by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès for three years. « top » is currently touring the major stages of France, with a view to returning to European and international stages in 2024.
In January 2021, again at the Maison de la Culture de Seine-St-Denis in Bobigny, in co-production with the Festival de danse d’Uzès, a sextet – choreography, dance, guitaire, sound and light – was created under the name A D-N, the initials of Alexandra David-Neel. A new version, A D-N au carré, was created in October 2022 at the Musée Gassendi in Digne-les-Bains, then at the Frank Gehry Music Pavilion at Château La Coste (13) to explore outdoor venues such as gardens, estates…

In 2023, as part of Women In Motion, a joint initiative between the Centre Pompidou’s Direction des Spectacles Vivants – Chloé Siganos, the Kering Group and Shanghai’s West Bund Museum, a duet danced by Wen Hui and Régine Chopinot was created in April 2023, with Vincent Kreyder on drums. Sophie Laly’s eponymous film Outredanse, which bears witness to this singular gesture, will be screened on April 14, 15 and 16, 2023 in Shanghai.

Du Corps à l’ouvrage, Corps mémoire, a new cycle of research and creation is being developed … slowly, without hurrying, for a three-year period, from 2023 to 2026, with the particularity of being built outdoors. The first section takes place from October 30 to November 4, 2023 on the hillside of Ollioules, co-produced by Châteauvallon Scène nationale Toulon.