Reaching out to the public has been part of the company’s DNA since it was founded in 1986, and it got its start by dancing in school playgrounds. Today, awareness-raising, mediation and artistic and cultural education (EAC) are still at the heart of Malandain Ballet Biarritz’s priorities, with an active and proactive policy of introducing audiences to dance.
Guiding principles
The CCN de Biarritz designs and implements nearly 300 interventions per season, which respond to one of the following guiding principles:
Explaining what a ballet is today, the neoclassical aesthetic, the dancer’s profession, showing what goes on behind the scenes;
discovering the ballet : enabling a wide audience, particularly young people, to meet the artists through a rehearsal or a school performance;
practising dance : offering non-dancers and dancers of all levels and ages the chance to learn or improve their skills through workshops, masterclasses and so on;
getting to know other aesthetics through the “Regards croisés” contemporary dance event and the “Rendez-vous basque” contemporary Basque dance event, or through the public rehearsals of the “Accueil-Studio” companies in residence.
Public concerned
– young audiences, schoolchildren and secondary school students in the public and private sectors;
– amateur dancers
– teachers ;
– pre-professionals;
– families, with an emphasis on intergenerational relations;
– certain categories of public in difficulty;
Many of these programmes will also work with teaching establishments: conservatoires, dance schools, training centres, etc.
A large proportion of the projects take place in the Basque Country community, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, the cross-border area, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and on tour.
Systems
Discovering the Ballet
We offer a range of à la carte modules, the main aim of which is to introduce you to our Ballet today and encourage exchanges between artists and audiences.
– School performances
– Public rehearsals
– Classes open to the public
– Cultural tours
– Video documentaries
– Exhibitions
Dance practice
To encourage dance practice, different modules corresponding to different levels will be offered. In some cases, participants will have the opportunity to practise with our dancers.
– Participatory ball
– Megabarre
– Master class / workshop
– Master class
– Do you want to dance with us?
– Malandain repertoire transmission workshop
Outreach on tour
During tours in France and abroad, additional activities are organised at the request of the host venues: workshops on the company’s repertoire, public classes, master classes, participatory balls led by company dancers, documentary screenings, lectures by Thierry Malandain, etc.
Performances for young audiences and schools (Noé, Cendrillon, Estro / Nocturnes, La Belle et la Bête, Marie-Antoinette, La Pastorale, etc.) are offered in adapted lengths, with presentations of the work and on-stage meetings.
Local outreach
The deployment of the Pôle Chorégraphique Territorial has made it possible to coordinate and strengthen the awareness-raising activities offered to amateur dancers of all levels, and more particularly to secondary school pupils in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department.
Taking into account the linguistic richness of its territory, Malandain Ballet Biarritz works with all kinds of audiences: amateur dancers, French-speaking, Basque-speaking, Spanish-speaking inhabitants, etc. To enable this encounter, the CCN offers two programmes of activities for school outings: “discovering” and “practising”, and these two programmes can be combined to form a cultural pathway.
Specialised teaching in Art-Dance at the Lycée Malraux in Biarritz
Since 2005, the CCN de Biarritz has been helping to develop the choreographic culture of around fifty high school students a year enrolled in the Art-Dance speciality course. With several hours of teaching a week, we will continue to enrich this teaching with :
• putting students in touch with professional contributors: dancers and choreographers, representing a range of aesthetics ;
• workshops led and coordinated by a choreographic artist from the CCN ;
• use of the studios at the Gare du Midi ;
• Reduced rates to attend performances at the Festival le Temps d’Aimer ;
• free access to our workshops and master classes ;
• a public demonstration of the work done by the students with a choreographer in real performance conditions.
Carole Philipp has been in charge of speciality dance teaching since September 2019. She accompanies the students and coordinates the work of the artists involved in this educational programme. This Art-Dance teaching is part of an ecosystem with, in particular, the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel Pays Basque and the Centre de Formation en Danse de l’Ecole de Ballet – Studios de Biarritz.
Regular training for dancers
Launched in 2021 by the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel Pays Basque, the CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz and the Institut Danse Santé, Regular Dancer Training offers weekly training in the Conservatoire’s studios in Biarritz :
- dancers from local companies who want to train with other professionals;
- intermittent dancers looking for work,
- young dancers at the end of their pre-professional cycle who are looking for a contract;
- local dance teachers who want to continue training and improving their skills, but also want to be open to other teaching methods.
Weekly classes
Ballet class: Tuesdays from 10.15am to 11.45am
A contemporary dance class: Thursdays from 10.15am to 11.45am
Choreographic workshops
Held throughout the season on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11.45am to 1.00pm, these workshops offer an opportunity to discover other aesthetics, and to explore an approach, a creative process or an artist’s own universe.
Prevention workshops offered by the Institut Danse Santé
These sessions take the form of health advice, specific muscular and cardio-respiratory strengthening. This is an innovation in that the dancer, accompanied by a specialised physiotherapist, will be able to make progress on this technical, physical and lifestyle triptych.
Register via the online form : https://bit.ly/entrainementdanseur
Information : entrainementdanseur@malandainballet.com
Biarritz International Dance Academy
Every year, the Académie welcomes over 350 students during the first week of August: pre-professionals from the schools of the Opéra National de Paris and La Scala de Milan, from various countries (Russia, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Italy, etc.), dance enthusiasts of all levels (from preparatory to pre-professional), who take ballet classes, barres à terre, workshops and workshops on the repertory of various choreographers: Thierry Malandain, Angelin Preljocaj, Nacho Duato, and others. ..
A host of teachers teach classical dance, representing all the main trends: the French school, the Russian schools, the Cuban school, etc., with guest lecturers from renowned establishments such as the Opéra National de Paris, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and La Scala in Milan. It enjoys a good reputation in France and Europe, having seen young dancers who have gone on to have successful careers pass through its ranks: Marie-Agnès Gillot, Dorothée Gibert, Aurélie Dupont, Jérémie Bélingard, Emilie Cosette, Benjamin Pech, Ander Zabela-Gomezâ and Paul Marque (1st prize 2016 Varna competition), as well as dancers from our Ballet… So the Academy makes it possible to spot young talent and get a glimpse of the current level in Europe.
It is organised in part by a team of volunteers, with Hélène Gillet as artistic director. Carole Philipp, a former dancer with our company, has been hired by the Biarritz CCN to provide overall coordination.
Contacts
Laura Delprat
Production assistant
l.delprat@malandainballet.com
Dominique Cordemans
Responsible for raising public awareness and passing on the repertoire to pre-professionals
d.cordemans@malandainballet.com
Ione Miren Aguirre
Artistic and Cultural Education Officer (EAC)
i.aguirre@malandainballet.com
Carole Philipp
Art-Dance Teaching Assistant, Academy, ERD
c.philipp@malandainballet.com
