Christophe Garcia
Choreographer
Christophe Garcia grew up in a modest environment in Haute-Savoie, where pursuing a career in dance was far from obvious. According to family myth, as soon as he could stand on two legs, he never stopped dancing, before getting others to dance as well. Recognising his thirst for expressiveness, his mother enrolled him in a drama class, and later at the Conservatory of Dance in Annecy.
In 1996, he entered the highly selective Rudra Béjart workshop school. Those two years of multidisciplinary training alongside Maurice Béjart were a true revelation for him. The practice of drama, music and martial arts enriched his repertoire and he became accomplished in such a climate of permanent artistic excitement.
In 1998, he was lucky enough to be engaged by the master himself and he joined the Béjart Ballet in Lausanne. Thus began a life consisting of companies and international tours. Alongside Maurice Béjart, Christophe Garia worked under the direction of illustrious directors including Robert Wilson and Robert Lepage.
As he questioned his future, he began writing a solo entitled Alice. That is when he discovered the immense pleasure of choreographing and rekindled the inventiveness of his youth. Making others dance brings him joy. Maurice Béjart encourages to follow through by entrusting him with a carte blanche. Immediately after that, he created, at only 19, his own company – La Parenthèse – because it was a space open to every freedom.
For the past twenty years, La Parenthèse has been travelling the world, constantly exploring the infinite possibilities of dance, and winning several awards along the way. Christophe’s musical inclinations have led him to collaborate with major musical ensembles, including Les Arts Florissants ou l’Orchestre National des Pays-de-la-Loire.
Regularly reaching out to new audiences and spaces not dedicated to dance, his creations unfold on marble monuments, museums, countryside venues, arenas or within the plush alcoves of hotel rooms. Most projects are produced to fit the spaces they inhabit. Bringing dance out of theatres enables spectators to own the show, to discover an unprecedented closeness, to share with dancers, smells, warmth, a form of intimacy. The intimate, quest for love, desire and sensuality are precisely at the heart of his latest creations: The Ambition to be Tender, Niebo Hotel, The Problem with Pink, and the upcoming Summer Nights. A lover of theatre, music and literature, Christophe Garcia is willing to invite words and music on stage – inhabiting the text without merely illustrating it is part of the challenge. His upcoming creation Summer Nights lies at the crossroads of these paths.
A totally original experience, NIEBO HOTEL takes the audience on an extraordinary journey into the heart of a hotel, a microcosm where touching scenes of life distil the poetry of the everyday.