Thierry Thieû Niang
From the moment he met the young actors who would appear in Au cœur, Thierry Thieû Niang started calling them by their first names. A sign of recognition, or of extreme affection. Every one of them is a person. A schoolteacher and psychomotor therapist by training, the choreographer knows how to set up the ideal conditions for movement and for future exchanges, for his research has long been for and with all bodies; with children, with older people, with people with autism, or with prisoners, he likes to create spaces where all can coexist. And to tell everyone that dance is a simple joy and that walking with someone else is in and of itself a way of existing, a life project. He thus brings together artists from various fields and horizons: Camille Dalmais, Linda Lê, Robin Pharo, and Claude Lévêque for this new project; at other times Marie Desplechin, Ariane Ascaride, Anne Alvaro, Audrey Bonnet, Pierre Guyotat, Patrick Autréaux, Vincent Dissez, and Philippe Forget. He has also worked with directors for the theatre and the opera – with Patrice Chéreau on his latest creations, for instance – but also with singers and visual artists. Du Printemps (A Time of Spring), created for the Festival d'Avignon in 2011 with twenty-five amateurs aged 60 to 90, then went on a world tour, adding local performers at every step along the way.
