Improbable duos

Ballet Brut, founded by choreographer Claire Durand-Drouhin, brings together virtuoso dance and circus performers and self-taught dancers with disabilities. Its approach is characterised by a combination of the spectacular and the modest. Provoking body-to-body contact, transcending constraints, transposing the poetics of each dancer's own movement into the body of the other - these are the mainstays of a choreographic approach that has spanned several years. Through her artistic gesture, whether in performance or documentary film, Claire challenges our perceptions of being.

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For the last fifteen years, first as a performer and then as a choreographer, Claire Durand-Drouhin has been patiently slipping into closed worlds, such as prisons and psychiatric hospitals. There she runs regular workshops with patients, some of whom take part in her creation Vie de famille. From 2012 onwards, she extended her approach to documentary filmmaking, in which she is also the protagonist. Through her artistic approach, she challenges our preconceived ideas about confinement, the body, madness and art. From the outset, her work has been supported by the CCM de Limoges-scène conventionnée danse, l'Estive-scène nationale de Foix et de l'Ariège, Les Saisons du Vieux Château à Vicq-sur-Breuilh, the Ministry of Culture and the Région Nouvelle- Aquitaine. In 2018, she was a prizewinner in the ‘Où sont les femmes’ scheme run by the Fabrique de la danse. In 2022, her company changed its name to Ballet Brut, found support from Le Théâtre de la Ville in Paris (Danse élargie + Danse élargie Suite) and began touring internationally.

Charles Amblard's music aims to create an organic, cyclical soundscape. Instrumentarium: guitar, electronics, keyboards, effects, studio - a never-ending list. His compositions display a subtle art of repetition, variation and modulation. They accompany and embrace different movements: dance, film or stage. His work is also used in group projects (Volatile, Blue Gene).

A nomadic circus artist of German origin, his professional training began in France at the Centre Régional des Arts du Cirque de Lomme and continued in China, with the acrobats of the Troupe de Pékin, then at the École Nationale de Cirque de Montréal. He presented his Hand-to-Hand Duo Julius & César at a number of festivals, including Cirque de Demain in France, Youngstage in Switzerland and Ficho in Mexico. He took part in the tour of Hotel with Cirque Eloize and is currently playing in the new show TINA.
in the new show TINA by the Belgian company Théâtre d'Un Jour. Through his art, he aspires to every experience and strives to initiate new encounters. He seeks to draw on artistic and cultural versatility in his creations. In a constant search for new inspiration, he evolves in a growing network of artists and friends on an international scale. Travelling and building intercultural bridges, he has become a citizen of the world.

Mathieu Boudon is an author, composer, arranger, performer, instrumentalist and self-taught dancer. Under the pseudonym Floyd Shakim, his music is at once delicate, powerful, cinematic and introspective, somewhere between vaporous electronic soul, ambient and contemporary music. An arranger for many artists (Awir Leon, Unno, BRNFKD, Sabrina Bellaouel), he also composes for documentaries, fiction and contemporary dance for various companies including Benthé, Geametrie, Black Sheep, Einmalikgeit, Burning House and Amala Dianor. In March 2023 he joined LE BALLET BRUT as a dancer in the show ‘Une famille singulière’, followed by ‘Improbable Duos’.

Born in Barcelona, she graduated in contemporary dance and choreography from Barcelona's Institut del Teatre. In 1995 she moved to France, where she has performed with a number of choreographers, including B. Sajous, Amy Garmon, M. Ricozzi, C. and F. Ben Aïm, Christian Bourigault, Dominique Brun, Juha Marsalo, Frédéric Cellé and Yann Lheureux. She took part in the creation of the musical Notre Dame de Paris, choreographed by Martino Müller. In Germany, she works with Graham Smith, Joachim Schloëmer and Stephanie Tiersch. Inés Hernández took part in the creation of Tragédie by Olivier Dubois and Auguri, and reprised her role in Révolution. Since 2009, she has been developing educational work in schools and the social sector.

She began her training in 1992 at the Tottori city ballet studio (Japan). In 2008, she joined the École nationale Supérieure de danse de Marseille, in the professional integration class, and completed her internship at the Ballet d'Europe. During her studies she worked with a number of choreographers, including Daniel Larrieu, Hervé Robbe and Frédéric Flamand. She was part of Nicolas Paul's creation: dancer at the Paris Opera. On tour in Vienna and Paris in 2014. Haruka joined Simonne Rizzo's company RIDZ for the creation of the pieces Un certain rythme, LouisPi/XIVand Miwa. In 2016, she danced with Robert Swinston's company at the CNDC in Angers in Paysage Poétique and Movingnumbers, where she also performed Beachbird and Biped by Merce Cunningham. She also dances with Christophe Garcia's company La Parenthese.

Jean-Pierre Rigondeau had both his legs amputated in 2019. Spotted by Elizabeth Fély-Dablemont, producer of Cie Traction and a friend of her daughter, he joined Une famille singulière in Limoges in 2022. He has joined the company's core group and is now involved in Vie de famille, Génération 2 and Improbable duo.

Contortionist born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in April 1991. He began his career in dance and theatre in 2004 and moved into the circus world in 2006. He soon began working in traditional circus in his native country until 2014, when he arrived in France to train in contemporary circus at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque in Châlons-en-Champagne. Today, he fuses contortion with different materials, dance movements and theatricality by talking about his life experiences.

Production Association Traction
Coproduction DSN – Dieppe Scène Nationale / Maison des Arts et de la Danse – Opéra de Limoges / Agence culturelle Dordogne-Périgord / Olympiade culturelle, Paris 2024
With the support of Region Nouvelle Aquitaine / CCM de Limoges – Scène conventionnée pour la danse / Saisons du Vieux Château à Vicq-sur-Breuilh / La Fabrique de la danse / Office Artistique de la Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine.