Biography
Biography

Born on January 3rd 1973, in Chambéry, France

Dancer, choreographer, and director of Terrain, Boris Charmatz subjects dance to formal constraints which redraw the field of possibilities. The stage is a notepad where to draft concentrated, organic concepts in order to observe the chemical reactions, intensities, and tensions engendered by their encounter.

During 2009 - 2018 he is the director of Musée de la danse / Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne.
He is the author of a series of landmark shows, from Aatt enen tionon (1996) to 10000 gestes (2017), in addition to his activity as a performer and improviser (in collaboration with Médéric Collignon, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Tino Sehgal).
As an associate artist of the 2011 edition of the Avignon Theatre Festival, Boris Charmatz created enfant. Performed at the Cour d’Honneur at the Palais des Papes, the piece involved 26 children and 9 adult dancers. It was restaged at the Volksbühne in 2018 with a group of Berlin children. Invited to the MoMA in 2013, Boris Charmatz staged Musée de la danse: Three Collective Gestures, a three-part program performed at the museum over the course of three weeks. Following an invitation in 2012, Boris Charmatz was once again hosted by Tate Modern in London in 2015, where he presented If Tate Modern was Musée de la danse? The show included alternate versions of the choreographic projects À bras-le-corps; Levée des conflits; manger; Roman Photo; expo zéro; and 20 Dancers for the XX Century. That same year, Boris Charmatz opened the dance season at the National Opera in Paris with 20 Dancers for the XX Century, and invited 20 dancers from the Ballet to perform twentieth-century solo parts in public spaces at the Palais Garnier. In May 2015 he premieres Fous de danse, an invitation to live dance in all its forms from noon until midnight. Further editions of this choreographic assembly bringing together professional dancers and amateurs, take place in Rennes in 2016 and 2018; Brest, Berlin and Paris (Festival d’Automne) follow in 2017.
During 2017-2018 Boris Charmatz is associate artiste of Volksbühne Berlin where he presents danse de nuit (2016), 10000 gestes (2017), A Dancer’s Day (2017) and enfant (2018).

End of 2018 Boris Charmatz leaves Musée de la danse / Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne and for the occasion creates La Ruée at Théâtre National de Bretagne, a collective performance inspired by the book Histoire mondiale de la France, written under the direction of Patrick Boucheron.
In January 2019 he launches Terrain, association established in the Region Hauts-de-France and in partnership with the phénix, scène nationale of Valenciennes, Opéra de Lille and Maison de la Culture d’Amiens. Boris Charmatz is also associate artist of Charleroi danse (Belgium) for three years (2018-2021).
In the summer of 2019 Zürcher Theater Spektakel gives Boris Charmatz carte blanche to take over the festival site on the lake. terrain | Boris Charmatz : Un essai à ciel ouvert. Ein Tanzgrund für Zürich becomes the first test of his project Terrain : a green choreographic site without roof and walls, an architecture of bodies during three weeks, every day and under the open sky, including public warm-ups, workshops for children, amateur and professional dancers, performances and a symposium.
In 2020, the Festival d’Automne à Paris proposes the Portrait Boris Charmatz with works from his repertoire and new projects : La Ruée (2018), (sans titre) (2000) by Tino Sehgal, La Fabrique (2020), Aatt enen tionon (1996), 20 danseurs pour le XXe siècle et plus encore (2012, 2020), boléro 2 (1996) & étrangler le temps (2009) and 10000 gestes (2017). In this framework he creates La Ronde for the closing event of Grand Palais, collective performance of 12 hours and subject of a film and a documentary for France Télévisions.
In June 21, he orchestrates the groupe performance Happening Tempête for the opening of Grand Palais Éphémère. In July, he opens the Manchester International Festival with Sea Change, a dance piece with 150 amateurs and professional dancers. In November he creates and interprets the entirely whistled solo SOMNOLE.
In September 2022, Boris Charmatz will be the new director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, to launch, with Terrain, a new project between France and Germany. Since August 2022, Boris Charmatz is the new director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, to launch, with Terrain, a new project between France and Germany. In September 2023, he creates with Tanztheater Wuppertal Ensemble his new piece Liberté Cathédrale.

Charmatz is the author of several books, including Entretenir: à propos d’une danse contemporaine (Centre national de la danse / Les presses du reel, 2003), co-authored with Isabelle Launay; “Je suis une école” (Editions les Prairies Ordinaires, 2009), a work that retraces the adventure with Bocal; and Emails 2009–2010 (Les presses du réel, in partnership with the Musée de danse, 2013), co-authored with Jérôme Bel. In 2017, MoMa New York as part of its series Modern Dance, publishes the monography Boris Charmatz, directed by Janevski and with contributions by Gilles Amalvi, Bojana Cvejić, Tim Etchells, Adrian Heathfield, Catherine Wood...
His projects initiate various cinematographic realisations, among them Les Disparates (2000), directed by César Vayssié ; Horace-Bénédict (2001), by Dimitri Chamblas et Aldo Lee ; Une lente introduction (2007) by Boris Charmatz et Aldo Lee ; Levée (2014) by Boris Charmatz et César Vayssié ; Daytime Movements (2016), by Boris Charmatz et Aernout Mik ; TANZGRUND (2021), by César Vayssié ; étrangler le temps (2021) by Boris Charmatz and Aldo Lee.

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