Olivier Dubois has been shaking up the French contemporary dance scene for more than a decade with some of the most radical choreographic work to date. The director of Ballet du Nord from 2014 to 2017, he was named one of the twenty-five best dancers in the world in 2011 by Dance Europe magazine and boasts a unique experience working between creation, interpretation and pedagogy.
Olivier Dubois has performed for Angelin Preljocaj, Cirque du Soleil, Jan Fabre, Dominique Boivin, Sasha Waltz and many others. In 2006, he was invited by the French Authors’ Society SACD and the Festival d’Avignon to create a piece as part of its Les Sujets à vif series: Pour tout l’or du monde (For All the Gold in the World). The creation subsequently received the jury prize from the Professional Critics’ Association. In 2008, he created Faune(s), based on Nijinsky’s play, for the Festival d’Avignon, and won the Jardin d’Europe first prize in Vienna. In 2009 his exhibition L’interprète dévisagé (The Faceless Interpreter) at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris was well received.
In 2010, he presented Spectre, commissioned by the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, then created L’homme de l’Atlantique, a duet based on the music of Frank Sinatra, for the Lyon Dance Biennale.
In 2009, he started the trilogy Étude critique pour un trompe-l’œil (Critical Study for a Trompe L’Œil) with the creation of Révolution (Revolution) at the Ménagerie de Verre in Paris, followed by the solo Rouge (Red) in 2011 and concluded by the provocative Tragédie (Tragedy), premiered at the Festival d’Avignon in 2012.
As part of Marseille 2013, European Capital of Culture, Dubois created Élégie (Elegy) for the National Ballet of Marseille. The same year he was named best choreographer at the Danza & Danza Awards for Tragédie and Élégie. In 2015, he created two new pieces Mon élue noire Sacre # 2, a solo for Germaine Acogny, and Les Mémoires d’un seigneur starring one of the company’s dancers and forty male amateur dancers.
Olivier Dubois also shares his creations with many amateur dancers. In 2011, a hundred and twenty people performed Envers et face à tous (Against and Facing All) at the Prisme d’Élancourt, followed in 2013 by Origami featuring 1000 students of all ages from Roubaix. At the latest Nuit Blanche in Paris, 300 amateurs participated in his Mille et une danses (Thousand and One Dances). He is also associated with a dance school: the Ballet Junior of Genève.
The trilogy Étude critique pour un trompe l’œil (Critical Study for a Trompe L’Œil) was completed in 2016 with Auguri, a piece for twenty-two dancers, premiered at the Internationale Sommerfestival Kampnagel in Hamburg and presented in France for the first time at La Biennale de Lyon. In February 2017, Olivier Dubois produced De l’origine (Of the origin) for the Royal Swedish Ballet, followed by 7 x Rien (7 x Nothing), his first show for young audiences. In spring 2018, he was back on stage in his solo show Pour sortir au jour (Coming Forth by Day), premiered at the Marseille Festival. The following year, Olivier Dubois created a new piece for eight dancers and one performer, Tropismes, performed at CentQuatre-Paris; he followed this up with a creation for the Geneva Junior Ballet, Audition. After several years living in Egypt, he created Itmahrag for seven Egyptian performers (music and dance), which was premiered in January 2021 at La Filature, Scène nationale de Mulhouse.
Finally, at the Marseille Festival in July 2022, a new version of Tragédie with a new cast returned to stages around the world in... Tragédie New Édit.
20.04.2023
