Rachid Ouramdane

Rachid Ouramdane grew up in a household scarred by the Algerian War. This story of violence and exile would haunt several pieces of the choreographer. Having a dual heritage, he soon caught on to the multiple nature of identity, which was to be a central part of his research. 

In the early 90s, Ouramdane dropped his science studies. His deep knowledge of live beings could have led him to a career as a biologist, but he settled instead on dance, a performance art he discovered at age 12 through hip hop. He pulled from this urban culture the idea of an art engaged in public spaces. Building up his creative career from the school of life and the art life, he consistently maintains a connection and tension between the biographical dimension, aesthetic considerations and social issues. 

Ouramdane cultivates the art of community in which sentient and wholehearted interactions require questioning all kinds of prejudice. He has led a myriad of projects at the edges of dance and documentary film, meticulously collating firsthand accounts in collaboration with documentary filmmakers. After the 2005 riots, he put together a puzzle of intimate and modest profiles of inner-city youths in Paris. Many of his pieces result from trips and encounters, such as Loin… for which he met Vietnamese exiles back in their country. He met with people who endured torture in Brazil (Des témoins ordinaires), as well as climate refugees reeling from disasters in the Sichuan and Yunan regions of China. (Sfumato). 

Each project provides an opportunity to build support for these beleaguered people with local associations. His pieces regularly give a voice to minorities, people whose experiences educate us about particular realities of the world. In 2018, he reached out to child protection, the Department of Education and multiple administrative offices to take action for migrant children and improve their day-to-day life through art practices. With them, he created the show Franchir la nuit. On stage, he pursues a poetics of the personal account and streamlined movement that is almost minimalist and constantly interacting with the environment, as his stage installations attest.

In 2021, the choreographer took over as director of Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse and made it into the theater of diversity and hospitality, increasingly devoted to building human interactions and bringing dance to unexpected places. 

In recent years, he has created dance pieces for moving crowds with major international ballet ensembles, including Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Candoco Dance Company, Moscow City Ballet, le collectif XY, Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, Maîtrise de Radio France, etc. With those three entities, he created Möbius Morphosis for the Panthéon in Paris, with a music by Jean-Benoît Dunckel, from the group AIR.

In March 2022, he was honored as an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

• Contre-nature, creation in 2024 at Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse
• Möbius Morphosis, creation in 2024 with the Collectif XY, the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon and the Maîtrise de Radio France, whithin the Olympiade Culturelle
• Outsider, with the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève, creation in 2024 | Genève
• Corps extrêmes, created with 8 acrobats, 1 climber and 1 highliner, June the 23rd and 24th 2021,  / Montpellier Danse 2021
• Les Traceurs, created in 2020 as part of La Grande Balade / Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy
• Eden, created for 1 performer, from July the15th to 31st 2020 at Teatro Comunale de Bolzano (Italie) as part of the project EDEN, a special edition of Bolzano Danza Festival 
• Möbius, created by Collectif XY in collaboration with Rachid Ouramdane
• Variation(s), 2019, created for 2 performers, October the 9th, 10th and 11th 2019 at Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy
• Franchir la nuit, created for 5 performers and a crowd of children, September the 20th and 21st 2018, Biennale de la danse de Lyon
• Murmuration, created with dancers from the Ballet de Lorraine, from June the 29th to July the 2nd 2017, Festival Des Plaisirs inconnus – Nancy
• Tenir le temps, created for 16 performers, July the 1st and the 2nd 2015, Festival Montpellier danse
• TORDRE, 2014, created for 2 performers, November the 5th 2014 at Bonlieu Scène Nationale – Annecy 
• Tout autour, 2014, created with dancers from the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, February the 22nd at Radiant Caluire
• POLICES !, 2013, created for 5 performers, a choir and a crowd, November the 14th at the Festival Mettre en scène — Le Triangle, Rennes
• Sfumato, 2012, created for 7 performers, September the 19th at the Biennale de la danse de Lyon 
• Looking back, 2011, created for 5 dancers from the Candoco Dance Company, le 14 septembre à Manchester
• Exposition universelle, 2011, duo for Jean-Baptiste Julien and Rachid Ouramdane, created on Mai the 12th at Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy
• Borsheviks…Une histoire vraie…, 2010, created for the Russian company  Migrazia, April the 9th at Kirov (Russia)
• Des Témoins ordinaires, 2009, created for 5 performers, on May the 28th at Bonlieu Scène Nationale – Annecy 
• Loin…, 2008, solo, created on March the 4th at Bonlieu Scène Nationale – Annecy
• Surface de réparation, 2007, created with 12 sportsteenagers from Gennevilliers, on October the 4th at Théâtre de Gennevilliers
• Un Garçon debout, 2006, solo for the author and stage director Pascal Rambert, created on October the 18th at Bonlieu Scène Nationale – Annecy
• Superstars, 2006, created for 7 dancers from the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, on September the 18th at the Opéra National de Lyon
• Cover, 2005, created for 4 performers, on October the 28th at the Biennale de danse du Céara – Fortaleza (Brezil)
• Les Morts pudiques, 2004, solo, created on May the 7th 2004 at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales of Seine St-Denis
• Je ne, 2004, co-created with the author Daniel Danis, created on October the 9th at la Ferme du Buisson – Scène Nationale de Marne-la-Vallée
• À l’oeil nu, 2003, collective and ongoing project
• Skull*Cult, 2002, solo co-created with the choreographer Christian Rizzo, created on July the 15th as part of the Vifdu Sujet – Festival d’Avignon
• + ou – là, 2002, created for 6 performers at Manège – Scène Nationale of Reims
• Face cachée, 2002, vocal performance for 6 performers
• Structure Multifonction, 2001, co-created with Christian Rizzo and Nicolas Floc’h
• De Arbitre à Zébra, 2001, created with wrestlers from Reims
• Au bord des métaphores, 2000, created at the Ménagerie de Verre – Paris
• Les absents ont toujours tort, 1998, created for 6 performers at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales of Seine St-Denis
• Des gens de passage, 1997
• 3 avenue de l’espérance, 1996, solo co-created with Julie Nioche, at Quartz – Scène Nationale of Brest 

Rachid Ouramdane builds his project according to key concerns :

• Chaillot, a theater of diversity
• Hybridizing forms of art
• Inventing hospitaly within and outside Chaillot / the art of connecting

His projects : 

• Chaillot Colo
• Chaillot Olympique
• Chaillot Experience
• Chaillot Kids