Lora

Lora tells the story of Lithuanian dancer Lora Juodkaite, who since childhood has developed a personal gestural practice — spinning around herself, repeatedly, without ever losing her balance — a movement that accompanies and comforts her. In this solo portrait, extracted from the performance TORDRE, created in 2014 in Annecy for two dancers, Rachid Ouramdane explores the delicate point where movement oscillates between a poetic and therapeutic dimension.
Unlike some of his previous works, in which Ouramdane built the stage around direct testimonies, giving voice and narrative to his performers, here it is through movement itself, through the gesture repeated and pushed to its extreme, that the dancer’s story emerges, without the need for words.

Rachid Ouramdane grows up in a family context marked by the Algerian War. This past, shaped by violence and exile, runs through many of his choreographic works. The dual cultural background in which he develops leads him early on to become aware of the multiplicity of identities, which becomes the core of his artistic research.

In the early 1990s Rachid Ouramdane leaves his scientific studies. He could have become a biologist, given his strong interest in the science of living beings. Instead, he chooses dance, a living art he discovers at the age of twelve through hip-hop. From this urban culture he retains the idea of an art engaged in public space. Trained between the school of life and the school of art, he maintains a constant tension between autobiographical dimension, aesthetic reflection, and social issues.

He develops an art of encounter, whose sensitive and total experience requires questioning every prejudice. He multiplies projects at the boundary between dance and documentary, based on careful testimony-gathering work carried out in collaboration with documentary filmmakers. After the 2005 riots, he creates a mosaic of intimate and discreet portraits of young people from the Paris suburbs.

Many of his projects emerge from journeys and encounters, such as Loin…, which leads him to meet Vietnamese exiles returning to their country. He later meets victims of torture in Brazil (Des témoins ordinaires) and climate refugees in Sichuan and Yunnan in China, forced to face natural disasters (Sfumato). Each project also becomes an opportunity to build forms of support for these vulnerable populations, in collaboration with local associations.

In his creations he often gives voice to minorities and communities whose experiences illuminate key realities of the contemporary world. In 2018 he mobilizes child protection services, the national education system, and several prefectures to support migrant children, contributing to improving their daily lives through artistic practices. With them he develops the performance Franchir la nuit. On stage he elaborates a poetics of testimony and a gestural language with a clear, almost minimalist line, in constant interaction with the environment, as in his scenographic devices.

In 2021 the choreographer becomes director of Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse, transforming it through his artistic project into a theatre of diversity and hospitality, with the ever-growing ambition of sharing the human and the sensible and bringing dance where it is least expected. In recent years he also orients his choreographic writing toward large groups and moving crowds, collaborating with major international ensembles: Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Candoco Dance Company, Moscow City Ballet, the XY collective, Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, Maîtrise de Radio France… It is with these last three formations that he creates Möbius Morphosis at the Panthéon in Paris, set to music by Jean-Benoît Dunckel of the band AIR.

In March 2022 he receives the rank of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.

The Compagnie de Chaillot is an artistic community brought together around a collective spirit and the values of inclusion promoted by Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse. Created following the arrival of Rachid Ouramdane as head of the institution in April 2021, within its missions of creation and production, the Company aims to promote contemporary dance and performing arts while exploring new forms of scenic expression. This collective, which brings together artists and long-standing collaborators of Rachid Ouramdane, is composed of dancers, acrobats, tightrope walkers, composers, video artists, lighting designers, photographers, set designers, and costume designers, engaged in innovative productions that intertwine dance, acrobatics, theatre, performance, and music.

Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse, located in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, is an emblematic cultural institution of the national and international landscape. Formerly home to Jean Vilar’s Théâtre national populaire, under Rachid Ouramdane it continues a tradition founded on sharing and attention to the plurality of audiences. The artistic and cultural project he leads together with the theatre teams, inspired by the principles of diversity and hospitality, aims to make Chaillot a house of creation widely open to society, in constant dialogue with new forms of artistic expression. Each year the Company presents performances created at Chaillot with the theatre teams or in collaboration with institutional partners, offering a rich and diverse programme.

The Company’s inclusive and innovative approach allows it to engage an heterogeneous audience across all generations, contributing to making Chaillot a central place for contemporary dance with international resonance. Alongside its performance activity, the Company is also engaged in cultural mediation projects, workshops, and encounters with the public, with the aim of democratizing access to art and fostering broader participation of young people in the performing arts. The Chaillot Colo represent one of the main meeting grounds between artists and younger generations. Through its work, the Company continues to renew the innovative and committed spirit of Chaillot, constantly pushing the boundaries of contemporary stage creation.

Lora Juodkaite, performer, is a choreographer and dancer originally from Lithuania; she lives and works in Grenoble. From early childhood she has practiced a rotational movement, a daily ritual that has allowed her to develop an extraordinary capacity for continuous spinning. This singular practice has become an integral part of her personal choreographic language. She trained in dance at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD) in Austria, where she graduated in 2005. After experiences in cinema and theatre, she returned to Vilnius to join the dance company of Vytis Jankauskas. At the same time she created numerous works in collaboration with musicians, in particular for the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. In the mid-2000s she met Rachid Ouramdane, with whom she began a collaboration on numerous projects, including Des Témoins ordinaires, Sfumato, TORDRE, and Tenir le Temps.

With the support of

Main media Partner

Lora Juodkaite Rachid Ouramdane Compagnie de Chaillot

With the support of

Main media Partner

Lora Juodkaite
Rachid Ouramdane
Compagnie de Chaillot