Alain Platel is an orthopedist and self-taught director. Starting with Emma (1988), he has increasingly distinguished himself as a director. He created Bonjour Madame (1993), La Tristeza Complice (1995) and Iets op Bach (1998), productions that propelled the company les ballets C de la B to the top of the international rankings.
vsprs (2006) marks a change of direction. The exuberance of previous performances gives way to a deeper introspection, revealing a universe of impulses, aspirations and violence, as in Nine Finger (2007) with Benjamin Verdonck and Fumiyo Ikeda. After the baroque style of pitié! (2008), Out Of Context – for Pina (2010) constitutes an almost ascetic reflection on the arsenal of movements that define spasms and tics.
In collaboration with Frank Van Laecke, he created Gardenia in 2010. Opera director Gerard Mortier asked Alain Platel to create C(H)OEURS (2012) for the Teatro Real in Madrid. For years, the tension between the group and the individual has been a central theme in Platel’s performances.
In tauberbach (2014), he continues to explore and develop his own choreographic language, known as “la danse bâtarde” (“the bastard dance”). The theme of this creation is: surviving with dignity in almost impossible conditions.
In the meantime, he made a series of dance films, either with British director Sofie Fiennes (Because I Sing in 2001, Ramallah!Ramallah!Ramallah! in 2005, and VSPRS Show and Tell in 2007), or solo in Les ballets de-ci, de-là (2006), an impressive foray into the life of a troupe formed twenty years ago and which takes us as far as Vietnam and Burkina Faso.
