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Compagnie Julie DOSSAVI (France/Benin/Mali)
Of Benin/West African descent and born in Toulon, France in 1968,
Julie Dossavi grew up in Brest, yet another harbor city, where she studied jazz dance. In 1990 she completed a degree in Physical &
Sports Education, majoring in dance. She was then accepted to the
Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers and joined dance company Jean-François Duroure.
In 1992, she was dancer, assistant and coach at the opening ceremony of the Albertville Olympic Winter Games, under the direction of Philippe Decouflé, before choreographing the following year, her first solo piece.
Parallel to her advancement on the contemporary dance scene, she has promoted the voguing trend in nightclubs, taken part in music videos, jingles and fashion shows in addition to dancing for the French /German public television channel Arte. Her collaborations with Gerard Gourdot in the company Les Geographes was launched in 1995 along with their son Marcus: the following period abounded in experiences, performances and new work development.
She has performed with Cie Salia nï Seydou from Burkina Faso, supervised contemporary dance at the Cairo Opera in Egypt, led workshops in Cameroon, in London (Afro-Caribbean Hip-hop), in Marrakech and at the 2nd African Contemporary Dance Meetings in Angola, which featured choreographers from ten African countries.
After being invited to Bangui and Tchad to lead dance workshops,
DOSSAVI took on the artistic direction of two projects and set up her own company in Poitiers/France before being awarded a residency at the nearby Theatre/Scène Nationale in Angoulème.
In 2004, Compagnie Julie DOSSAVI created P.I (Pays) ou Présentations intimes in Châteauvallon, France which she also presented as a showcase at City Center Theater as part of the APAP 07 Conference in New York City. It was performed twice on tour in the USA including a 3-week long West coast tour with a week engagement at RedCat/Los Angeles and in the South East during November 09 with stops in Miami, Austin and Baton Rouge. Recent projects include Clubbing in which she explores the world of the night, Grand Father doesn;t like the Swing, a mixed media duo which celebrates electro music and traditional West African rhythms with photography and Cross & Share, which have been touring all over France including for 3 weeks at the Festival d'Avignon in July 2012.
In January 2013, Julie DOSSAVI has been named Associate Artist at Theatre des Treize Arches in
Brive/France for a 3-year long residency, enabling her to further develop her large scale outdoor
Dancing City project which involves hundreds of community participants during a day and night long celebration of dance in the streets.
As a guest artist for the cultural event Le Vif du Sujet, DOSSAVI commissioned Daniel Larrieu to write her a solo piece, A chaque vent le papillon se déplace sur le saule, presented in France at the
Montpellier Danse and at Paris’ Quartier d’été Festivals. This solo was presented among two other new works, including DOSSAV'S new solo La Juju with live music, at Montreal's Festival Quariter Danses in mid September 2016 following the company's successful 2-week long engagement at the 2016 edition of the Avignon Festival.
International artists from around the world, at the crossroads of tradition and innovation!
Bernard Schmidt Productions, Inc.
