Our Guidelines

An artistic venture

In 1989, Noël Cadagiani founded the dance company that bears his name. Noël Cadagiani is a dancer, choreographer and educator, and was formerly a dancer at the Grand Théâtre de Tours. From 1990 to 1998, he was a dance teacher at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

In 1985, he presented his first choreographic pieces, including La Flûte enchantée, a co-production with the Théâtre Contemporain de la Danse (Paris), and Palmerland, a choreographic crime comedy that grew out of a work with René Pétillon on the world of comic books.

To date, Ballet Cadagiani has created more than twenty works. Among the most notable and recent ones are:

  • Real World, inspired by Guy Debord’s writings on the society of the spectacle, premiered in Nîmes in 2008 with an original score by Fabrice Michel (Mobile Homme Théâtre and Théâtre Christian Liger) ;
  • In 2010, Le Désœuvrement by Anne-Marie Stretter, a short film inspired by Marguerite Duras’ India Song ;
  • In 2017, Lucretia, his most recent work, was performed at the Théâtre Christian Liger (Nîmes).

After the long period in which Ballet Cadagiani was restricted due to the COVID pandemic, it resumed its artistic activities in 2022, in particular with a new production of the piece Triclinium.

Creating a poetic body state

The artistic project of Ballet Cadagiani is also nurtured by the long educational experience of the choreographer. It is based on the development and transmission of tools and methods, in particular :

Cadagiani learned about the « flexible bars » method when he met Wilfride Piollet (1943-2015) and Jean Guizerix, who were both Étoiles (star dancers) at the Paris Opera Ballet. The term « flexible barres » was penned by the poet René Char, who was a friend of the Piollet-Guizerix couple, in a text he dedicated to the two artists in 1986. « The poet knew that we trained without holding on to the barre…, that gravity was our reference point and that we wanted to find ways not to set the body in motion without the impulse of a poetic imagination » Wilfride Piollet recounts in his book Synthèse of the flexible barres.

Interpreting without imitation

It should also be emphasized that the technique of the Flexible Barres is consistent with the essential elements of Rudolf Laban’s research and his analysis of movement, which makes the force of gravity the fundamental principle of dance.

Cadagiani uses these techniques very often in his artistic work. These techniques make each dancer create his movements autonomously, thanks to the poetic imagination carried by the flexible barres. He also adopted the kinetic notation system of Rudolph Laban, not only to record and transmit choreographies, but also in terms of artistic creation.

Actually, with Laban’s kinetograms, the dancer has an objective element that allows him to acquire choreography in a different way, without having to rely on the instructions of a teacher. Laetitia Doat writes: « (…) the dancer escapes the model imposed from the outside by the body of another (e.g. the choreographer or the teacher). The use of the score brings with it responsibility, autonomy, and even freedom, as the performer becomes his or her own reference point, his or her own norm (…) ».

On the search for the common in our dances

In his creative work, Noël Cadagiani often brings together dancers, musicians and video artists. When assembling his cast, he does not hesitate to draw on dancers from very different backgrounds. The choreographic creation is then accompanied by the search for a common language and a shared energy in the service of dance. Each time a whole new shared universe is created on stage, sustained by the attention and sensitivity of the dancers.