Coronet Inside Out: Thomas Lebrun

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Photo – C. Vootz

Thomas Lebrun
A dancer with such choreographers as Bernard Glandier, Daniel Larrieu, Christine Bastin, Christine Jouve and also Pascal Montrouge, Thomas Lebrun founded the Illico company in 2000 after making his solo Cache ta joie!. Working in the Nord-Pas de Calais region, he was first an associate artist at the Vivat d’Armentières (2002 – 2004) and then, from 2005 to 2011, with Danse à Lille / Centre de Développement Chorégraphique. On prendra bien le temps d’y être, La Trêve(s), Les Soirées What You Want?, Switch, Itinéraire d’un danseur grassouillet and La constellation consternée are not only dance pieces; they also represent so many universes and aesthetics that he has explored, travelling from a physically demanding, precise dance style to a confirmed theatrical quality.

Since he was named director of the National Dance Centre of Tours in January 2012, Thomas Lebrun has created 11 choreographic works:
– La jeune fille et la mort (2012), for seven dancers, a baritone and the Voce quartet at the Théâtre national de Chaillot;
– Trois décennies d’amour cerné (2013) within Les Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis;
– Tel quel! (2013), conceived for the youngest of audiences and keeping their parents in mind;
– Lied Ballet (2014), a piece in three acts for eight dancers, one tenor and a pianist, within the 68th Festival d’Avignon;
– Où chaque souffle danse nos mémoires (2015), as part of the “Monuments en Mouvement” operation initiated by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, at the castles of Azay-le-Rideau and Châteaudun, and at the Palais Jacques Cœur in Bourges, and in 2016 at the Conciergerie de Paris and at the Mont-Saint-Michel;
– Avant toutes disparitions (2016) at the Théâtre national de Chaillot;
– Les rois de la piste (2016);
– Another look at memory (2017);
– Dans ce monde (2018), a work for family audiences;
– Ils n’ont rien vu (2019) within Festival Tours d’Horizons;
– Mes hommages (2020);
– … de bon augure (2020).

Thomas Lebrun has also created several pieces jointly with other choreographers, in particular with Foofwa d’Imobilité (Le show / Un twomen show), Cécile Loyer (Que tal!) and Radhouane El Meddeb (Sous leurs pieds, le paradis).

He also creates choreography for companies abroad, such as the National Ballet of Liaonning in China (2001) and the Grupo Tapias in Brasil (Year of France in Brasil in 2009), and also for Lithuanian dancer and choreographer Lora Juodkaité (FranceDanse Vilnius 2009 operation), for six Korean dancers, a work commissioned by the MODAFE Festival at Seoul (FranceDanse Korea 2012 operation), for dancers of the Panthera company at Kazan, Russia (FranceDanse Russia 2015 operation) and for the Singaporean company Frontier Danceland (2017).

Lebrun is regularly commissioned for various projects. In July 2010, his new solo Parfois le corps n’a pas de coeur was his reply to the Festival d’Avignon’s and the SACD’s «Sujets à vif» commission. In March 2017, he directed Les Fêtes d’Hébé by Jean-Philippe Rameau, for the Paris Opera Academy, performed at Opera Bastille Auditorium in Paris and at the Britten Theatre in London.

Since his arrival at the CCNT, he made 11 new choreography works and 14 repertory works were shown in over 720 events in France (Théâtre national de Chaillot, Biennale de la danse de Lyon, Festival d’Avignon…) and other countries (England, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Ecuador, Finland, Italy, Japan, Hong-Kong, Macau, Netherlands, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan…).

He gives pride of place to teaching and transmission. Some of the venues where he has taught include Centre national de la danse, at Pantin and at Lyon, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse and the Ménagerie de Verre, both in Paris, the Balletéatro in Porto and the Fomation du danseur interprète Coline in Istres.

Since 2018, in partnership with Touka Danses – CDCN de Guyane and Tropiques Atrium, scène nationale de la Martinique, he develops “Dansez-Croisez”, an exchange and cross over choreographic project with artists from French overseas territories and the Caribbean in Metropolitan France and takes part as a choreographer in French Guyana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cuba.

In June 2014, Thomas Lebrun received the choreography prize from the Board of Governers of the SACD (Société des auteurs chorégraphiques et dramatiques) and, in March 2017 he was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.

His upcoming projects features L’ombre d’un doute, a trio for Martinican dancers, in coproduction with Tropiques Atrium, Mille et une danses (pour 2021), which will premiere within Festival Montpellier Danse 2021.