Free Dance / Meditation Dance
expressing freedom and joy

With this Rendez Vous at the ImPulsTanz festival with you, we are willing to share our experience in Free Dance repertory and Meditation Dance Techniques.
Free dance is a dance style developed in the 1920's and the 1930's by François Malkovsky. Inspired by Isadora Duncan, he based his research in the construction of a movement technique influenced by nature which expresses freedom and joy. His aesthetics are influenced by Greek antiquity figures. Experiencing the unsual coordination, musicality and expressivity of this style some questions regarding our contemporary practices arise: what do our dances mean? which dreams do they reflect? by which forms are they supported?

We are looking forward to the dialogue between this historical repertory and the meditative experiences. Throughout Kundalini indian mediation, Bondage and concrete relationships, we want to explore a great state of concentration which awakes consciousness.


Cecilia Bengolea
Cecilia Bengolea was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied Modern-Jazz, Classical and Anthropological dance in Buenos Aires and followed studies at the University of Philosophy and History of Art in Buenos Aires followed between 1998 and 2001.

Since 2001, she works and lives in Paris.
In 2004, she attended ex.er.c.e at the Centre Chorégraphique de Montpellier. Cecilia Bengolea has worked as an interpreter and in collaboration with João Fiadeiro, Claudia Triozzi, Edouard Leve, Marc Tompkins, Tiago Guedes, Yves-Nöel Genod, Joris Lacoste, Alain Buffard, Alice Chauchat and Mathilde Monnier a.o.

Since 2005 she collaborates with François Chaignaud, resulting in several projects: "Pâquerette", "Sylphides", "Castor et Pollux", "Free dance" of François Malkovsky, "Voguing Mimosa" in collaboration with Trajal Harrel, Marlene Freitas and François Chaignaud.
She created Umbrae Procella, a concert with Luvinsky Atche in 2009-10.

François Chaignaud
François Chaignaud is a choreographer and has graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSM) in Paris (2002). Since then he has collaborated as a dancer with various choreographers such as Boris Chamatz, Emmanuelle Huynh, Gilles Jobin, Tiago Guedes, Alain Buffard a.o.

Since 2004 he has shown several performances and concerts on different stages in France and Europe: "Pompè - procession urbaine" (2004), "He's one that goes to sea for nothing but to make him sick" (2005), "La Culture des Individu.e.s" (2006), "Aussi bien que ton coeur, ouvre-moi les genoux" (2008), "The Clodd and the pebble" (2008).

Since 2005 he has collaborated with Cecilia Bengolea. They created together "Pâquerette" (2008, at Antipodes) and "Sylphides" (2009, at Antipodes) currently touring and performing at many festivals and venues. They are working now on several new projects: "Castor & Pollux", an aerial dance piece, and "Free dance" (from the 1920's choreographic repertory).

In addition, he has an historian activity at the university and has recently published a book about early French feminism "L'Affaire Berger-Levrault - les féminismes à l'épreuve" (PUR, Rennes, 2009). They have been awarded critic‘s prize in Paris 2009 as the choreographic revelation for "Pâquerette" and "Sylphides".