Régine Chopinot was born in 1952, in Fort-de-l’Eau, Algeria. In 1978, she created her own company in Lyon, la Compagnie du Grèbe. Three years later, she was awarded second prize for her piece HALLEY’S COMET during an international event, the Concours International de Chorégraphie de Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis).In 1986, she iwas appointed director of the CENTRE CHORÉGRAPHIQUE DE POITOU-CHARENTES in La Rochelle, which she still heads. In 1993, the center became the Ballet Atlantique-Régine Chopinot (BARC).
Most of the 50 choreographic pieces created by Régine Chopinot since 1978 were born of her collaboration with design artists such as Andy Goldworthy, Jean Le Gac or Jean Michel Bruyère, and musiciens such as Tôn-Thât Thiêt or Bernard Lubat. From 1983 to 1993, the fashion designer JEAN-PAUL GAULTIER created the costumes for all her productions.
It is difficult to find a central theme in her large multiform choreographic work. After the colorful pieces of her beginnings, where humor and esthetic provocation predominated, a meditation on nature and on the essence of the human being characterized the second half of the 90’s. In 2002, CHAIR-OBSCUR, a piece composed for 6 dancers, was a turning point. The work explored the meanders of life and death, of time and memory, while dissolving gradually the choreographic form.
In 2004, WHA attested to her determination to continue on this path. It deconstructed time and space with three performers in a euphoric rush of energy. For this piece, Régine Chopinot was awarded the “Grand Prix 2004” (best French choreography) by the Syndicat professionnel de la Critique de Théâtre, de Musique et de Danse (Professional Association of Drama, Music and Dance critics).
In 2006, O.C.C.C. will constitute the closing part to the “triptych of the End of Times”.
Parallel to her choreographic work, Régine Chopinot collaborates as an interpreter with artists whose universe is close to hers, such as the choreographer Alain Buffard (WALL DANCIN’, WALL FUCKIN’, 2003, MAUVAIS GENRE, 2004) and the duo of South African performers Steven Cohen and Elu (I WOULDN’T BE SEEN DEAD IN THAT, created with her company in 2003). Over the last four years, Régine Chopinot has been teaching dancers of the Opéra-Ballet and the École Supérieure de Danse du Vietnam, in the context of a partnership between the BARC and this country. One of the goals of this collaboration is to open a center for contemporary dance in Vietnam. In 2002, for the Hue Festival, she created ANH MAT with some of these dancers. In 2004, she presented GIAP THAN with the same Vietnamese performers and then created GIAP THAN #2 for a tour in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Selected pieces: DÉLICES (1983), LE DÉFILÉ (1985), K.O.K. (1988), SAINT-GEORGES (1991), FAçADE (1993), VÉGÉTAL (1995), PAROLES DU FEU (1997), LA DANSE DU TEMPS (1999), TRANS(E) (2000), CHAIR-OBSCUR (2002), WHA (WARNING HAZARDOUS AREA) `(2004), LES GARAGISTES (2005).
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