Introducing our first NEW GROUND Choreographer Amaury Lebrun.
Born in France Amaury began his studies at Ballet du Nord, Lille before moving to New York to continue his foundation dance training at the School of American Ballet where he worked closely with Jerome Robbins.
Throughout his varied and expansive career Amaury has worked with various European companies including Ballet du Rhin (Strausbourg, France), Deutsche Staatsoper (Berlin, Germany) and Ballet de l´Opéra de Nice (Nice, France). In 2000, he joined Compañía Nacional de Danza as a principal dancer under director Nacho Duato.
Since 2010, Amaury has taught contemporary and classical technique, repertory, improvisation and choreographic composition at the Superior Conservatoire of Dance in Madrid.
As a choreographer and director, Amaury has created multi-award winning works for international companies such as Ballet de l´Opéra de Nice, Compañía Nacional de Danza, Centro Coreografico Gallego, Ballet de la generalitat, VM dance, Waapa. Now based in Leeds, city of dance, Amaury works closely with Phoenix Dance Theatre and Northern Ballet.
Currently in the studio working with a group of NSCD second-year students, we caught up with Amaury to find out about his commission for NEW GROUND and to ask what audiences can expect from the work.
Q. Can you tell us what you are currently working on with the students? Are there any ideas or themes in particular that you are dealing with?
A. We are currently working on a piece which is a ‘recreation’ of an old work; it gives a great opportunity for the dancers to approach a certain repertory, but also a great opportunity for creation in it. The whole result will be drastically different from the original.
The piece is inspired by a series of words and how they can work together somehow: blind, empty, space, intimate, sweet, black, still, aware, resistance, hypnotic, cloud are few examples. One of the principal points of the work is how aware and sensitive one can become with the loss of one’s senses, in this case, sight.
We began thinking about big open and cold spaces, imagining the landscapes of Iceland, now we are playing with more intimate, small and empty spaces.
Q. Do you have any collaborators working with you on the creation of the work?
A. Yes, for this work, I have Melissa Burton as costume designer and Mark Baker as lighting designer. It is my first collaboration with this team and I’m very happy with the result and the exchange with them.
Q. How have you found the process of developing new work with our students so far?
A. The experience is very positive. They are a very nice and strong group. They respond well to tasks and have been a great help to me in the creation process.
Witness the next generation of dancers and choreographers across four nights in NEW GROUND, Tuesday 27th – Friday 30th November at Riley Theatre.
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