FIGURE D’EMPIRE ET CONTREDANSE

*Figure d’Empire et Contredanse* draws out and unravels one of the many threads woven throughout *Empire*. This piece, created in 2025 by Magali Milian and Romuald Luydlin, incorporated the dynamics specific to the imperial regime of domination – from its aggressive expansion to its downfall – in an attempt to thwart its mechanisms. During their wide-ranging and multifaceted research into the subject, the choreographers encountered the contredanse. They studied and practised this social dance, which was widespread in 17th- and 18th-century France and England, and discovered just how deeply the verticality of power and the imagery associated with the imperialist state are imprinted upon and expressed through it. In *Figure d’Empire et Contredanse*, six dancers and a musician (Marc Sens) reinterpret and reconfigure balancés, tresses, rondes, moulinés and carrés, accompanied by the narrator Laurie Bellanca and her account of the phenomena of constraint, submission, but also emancipation, at work within them. A historical perspective at the heart of the dance, prompting reflection in the present.