From June 15 to 27, 2026, Ircam is offering a composition workshop at CENTQUATRE-PARIS for short dance films, led by Thierry De Mey, in collaboration with the virtuoso soloists of the BL!NDMAN saxophone quartet [sax] and Ircam computer music designers. The aim is to explore the instrumental possibilities offered by electronics, based on a short video.
Ircam is offering a composition workshop for short dance films, led by Thierry De Mey, in collaboration with the virtuoso soloists of the BL!NDMAN saxophone quartet [sax] and Ircam computer music designers. The aim is to explore the instrumental possibilities offered by electronics, based on a short video.
A demanding and interdisciplinary artistic practice, dance film brings together several forms of movement into a coherent poetic gesture. Cinema and dance place the human body at the center of creation, where music is most often the starting point: dance reacts to pre-existing sound, then film captures the choreographic proposal. Here, on the contrary, the musical composition will be created in response to the film. But played “live,” the music will be able to take advantage of this opportunity for visual counterpoint and multidimensional play, so that the whole merges into a new sensory experience during the screening/concert.
Participants will choose from film clips featuring choreographies with very different aesthetics, created by Thierry De Mey, who will be following their work. They will write either for one of the instrumentalists, as a soloist with electronics, or for a duo with electronics, or for the acoustic quartet.
Thierry De Mey composer, director
Serge Lemouton & Grégoire Lorieux Ircam computer music designers
BL!NDMAN [sax]: Pieter Pellens soprano saxophone, Hendrik Pellens alto and soprano saxophone, Piet Rebel tenor saxophone, Raf Minten baritone saxophone
Kinshasa ville en mouvement – choreography by Papi Ebotani [excerpt] (5'58)
Le Faune – choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker [excerpt from Prélude à la mer] (7’17)
Love Sonnets – choreography by Michele Anne De Mey [excerpts]:
- Tuiles (6’02)
- Cimenterie (5’56)
- Terril (8’45)
Ma Mère L’Oye – with Annabelle Chambon, Cédric Charron, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, Erna Ómarsdóttir, Manuela Rastaldi [excerpt] (6’45)
Rémanences – choreography by Thierry De Mey [excerpt] (6’51)
Table Variation – choreography by William Forsythe [excerpt from One Flat Thing, reproduced] (5’12’)
Urban Counterdance – choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker [excerpt] (6’55)
Wall Work – choreography by Iztok Kovac (5’16)
With the support of the ULYSSES Platform, supported by the European Union.
