The Weston Ball could well become a September tradition in the wake of the first dance event held a year ago where dance and music brought us together in an ambiance of enthusiasm and high spirits.

For the second time, in the courtyard of the Republican Guard, three guest choreographers will take it in turns to teach those who wish to learn, steps and movements over the course of the evening.

Mathilde Monnier, Thibault Lac and Sophie Lenoir will teach us the upstrokes and downstrokes that make our feet clad in their dance shoes our most faithful but also most unruly playmates.

With joy and good humour, it is J.M. Weston’s pleasure to send everyone home with memories of these dance steps, however refined or lively they may be.

Since 1891, J.M. Weston's ambition has been to make shoes that last and take steps that make their mark. The loafers and boots for which the brand is renowned are natural attire for walking, running and dancing.

On this evening, the 'W' that adorns Weston like a sharp bend in the road to follow, invites us to follow the zigzags of the rhythms, abandoning the roads and paths in favour of the dance floor.

J.M. Weston’s destiny will forever be associated with the art of walking. The fact that dance is now a fortunate consequence of this motivates our future creations. Here in the courtyard of the Republican Guard, for whom we have the honour of designing all the Guards' riding boots, we're looking forward to this carefree get-together, where some of us may end up barefoot!

In the late afternoon, as the sun goes down and the cool of the night settles on our heels, the musical adventure and fun can begin.

The tunes of the past and the present are already resonating to the rhythm of the soles of wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MATHILDE MONNIER

Having found dance later in life and after having worked as a dancer, Mathilde Monnier has been involved in choreography since 1984, alternating between group and solo and duet creations. From piece to piece she thwarts expectations by presenting work that is in constant renewal.

Her appointment as the head of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 marked the beginning of a new period of expanding into new artistic fields and a reflection in action on the orientation of an institution and its dissemination.

Her creations

Shows such as Pour Antigone, Déroutes, Les lieux de là, Surrogate Cities, Soapera, Publique, La place du singe, 2008 Vallée, Tempo 76, Please please please have been performed on some of the major stages and at international festivals. She plays on the deconstruction of choreographic writing and the language of dance

Partnerships

She alternates between creating her own projects and collaborative ones, working with different figures from the art world.

At the Montpellier CCN, she designed the first invitations and residencies for artists, the EXERCE training programme, and major free public events such as Potlatch (an invitation to 100 artists) and Skène.

She has received several awards:
Minister of Culture prize at the Concours Bagnolet in 1983.
Grand Prix SACD in 2002.
Decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2013. Order of Merit in 2019.

She directed the CND (Centre National de la Danse) from January 2014 to June 2019, which she transformed into an art centre for dance, reaffirming that dance is the place for indiscipline par excellence, appropriating and inventing new and fruitful relationships with other artistic fields.

Mathilde Monnier and her company are currently based at Halle Tropisme in Montpellier.

 

BALWESTON

BY THIBAULT LAC

 

  

Song
Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper

Choreographic intention
In 1983, Cyndi Lauper released her iconic hit, in which she speaks of joy and spirit, the emancipating force of rebellious pleasure. In beat with its lively and enthusiastic momentum, a playful dance accompanies the melodies of this rousing anthem and invites you to take part in the fun and humour.
There's nothing like some shared, wild movement to release the “Girl” in all of us. Like Cyndi’s song and the dance event as a whole, the choreography reminds us of a key element: the importance of taking fun seriously!

Dancers
Thibault Lac, Mickey Mahar et Samuel Pereira

  

 

Thibault Lac first studied architecture before joining the P.A.R.T.S contemporary dance school in Brussels, where he worked with Jérome Bel and Tino Sehgal.

Having performed with Ligia Lewis, Noé Soulier, Daniel Linehan, Mathilde Monnier, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Daniel Jeanneteau and Price, he is a recurring presence in the work of American choreographer Trajal Harrell.

At the same time, he has worked on collaborative projects such as: Fool's Gold and on the piece Such Sweet Thunder, created in collaboration with visual artist Tore Wallert and composer Tobias Koch, which won the Young Choreographers' Prize at the Impulstanz Festival in Vienna. Recently, as part of a series of projects supported by the Centre National de la Danse, he worked with Bryana Fritz on a performance entitled Knight-Night.

BALWESTON

BY SOPHIE LENOIR

 

Song
Tuca Tuca, Raffaella Carrà

Choreographic intention
Stranissimo Ballo !
This choreography for the Weston Ball has been created to the song Tuca Tuca by Raphaella Carrà, so all you need think about is dancing your heart out!
You'll be able to let yourself go with this wild and syncopated dance.
Stranissimo Ballo ! is a patchwork of choreographic inspirations creating a moment truly suspended in time with all the joy that Italy has to offer.

Dancers
Sophie Lenoir, Anthony Namane, Yoan Pommier

 

SOPHIE LENOIR

Sophie Lenoir is a singular artist on the French choreography and theatre scene.

She began her career in the theatre at the age of 18 under the director Jean-Charles Lenoir, who is also her father. She quickly took her place on the stage of the Paris music halls while at the same time obtaining her licence as a gymnastics teacher. Since then, her career has been built on dance collaborations (Boris Charmatz, Nasser Martin Gousset), musical theatre (Jean Lacornerie), film (Roger Planchon) and theatre (Guillaume Bardot, Jean-Michel Ribes, Jonathan Capdevielle and Sophie Perez, with whom she has an iconic partnership).