© Wilfried Thierry
Noé Soulier’s work explores choreography and dance in different settings, including the stage, the museum space and theoretical reflection. He thus develops a practice that is both conceptual and deeply rooted in movement, reflecting his educational background, which combines dance (Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, National Ballet School of Canada, P.A.R.T.S) and theory (Master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Paris Sorbonne).
His choreographic pieces Faits et Gestes (2016), The Waves (2018), First Memory (2022) or Clocks & Clouds (2023), try to activate the physical memory of the spectators with movements that aim at objects or events that are absent, thus suggesting more than they display. The film Fragments (2022) continues this research on the fragmentary dimension of the body’s experience by confronting it with the camera’s frame. With Passages (2020), an in situ project, this exploration expands by creating a resonance between the movement of bodies and the spaces and architecture in which they evolve.
The choreographed exhibition Performing Art (2017), created at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and then at Mucem in Marseille, reverses the usual position of dance in the museum by moving the exhibition to the stage, transforming the art handlers into performers and the installation of collections into choreography. In projects such as the book Action, movement et gesture (2016) and the performance Movement sur Movement (2013), he analyzes different ways to conceive movements that offer multiple ways to experience the body.
Performed all over the world (Théâtre National de Chaillot, Théâtre de la Ville, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Festival Montpellier Danse, MUCEM, Sadler’s Wells - London, Performa - New York, MOMA PS1 - New York, Wallis Theater - Los Angeles, Venice Biennale, Roma Europa Festival, Kunstenfestivaldesarts - Brussels, Kaaitheater Brussels, Tanz im August - Berlin, Theater Freiburg, Tanzquartier Vienna, Teatro Municipal do Porto), he has also choreographed for many companies: Ballet du Rhin (D’un pays lointain, 2011), Ballet de Lorraine (Corps de ballet, 2014), L.A. Dance Project (Second Quartet, 2017), Lyon Opera Ballet (Self Duet, 2021), Nederlands Dans Theater (About Now, 2023) and Trisha Brown Dance Company (In the Fall, 2023).
In July 2020, he took the direction of Cndc – Angers (National center for contemporary dance), a unique institution in the choreographic field that brings together a center for choreographic creation, a graduate school of contemporary dance and a dance program.