Shared creation

Shared creation

Shared creation: with and for amateurs

Since his first piece Envers et Face à Tous (2011), Olivier Dubois has been committed to creating with and for amateurs following a model close to professional creation. Participants face a genuine artistic demand, benefiting from tailored and supportive guidance, in a process that differs from traditional outreach workshops.

These creations often result from commissions by organizations within the framework of specific events, such as Drummers for the Ravel festival at the Philharmonie de Paris, or Envers et Face à Tous, which helped make the Théâtre d’Élancourt a place of interest and discovery for many residents of the city and region. Each project is built on the ground, in close dialogue with hosting venues and audiences, in an approach where rigor, transmission, and inclusion advance together.

Over the years, the company has developed a true amateur artistic corpus—demanding and vibrant—where participants return, deepen their commitment, and appropriate the company’s artistic language. This dynamic helps build audience loyalty while creating a strong and lasting local artistic community.

These creations offer amateurs the opportunity to take the stage, but they also allow the occupation of public spaces—streets, squares, parks, wastelands, both in urban and rural areas—and bring dance to places where it is least expected. For each partner organization, this is an opportunity to showcase its project within its territory, unite audiences, and create a memorable event at the heart of the community.

Drummers

Starting at 20 participants

30 hours of workshops

"In the beginning, a breath. A fragile, almost inaudible pulse. A beat that is lost in the immensity of sound. Then, slowly, inexorably, it imposes itself. There are 50 of them.
50 beings in motion, united by the same rigor, the same breath. 50 amateur dancers who, together, construct the invisible architecture of a work.
At the heart of it all, a beat.
Drummers: When the beat becomes revolution.”

Projects led
• Philharmonie de Paris (2025)
• Théâtre de Brétigny (forthcoming - 2026)

Memory of a Lady

40 amateurs and one professional interpreter

This creation is a response to a proposal from a group of women who participated in an amateur project and expressed to Olivier Dubois their desire to see "Memory of a Lord" (2015) performed by women. Nine years after the landmark play depicting the loneliness of a fallen tyrant, Olivier Dubois offers a female version, embodied by a professional dancer and 40 amateur performers.

Projects led
• Centquatre-Paris (2024)
• Vichy Opera House (2024)
• Onde Théâtre - Art Center (coming soon - 2026)

Podium

30 to 40 participants

60 hours of workshops

When modern games create a gap between individuals, teams, or countries, even though there was no initial indication of inequality, "Podium" establishes a relationship, a union between individuals, teams, and disciplines that were initially separate.
Push yourself to the limit like an athlete or an artist!

Project led
• Festival Paris l’Eté (2024)

Wild Descent

Starting at 20 participants

30 hours of workshops

In 1912, Nijinsky created Après-midi d’un faune in Paris.
More than a century later, this faun has been passed down, reproduced, and multiplied. What if these fauns escaped and spread throughout the city like a wild invasion?

Projects led
• Alexandria (2017)
• Un Été particulier (2021)
• With the Entracte dance school in Montmorency (2022)
• Bolzano Danza Festival (Italy, 2025)

Memory of a Lord

40 amateurs and 1 professional performer

"It may be the story of a king, of immense loneliness. Of an obscure struggle and a triumphant man."

Projects led
• Colisée de Roubaix (2015)
• Bolzano et Civitanova (2015)
• Théâtre de Cornouailles - Quimper (2016)
• MPAA - Paris (2016)
• Théâtre Paul Eluard de Bezons (2016)
• Rotterdamse Schouwburg (2016)
• Cidade das Arte - Rio (2016)
• Théâtre de l’Onde - Vélizy (2017)
• Milan (2018)
• Bienal de danza in Cali (Colombie, 2019)
• D-CAF in Cairo (2021)
• Théâtre de Nîmes (2022)

Le corps aimant

100+ participants

17 hours of workshop

"It's an invitation to a dance of love, a huge embrace."
Olivier Dubois

Projects led
• Maison des Pratiques Amateurs (2017)
• MUCEM in Marseille (2019)

Mille et une danses

300 participants

120 hours of workshop

This is the story of a celebration... a celebration of dance!
For one whole night, 300 amateurs take over every corner of the city. Dancing together again and again to create a choreographic tidal wave. From the simple desire to be together, a huge dancing monster is created.

Project led
• Nuit blanche 2017

Envers et face à tous

150 participants

40 hours of workshop

“Envers et Face à Tous” is a kind of two-headed monster: on the one hand, it is a stroll through, or rather a dissection of, a theater, from backstage to technical operations, from administration to security, from reception to communications... A finger pointed at the audience: what are you looking at? What do you expect from us?

Projects led
• Prismes in Elancourt (2011)
• Colisée de Roubaix (2014)
• Théâtre Paul Éluard de Bezons (2020)

The "Extended": Transmitting the Repertoire

The “Extended” projects invite amateur dancers — sometimes experienced — to immerse themselves in a work from Olivier Dubois’ repertoire, within a demanding, supportive, and professional framework. Designed as living extensions of the company’s iconic pieces (Tragédie, Tropismes, Descente Sauvage, Auguri, Itmahrag…), these projects offer a full immersion, from the first rehearsal to the public performance.

These formats often take place in connection with the company’s touring calendar, allowing participants to step into the heart of the artistic process while joining the momentum of the ongoing tour and current programming.

The “Extended” projects offer an offstage experience of an already existing work — a way of living dance in its collective dimension while embracing the artistic rigor of a piece, right where it’s being made. They allow participants to concretely explore Olivier Dubois’ choreographic language, to embody interpretation and stage presence, while sharing the deep experience of collective presence on stage.

These projects can bring together large groups of up to 150 participants, creating powerful moments of visibility within local communities — whether inside theatres or in public spaces — and positioning dance as a powerful vehicle for social connection and shared cultural impact.

Tragédie Extended

From 20 to 150 participants

30 hours of workshop

This project is an extension of the creation “Tragédie” and provides an opportunity to renew the notion of interpretation in its collective dimension, while echoing the original piece, created for 18 performers. Tragédie Extended offers a unique experience of stepping into the shoes of a performer in the company, with the dedication and hard work required to achieve a single common goal: the pleasure of performing.

Projects led
• Innsbruck (2015)
• Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi à Milan (2018)
• With high school students at Centquatre Paris (2019)
• Tragédie 95 (2022)
• Tragédie Antigone - ZAT de Montpellier (2022)
• Atlantique Ballet Contemporain - Conservatoire de la Rochelle (2022)
• Tragédie 104 au Centquatre - Paris (2023)
• Parade with Institut Français du Maroc (2025)
And more...

Tropismes Extended

Starting from 25 participants

24 hours of workshop

Created from the piece "Tropismes", this performance lasts 25 to 30 minutes and can take place indoors or outdoors. It unfolds on a large, three-sided dance floor where the participants perform — and, in the end, invite the audience to join them on the floor for a "Bal Tropismes".

Projects led
• With Lycée Van Gogh in Ermont (2020)
• Scène Nationale de Malakoff (2024)

Itmahrag Extended

Starting from 20 participants

12 hours of workshop

"For there are surges that only youth can summon...
She dances by the light of her knife.
Youth is voracious,
the old man, ferocious.
And she roars loud, and she strikes hard, and she dances
wild! Hold your breath!"
— Olivier Dubois

Projects led
• Festival de Marseille (2021)
• CCM de Limoges (2021)
• With Lycée Les eaux vives in Carrières (2021)
• With Lycée Vincent Van Gogh in Ermont with TPE de Bezons (2022)

Auguri Extended

Starting from 20 participants

22 hours of workshop

Inspired by the piece "Auguri", this project is designed for amateur dancers. Olivier Dubois’ choreography catapults them into a frenzied, endless run. Led by dancers from the company, they run toward an absolute... happiness. Swept up in the momentum, carried by the power of electronic music, they strive to break free from gravity — reaching for flight!
Driven by the force of being together.