Take heart. In 2025, in addition to the 500 new pedestrian streets and new tree plantings announced by her really excellent Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Atelier de Paris’ dance performance festival June Events 2025 will come, not to bury, but to celebrate, diversity, inclusion and respect for our shared planet. Due perhaps to a rough and rather too-lengthy entry into the Age of Aquarius, June Events starts this year on 2 and ends on 20 June 2025.
Both an opportunity to learn about and to support new and emerging artists and a reminder how liberal theory works concretely to supply a better world than the Hobbesian Scientism of Vladimir Putin Corp.’s faux traditionalism. So, whether you’re proudly woke, like me, or just love dance performance, like me, this year’s June Events is, on a couple of heads, a cream-jeans event and worth planning a Paris visit around.
The 2025 festival keeps up its tradition of including international artists. Featured artists this year hail from Brazil, Québec, Tunisia, Switzerland, Belgium and Australia, as well as France, and include among them many past collaborators, invited to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the founding of the Atelier de Paris at the Cartoucherieperforming arts complex in the Bois de Vincennes.
Many of the featured choreographers and performers – just off the cuff, Rebecca Journo, Nina Santes, Liz Santoro & Pierre Godard and Marie-Caroline Hominal – have figured over the years in my public essays or whose work has been, like Ikue Nakagawa with her mannekins, or Rémy Héritier and his work with space and place, in my good books. There is a wealth of performance forms on offer: creations and premières, solos, duos, trios, quartets… even a fifty-strong group, all embodying the broader themes of diversity, inclusion and our shared planet – I hope to write more about these concepts as they apply to dance performance before and during the festival.
Venues include new and historic developers of emerging movement art north of the Seine and east of Châtelet, including Carreau du Temple, Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles Paris, Ménagerie de Verre, Théâtre de la Bastille and, at the Cartoucherie, the Théâtre de l’Aquarium and, of course, the Atelier de Paris.
Since 1970, the Cartoucherie, a reconverted small-arms ammunition factory, has been home to Ariane Mnouchkine’s still very much politically-engaged, and collaboratively-organized, Théâtre du Soleil, as well as of three other quality, innovative theaters (Théâtre de l’Epée de Bois, Théâtre de la Tempête and Théâtre de l’Aquarium). And since American-born Carolyn Carlson brought in her contemporary dance troupe in1999, the place has been home to the founder and sponsor of June Events, Atelier de Paris/CDNC, one of 15 national centers for dance development.
It is not far-fetched to think that supporting dance performance culture and enjoying the offer and environment of June Events this year can be a quiet affirmation of the concrete achievements of the liberal, woke, order. Consider, the way we treat children today: “Ulysse” – Josette Baïz and the gifts of today’s un-classic ballet. Consider also that in addition to its missions of encouraging the culture of movement arts and bringing contemporary dance to the broadest audience, Atelier de Paris has a special commitment to hearing-impaired and sign language-using artists and publics.
Any way you look at it, June Events 2025 is worth a ticket.
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Artists and performances, June Events 2 - 20 June 2025
Candice Martel, “Électro-tap”, duo, creation 2025 ; Liz Santoro & Pierre Godard, “Mutual Information”, duo, creation 2021; Rebecca Journo, “Les amours de la pieuvre”, quatuor, creation 2024; Rosalind Crisp, “Performance” (provisional title), trio, creation 2025; Nina Santes, “Chansons mouillées”, solo, creation 2025; Marie-Caroline Hominal, “Numéro 0: scène III”, triskaideket (long dozen or 13), creation 2025; Dilo Paulo, “Ekesa Sando”, solo, creation 2024; Puma Camillê, “En rythme de résistance”, quatuor, creation 2025; Jessica Teixera, “Monga”, solo, creation 2024; Manuel Roque, “Le Vent se lève”, solo, creation 2024; Geisha Fontaine & Pierre Cottreau, “Mille et une danses”, for fifty non-professional performers, creation 2025, première; Joanne Leighton, “The Gathering”, decadet (ten), creation 2025; Louise Vanneste, “Mossy Eye Moor”, quintet, creation 2025; Rémy Héritier, “Un monde reel”, duo, creation 2025; Jeanne Brouaye, (M)other, quintet, creation 2025, première; Ikue Nakagawa; “Kuroko”, solo, creation 2025; Mohamed Issaoui, “Ommi Sissi”, solo; creation 2024; Gilles Clément & Christian Ubl, “Vagabondages et Conversations”, duo, creation 2025
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