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Compagnie Julie DOSSAVI (France/Benin/Mali)
Of Benin/West African descent and born in Toulon, France in 1968, Julie Dossavi grew up in Brest, yet another harbour city, where she studied jazz dance. In 1990 she completed a degree in Physical and Sports Education, majoring in dance. She was then accepted to the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, and joined dance company Jean-François Duroure.
In 1992, she was dancer, assistant and coach at the opening ceremony of the Albertville Olympic Winter Games, under the direction of Philippe Decouflé, before choreographing, the following year, her first solo piece.
Parallel to her evolvement in the contemporary dance scene, she has promoted the voguing trend in nightclubs, taken part in music videos, jingles and fashion shows in addition to dancing for the French/German public television channel Arte.
Her collaboration with Gérard Gourdot in the company Les Géographes was launched in 1995 along with their son Marcus. The following period abounded in experiences, performances and creations. Two of these shows, in which she dances as a soloist, continue to be performed throughout France and abroad.
She has performed with Cie Salia nï Seydou from Burkina Faso, supervised contemporary dance at the Cairo Opera in Egypt, led workshops in Cameroon, in London (Afro-Caribbean Hip-hop), in Marrakech and at the 2nd African Contemporary Dance Meetings in Angola, which featured choreographers from ten African countries.
In 2003, she was invited to Bangui and Tchad to lead dance workshops. She then took on the artistic direction of two projects, P.I.and Agbazémé which had its world premiere in September 06 and set up her own company in Poitiers, France and now also in residence at the nearby Theatre/Scène Nationale in Angoulème.
In 2004, Compagnie Julie DOSSAVI created P.I (Pays) ou Présentations intimes in Châteauvallon, France which she presented as a showcase at City Center Theater as part of the APAP 07 Conference in New York City. It was performed twice in the USA including on a 3-week long West coast tour with a week engagement at RedCat/Los Angeles and in the South East during November 09 with stops in Miami, Austin and Baton Rouge. Her latest projects, entitled Clubbing in which she explores the world of the night and Grand Father doesn;t like the Swing, a mixed media duo which celebrates electro music and traditional West African rhythms with black & white photography, have been touring all over France including for a 3-week long presentation at the renown Festival d'Avignon during July 2011.
As guest artist for the cultural event Le Vif du Sujet, Julie Dossavi commissioned Daniel Larrieu to write her a solo piece, A chaque vent le papillon se déplace sur le saule, presented in France at the Montpellier Danse and at Paris’ Quartier d’été Festivals.
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