Viadanse, centre chorégraphique national de Bourgogne Franche-Comté à Belfort

In 1995, architect Bernard Reichen and the Reichen et Robert firm rehabilitated the Caserne de l’Espérance within a supportive political climate, in order to, in time, turn it into a National Choreographic Centre. The first two co-directors were Odile Duboc, who worked on the representation of bodies in space, and Françoise Michel, who worked with light. The team utilised an empty area between two barracks, taking advantage of its unique ergonomics, to create a remarkable space for research and creation. After an interim period with Laurent Vinauger, Joanne Leighton took over from 2010 to 2015, and affected the inhabitants and the region with her large-scale, participatory project Les Veilleurs.

In 2015, Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux were appointed as directors, while they were still co-directors of the CCN de Caen. Their positions were secured thanks to a cross-border project based on the free movement of artists and imaginary worlds, in collaboration with the Les SUDS festival and neighbouring Switzerland.

Within the framework of themes promoted by the CCN label, each management team has explored this geographic question of the “three-border heart of Europe”. Managing this artistic creation tool that is near the Alsace region in France, Germany and Switzerland, seems to be the first step to understanding what makes this place special. The CCN has also always included a Pôle de Ressources Pour l’Éducation Artistique et Culturelle (PREAC, Resource Centre for Artistic and Cultural Education). Fattoumi and Lamoureux continued to develop this crucial entity by establishing a successful relationship with a representative from “the other dance label”, the Dancing CDCN Dijon Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

Although their mission at the CCN is not to disseminate artistic creations, the two directors still subscribed to the idea that choreographic works must meet audiences. This is why they launched VIAREZO, a network designed to improve production consistency as well as the visibility of artists in the regional residency programme. In 2022, VIAREZO became TOUR de DANSE. It aims to create a network of “dissemination residencies” in eight partner locations within the region’s eight departments The artistic teams stay for a week in these locations, before bringing their creation in front of the public. In the medium term, the objective is to encourage companies to settle for good in this vast region, turning the CCN label into a lever for regional development.