Compagnie Jean-Claude Gallotta

Since the early 1980s, the choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta has imposed himself as a pioneer of the so-called Nouvelle Danse Française. With Mathilde Altaraz, he created the Groupe Émile Dubois in Grenoble. Gallotta directed one of the first “National Choreographic Center” from 1984 to 2015.
He invents a playful and energetic dance, with a rich and complex construction, allowing his dancers to show their talent of improvisation and their performance qualities. He gained international recognition with his first main piece Ulysses (1981), a now emblematic “ballet blanc” that plays with the codes of classical dance Jean-Claude Gallotta’s repertoire is currently offering almost a hundred choreographies including major works, some becoming references: Daphnis é Chloé, Hommage à Yves P, Mammame, Docteur Labus, Trois Générations, Le Sacre du Printemps, L’Homme à tête de chou, My Rock, My Ladies Rock… up toLe Jour se rêve and Pénélope. The choreographer also uses literature as a source of inspiration with: Les larmes de Marco Polo, Presque Don Quichotte, L’Étranger, Comme un trio based on Bonjour Tristesse…
Since 2015, he has been an associate author with the Théâtre du Rond Point, in Paris. The Groupe Émile Dubois is hosted by MC2: Grenoble.

The Company Jean-Claude Gallotta opened its season with performances in Romania to present My Ladies Rock. After a postponement due to the pandemic, the Romanian public gave them a very warm welcome.
In response to the re-creation of the company’s famous white ballet Ulysses, Jean-Claude Gallotta chose this season to create Penelope, a black ballet centred on this female mythological figure. The piece, which aims to offer a more egalitarian vision of Homer’s myth, was presented on 11 October 2022 in Épinal, then tours from 13 to 22 January 2023 at Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris and in the rest of France and Luxembourg.
Jean-Claude Gallotta will continue his collaboration with Scènes Vosges in Épinal as an associate artist. Within this framework, various activities will be organised and offered to the public.

“Jean-Claude Gallotta’s choreographic style is unmistakable, made up of leaps and bounds and lively gestures that seem to stop in mid-air.”

Delphine Goater, Resmusica

”Jean-Claude Gallotta remains an elf. The choreographer may well be 71 years old, but he remains in what his dramaturge, Claude Henri Buffard, calls «playful abstraction». An aesthetic-humanist tendency that has made him a great success.”

Ariane Bavelier, Le Figaro