Julie Desprairies

Julie Desprairies is a renowned French choreographer and architect who lives in Paris and works with her company in Lyon. Julie creates participatory choreographic projects for architectural structures. Based on a detailed study of the site and the architect's intentions, she makes the dancers explore the properties of the space with their bodies – often including users and inhabitants of the spaces. Her creations are of varying scales and can be for a building, a neighbourhood, a city or a landscape. These creations take different forms, from performances and shows, to films and exhibitions, as well as radio broadcasts. Julie has for instance made a film in La Villeneuve de Grenoble, where 80 school children, residents, shopkeepers and people who visit the neighbourhood were the performers. She has also made a play, Paris à l'infini (la danse), for 200 municipal employees in Paris that was shown all night at the Nuit Blanche festival. To Julie it is a question of making the movement of places visible. Julie is a professor at the Paris-Malaquais School of Architecture. She is also the author of two books on choreography and dance.

Artist website
Photo: Alexandra de Laminne