Gare centrale [transmission 2025]

A choreographic extract remodelled by the group Densité, coordinator Monique Martin, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme 2024/2025 (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

Transmission Lola Cougard, performer of the piece when it was created.

Presented on 14 June 2025, La Comédie of Clermont-Ferrand.

The piece when it was created

Gare centrale

Firstly produced 4 November 2010 at the Théâtre de Bourg-en-Bresse

Choreography: Josette Baïz

Piece for 12 performers: Pierre Boileau, Félix Heaulme, Julie Yousef, Kader Mahammed, Kanto Andrianoely, Kim Evin, Lola Cougard, Michaël Jaume, Mylène Lamugnière, Nordine Belmekki, Sinath Ouk, Stéphanie Vial

Music: Jean-Sébastien Bach

Original music and background: Jean-Jacques Palix

Original duration: 60 minutes

The group

Densité (Albi, Occitanie)

Based in Albi (Tarn), this association, which has a studio at in the gymnasium of the Collège Balzac for regular weekly contemporary dance practice, brings together 14 people aged 44 to 71. With varied professional backgrounds, some of the performers are teachers, others specialized educators or physiotherapists. All share a passion for contemporary dance, nurtured by parallel classes in classical ballet, jazz or tango. Led by Monique Martin, the troupe also takes part in workshops and courses, and each year helps organize a dance festival in the streets of Albi. This is the first time the group has taken part in the Danse en amateur et répertoire programme.

The project

The choice of five excerpts from the piece Gare centrale, created in 2010 by Josette Baïz, is rooted in the need to resonate with the association’s values. In other words, to showcase contemporary dance that is generously accessible to everyone. Performable both on stage and outdoors, Gare centrale, set to music by Bach and contemporary composer Jean-Jacques Palix, brings together, according to choreographer, “12 human beings in transit who express themselves, revealing their states of mind and their inner madness”. The question of the collective and the individual, of human relationships, is naturally embodied in energetic movement carried by different bodies. A key element for Densité’s performers of all ages and sizes.

Danse en amateur et répertoire is a program of financial support and coaching for groups of amateur dancers. It provides a space for those wishing to deepen their knowledge and practice of dance and its history. 

Laurent Barré
Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
+33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr 

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme