Festival Montpellier Danse is a landmark in the dance field. Founded in 1981 by Dominique Bagouet, it was directed by Jean-Paul Montanari from 1983 to 2024, the year it merged with the National Choreographic Centre of Montpellier and changed directorship to its current quartet: Jann Gallois, Dominique Hervieu, Pierre Martinez and Hofesh Shechter.
This year, the 46th edition and the first fully programmed under the new model, seven francophone Springback writers were present from 25–28 June as part of a ‘Critical Reflections’ initiative: Callysta Croizer, Gaia Clotilde Chernetich, Dom Czapski, Oonagh Duckworth and Marie Pons supported by Agora, Cité Internationale de la Danse, plus Laura Cappelle for CND Magazine (France) and Sanjoy Roy for The Guardian (UK).
Below are the written outcomes for Springback – in our different voices, styles and approaches, giving a multifaceted view of the festival.
Bonne lecture!
Related links
- Sanjoy Roy’s text in The Guardian
- Laura Cappelle’s text for CND Magazine will be published in autumn 2026
- Springback coverage of Montpellier Danse in 2024 and 2025
Montpellier Danse 2026 Collection
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Abby Z and the New Utility: Radioactive Practice
Bouts of brutal activity. Why? Because. But why? Because because.
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Attention please!
Does dance capture our attention or choreograph it – and how do we choose to give it?
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Éric Minh Cuong Castaing, Aloun Marchal, Marine Relinger: Vision
Blurring the outlines between acting, participating and watching, this event brings senses other than sight to the fore
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Héla Fattoumi: Twama Paradise
A kind of sisterhood between figures who are both linked and separated by their stories
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Is anyone listening?
Is fear of music preventing us from talking about it, or even listening to it, in relation to dance?
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Lisbeth Gruwez & Maarten Van Cauwenberghe: Tempest
Anger erupts through the abstract, in a choreography of movement, scenography and sound
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Montpellier Danse: Then and now, and now again
Montpellier Danse brings personal memories that revive the past, mark changing times, and return to the present
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Montpellier Danse: Where choreographers have (hi)stories
How artists presented, represented and storified the self at Montpellier
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Olga de Soto: Une introduction (revisitée)
Making a historic dance alive and present, without live dancers
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Zoé Lakhtani: This is la mort
A knight in armour transmogrifies into all manner of figures in a flipbook of iconography
