Alain Buffard has left us today. The world of dance and contemporary creation is in mourning. An immense poet on the stage, a dancer, choreographer and director, he has constantly challenged his audiences and questioned our view of the human being.
A committed artist and insatiable defender of freedoms, Alain Buffard knew how to invite us to reflect on our status as men and our relationship with each other, through his works, which are both fragile and strong, violent and delicate, always meaningful.
Each piece by Alain Buffard breaks with the usual codes of dance and propels us into innovative plastic and theatrical devices, outside the usual standards of the stage, allowing us to share his questions and his social thought.
Born in the Jura in 1960, Alain Buffard met contemporary dance in 1978 with Alwin Nikolaïs at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (CNDC) in Angers. A performer, notably by Daniel Larrieu and Régine Chopinot, he also has a critical eye on the visual arts.
Two decisive meetings will mark his career: Yvonne Rainer and Anna Halprin, with whom he works as a laureate of the "Villa Medici - outside the walls" – and confirm him as an exceptional creator, transcending artistic forms, between dance, theatre and performance.
Identified as an emblematic choreographer of a contemporary French dance freed in the 1990s, Alain Buffard was a passer-by, passionate about what dance can say and transmit. The works that Alain Buffard has created, about fifteen, have been presented on many stages around the world. His latest creation Baron Samedi, that questions postcolonial consciences in a production as lyrical as emancipated, is currently on tour and should be presented in New York and Seattle next spring.
My thoughts are with his family, his loved ones and all those who have been and are still involved in his creations.