Mr. Aymar Crosnier, deputy director of Centre National de la Danse (CND), paid TNUA a visit to TNUA’s School of Dance on August 23, meeting with its dean, Prof. Wang Yunyu, as well as Prof. Zhang Xiao-Xiong, chairman of the Graduate Institute of Dance Performance and Choreography, and others. 

Mr. Crosnier also extended an invitation to TNUA dance students to take part in Camping 2018, the CND-organized dance festival next year.

Inspired by its director Mathilde Monnier, who saw a lack of an international platform for cross-boundary and cross-generation exchange, CND turned itself into a performance space by launching the annual Camping dance festival in 2015.

Camping is an international workshop platform – a unique experience in Europe involving meetings with artists from the international dance scene. It is also open to artists from other fields, encouraging cross-boundary exchange in a rethink of the meaning of boundaries. It is an artistic camp where students from top dance schools and other artistic fields spend 15 days together in close interaction in a bid to create a new dance experience.

Mr. Crosnier pointed out that Camping 2017 gathered together 150 students from 20 schools worldwide, including Ecole nationale superieure des beaux-arts de Paris, Danish National School of Performing Arts, ICI-CCN, Conservatoire national superieur musique et danse de Lyon (CNSMDL), Ecole nationale superieure d’architecture de Nantes, Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse de Paris (CNSMDP), Ochanomizu University, Universite Paris 8, and School for New Dance Development (SNDO).

Camping 2017 also featured more than 250 artists who created works on site during the event.

During the 2017 event, students had to arrange their classes for the morning sessions. Different schools also made use of various spaces at CND to set up 16 workshops, with their student representatives demonstrating their respective schools’ characteristics or ongoing projects. Through their demonstrations, visitors and fellow participants of the event could gain better understanding of their schools. 

Mr. Crosnier said the students’ performances were a kind of “artistic occupation” where dance intervened and turned CND from a research organization into a venue for performances.

He said the tight schedule of the event put quite a lot pressure on the students, but it also gave them a chance to shine. Some participants also found the directions for their future plans.

Mr. Crosnier said he looks forward to TNUA sending its dance students to Camping 2018.

During his visit, Mr. Crosnier previewed a work in progress by TNUA’s Focus Dance Company, as well as a rehearsal by other Department of Dance students. 

Caption: Mr. Aymar Crosnier, deputy director of Centre National de la Danse (CND), visits the School of Dance.