In January 2023, the Fondation des Etats Unis had the pleasure of hosting a DbD (Doing by Doing) Workshop for high school students directed by Nathalie Broizat, director and choreographer of the company Love Labo, with assistance from Alexandre Bibia, a dancer for the company. Love Labo, a company in residency at the FEU, held the workshop as part of the program Dix Mois d’Ecole et d’Opera run by the Academie de l’Opera National de Paris in partnership with the Rectorat de Versailles, Danse Dense, and the FEU. High school students in the commercial employee training program at the lycée des métiers Jean Mermoz in Monsoult (95) had the opportunity to partake in this performance art workshop, allowing them to discover new modes of artistic expression over the course of several days of joyful creation in the idyllic setting of our Grand Salon.
These ephemeral moments will be precious moments that stay with them (…) these will be enduring memories from their time in high school. And what’s more, it’s a change of scenery! A radical departure from the rules of their daily life at school: there’s no question of success, no judgment, no evaluation, no objectives, no final exams, simply living in the moment as part of a collective performance, having fun, playing.
— Hervé Cochet, Académie / Dix mois d’École et d’Opéra.
© Elsa Laurent/Onp
A special partnership between l’Education Nationale – the Rectorats de Paris and Versailles – and the Opera National de Paris since 1991, Dix Mois d’Ecole et d’Opera is an ambitious program aimed at students coming from underprivileged communities who do not have easy access to certain kinds of art and culture. Dix mois d’ecole et d’Opera offers numerous schools the possibility to create unique two-year educational programs that contribute to student success and equal opportunity. The program is founded on the principle of access to the rights of citizenship and serves as a vehicle for the social freedom and integration of all students involved.
© Elsa Laurent/Onp
The company Love Labo has been in residence at the FEU since 2015. Each year, Nathalie Broizat directs up to three DbD Workshops: an intensive weekend of 23 hours of spontaneous creation practice, combining performance, dance and experimental theater, created by the celebrated interdisciplinary performance artist Rachel Rosenthal in Los Angeles. Nathalie Broizat worked with Rosenthal for over five years. The DbD workshop is open to actors, dancers, and artists of all disciplines, regardless of their level of experience. The format of the workshop, given its density of activity and its intensity, creates a space for development and imagination, in which artistic rigor and technical training serve as a springboard for euphoric creation.
Following this special edition for high school students, Nathalie Broizat will offer a special DbD Workshop, open to students from all artistic disciplines who live in the Cité international universitaire de Paris campus, at the start of the 2023 school year. This workshop will have a thematic link with Bonheur, Love Labo’s current piece in progress.