LOOP network

origins

In 2014, following the invitation of the dance section of the Ministry of Culture and as part of La Belle Saison, Le Gymnase CDCN, in association with La Manufacture CDCN Bordeaux – Nouvelle Aquitaine, implemented for the first time an artistic and choreographic production intended for young audiences. It was called Au pied de la lettre. The project commissioned choreographers who had little experience of young audiences, and who were from different generations and aesthetic backgrounds, to produce two short 20‑minute pieces to be presented in the same programme. These two pieces, created for the same performers, could take their inspiration from any kind of writing of.
There were two parts to it:
· Au pied de la lettre #1 (February 2015): Anne Nguyen and Michel Schweizer
· Au pied de la lettre #2 (January 2016): Ambra Senatore and Loïc Touzé

An initial network was formed, centred on this project and made up of partners, coproducers and distributors involved and interested in developing together a project of creation and mediation around the question of dance for young audiences.
After this project, Le Gymnase CDCN followed through with this idea and in 2016 set up the first professional network for dance and young audiences called LOOP.

AIMS

The network is open to anyone who has responsibility for venues and programming and is interested in this specific issue. It is intended to be a place for exchanging and sharing ideas about dance for young audiences, where they can talk very freely about creation for dance and young people and about all the initiatives being undertaken in this area.

The missions of the network are also:
· support for projects (coproduction or dissemination), implementation by commissioning choreographers
· mediation and training on the subject of dance for young audiences
· identification of contacts abroad and international networking

After Au pied de la lettre, an other dance project for youth audiences, TWICE, is launched. Each choreographer is invited to create a short 20‑minute piece and presented in a same programme, open to 6 years olds.
· TWICE #1 (February 2019) : Emmanuel Eggermont and Robyn Orlin
· TWICE #2 (November 2020) : Aïcha M’Barek & Hafiz Dhaou and Alexander Vantournhout

For 2022, Le Gymnase and the LOOP network have devised a new commissioning project focused on very young children : Les mouvements minuscules (tiny movements). The first composition in Les mouvements minus-cules series, a piece called Le petit B created by the choreographer Marion Muzac, premiered in november 2022.