Based on his experience as a ‘b-boy’ and hip-hop and contemporary dance performer, Benoît Nieto Duran is looking for a new natural geometry, like a raw material to be reshaped. By deconstructing the gestures of break-dance, he delivers — like a Proteus — a solitary battle where inversions, proportions and contortions track down the breach between ugliness and beauty.
His new solo work, Protéiforme, questions the expression of ugliness, more linked to individuality, in counterpoint with the idea of beauty, which would be in essence the quest for an ideal. The proposition is to take rough movement as a starting point.
During the artistic residency at the Festival Materiais Diversos (29 sep. – 8 oct.) , Benoît intends to relaunch a creative process focused on the precision of choreographic writing, as well as to immerse himself in the different states of the body already present in his solo and develop new ones. As part of the residency, he will lead a workshop for the advanced level students at the Alcanena Dance Studio.
Protéïforme
Benoît Nieto Duran
Benoît Nieto Duran trained in break-dance from an early age, joining the OPB group in 2006, with which he represented Belgium throughout the world in competitions (battles). After winning numerous group and solo titles, such as the "2011 Best Belgian B-boy award”, he became interested in art and contemporary dance, which led him to develop a method of working and researching atypical movement characterised by an ‘animal’ style. In the past few years, he’s been carrying out personal research on the natural geometry of his body and his physical and creative abilities to find different postures, as well as meticulously dissecting the paths that the body must take to arrive at or leave a posture.
Benoît has worked with many artists and companies and is inclined to partnerships and the crossing of artistic universes. Among many others, he collaborated with the Royal Opera of Wallonia, the company Okus Lab, under the choreographic direction of Gianni Santucci, as well as with choreographer and performer Nino Patuano. He is currently collaborating both as an interpreter and as an outside eye with the Company Abis, directed by Julien Carlier, and working as an interpreter in Tender Men, under the direction of Koen De Preter.
In 2019, he created the Manima Dance Company.
Benoît has worked with many artists and companies and is inclined to partnerships and the crossing of artistic universes. Among many others, he collaborated with the Royal Opera of Wallonia, the company Okus Lab, under the choreographic direction of Gianni Santucci, as well as with choreographer and performer Nino Patuano. He is currently collaborating both as an interpreter and as an outside eye with the Company Abis, directed by Julien Carlier, and working as an interpreter in Tender Men, under the direction of Koen De Preter.
In 2019, he created the Manima Dance Company.
© Fabio Neo Amato
Partner Grand Studio