CV

Philippe Combes worked from 1986 to 2001 with Joseph Russillo, Régine Chopinot, and Angelin Preljocaj, interpreting their most famous pieces. 

In 1999, he composed « La balade des acolytes », a trio for a woman and two men.  This first piece is a mise-en-scène interrogating the individuals’ independence and interdependence when they are trapped among themselves.

After this first work, he began a gestural research with Cave Canem, a work group set up in 2000, to serve a universe which draws its sources within questions of togetherness.  This work was born from the desire to ponder, on a long term basis, the positioning of the individual within a group through the development of a personal universe. 

This dynamics grants the artistic process a particular understanding because each reference theme can foster a number of proposals making a cycle.  Such is the case of the Greek myth of the Minotaur, four times explored with the following pieces: « Minotaure » in 2000, « Asterios » and « Minotaur-Ex » (a short film in collaboration with director Bruno Aveillan), and « Sur les traces… » in 2002.  This investigation, purposefully stretched in time, allows him to consider, each time in a different way, a discourse which takes shape in distinct spaces and media, different in each piece.

In 2003 he participates in dance workshops proposed by Susan Buirge to the Royaumont’s Foundation. This first meeting is important in Philippe Combes's career because Susan Buirge asks the question of the interpretation of the movement. Between constructed dance and stated dance, which are the concepts necessary to the abstraction while allowing the individual to fully exist in his singularity.

Since 2003, his artistic research has been fueled by the mise-en-scène of every individual responsibility within a group.  This reflection is carried by « L-Dopa », a duo in 2003, « Magma », a project for five dancers in 2004, and « X », a 2005 moving project aimed at specific locations.

2006, year of second workshops with Susan Buirge, « Dromos » will be the beginning of a new cycle centred on the image of body . This solo using multimedia will include an original composition from the video director Cécile Babiole.