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Isis Rises Operetta – Production Team
Meet The Production Team
Creator and Producer: Moustafa Gadalla
Artistic Director: Manon Bastardie
“I was born in 1995 in France. I started dancing at the age of 4 and joined the National Superior dance school of Marseille at 13, where I studied there for three years before joining the VM Ballet in Toulouse. In 2015, I obtained my first contract with the National Ballet of Marseille under the direction of Emio Greco and Peter Scholten. I will dance there for two years and will be able to interpret the roles of corps de ballet and soloist in the creations of Emio Greco and Jeroen Verbruggen (the corps du ballet national de Marseille, extremism, momentum, bolero, pointless). Then, I decided to join the Compagnie Illicite Bayonne and had the opportunity to collaborate with many international choreographers such as Nils Christ, Douglas Lee, Miguel Ramalho and Fabio Lopez. I will also dance in star galas alongside the principal dancers of major European companies. In September 2020, after months of confinement and reflection but also after 6 years traveling the stages of France and all of Europe, I decided to put aside my career as a dancer, already very fulfilled, to devote myself to the choreography.
Concerned about my art, I want above all to give it back its value. Today, dance is too little known for its qualities of expression and sharing. With choreographic creations I want to show the public that in these difficult times our society is going through, unity remains the best way forward. It is still possible to work together thanks to different skills, different backgrounds and different careers. Multidisciplinary is our best ally in advancing the artistic and cultural world. My wish is also to restore culture and its means of communication so the latter allows encounters, unity, harmony with the world around us. I am part of a coalition process for the dance community in all its genres.
In my eyes, dance is not only movement or aesthetics, dance is also about expressing oneself, giving emotions. She brings to choreographers an infinite work around the body since each dancer is different and each movement projects a different sensibility. To be a choreographer is therefore to be in search of renewal through a tool offering an inexhaustible range of research.
My main mission is then to offer emotions, to transmit them but also to receive them since being a choreographer means sharing with your dancers but also with your audience what you want to express. As a choreographer, today I want to be able to choreograph, stage, but above all transcribe stories, moments of life. For me, it is important to give myself new challenges and not to stay in an “easy” or at least comfortable daily routine, out of habit. I am a person who needs renewal, who is ready to take up many challenges, always in accordance with my values. I never embark on a project without knowing the details, and without being sure of being able to live up to it. I think that also makes me a reliable person and artistic director.”
Assistant Artistic Director : Elodie Rabier
“I was born in 1986 in France. I started ballet class at the age of 6 , it became more serious for me at 14 when I entered Ecole Nationale Superieure de Marseille .The more I was dancing the more I liked it, i was not good at exposing my feelings and emotions and I think dancing was my way to do it, it seems to be the only way to really be myself, as well in telling a story in a ballet of repertoire or through abstracts works and letting my body express itself. Even if I just dance occasionally now that I’m a teacher, it’s always the same pleasure and I hope I can bring it to all my students.”
Isis performed by Emma Jones
“I was born in 1998 and I grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. I started ballet when I was 4 years old with the Linda Lowry School of ballet and although it did not come naturally to me at first I loved the challenge and discipline of it. Throughout my childhood I continued ballet then started doing some tap and jazz. I later joined the Scottish Ballet Senior Associates Program where I trained every Saturday for 3 years.
When I was 14 I decided I wanted to pursue dance as a career and in 2015 got accepted to Kate Simmons Dance Ltd, where I trained for 4 years in classical and contemporary as well as many other styles. I was also given the opportunity to tour with the Allegro Dance Touring Company. After graduating from school I trained with Matrix Mandala Dance Company in Italy specializing in contemporary dance. In 2020 I was lucky enough to be accepted into the B&M2 Junior Compagnie. I then worked with Edinburgh Festival Ballet under the direction Peter Schaufuss in their 2021 tour of the Nutcracker in Denmark as well as in their production of Hamlet in the Edinburgh Fringe. In September 2022, I joined the B&M Compagnie where I am very grateful I get to do what I love everyday.
Dance for me has always been so important, I was a very shy child and dance gave me a way to express myself and helped me become more confident. When I am on stage I feel free, no matter how I am feeling, when I am performing I am happy. Any emotion or feeling in life I use in my performance gives me a release and allows me to communicate the emotions.
All the hard work and time was worth it, now I just get to enjoy it.
I think one of the most beautiful things about dance is that you can feel a connection and communicate with anyone through dance. I have experienced this personally from living in Italy and France where I did not understand or speak the language but could use dance to build relationships with the other dancers. No matter where in the world you are or where you are from you can tell a story through dance and connect with the audience.”
Osiris performed by Matteo Castelletta
“I was born in 2002 in Novara, Italy. I started dancing at the age of 5 when my mother opened a dance school in my city. Together with dancing my mother decided to bring me to do gymnastic at the age of 6. I grew up for most of my childhood by doing gymnastic and dance at the same time until I decided to pursue with the career of dance.
In 2018 I was admitted for the Bachelor program in the Palucca University for Dance in Dresden Germany, where I graduated in 2021. After graduating I obtain my first contract as an apprentice in Bühnen Bern (Bern Ballet) in Switzerland. After one year in Bern, I started to do project in Spain with Metamorphosis Dance and Teatro Real Madrid. Later I joined the company of B&M in Biarritz, France.
For me to explain what is dance is not very easy, because dance has always been in my life and in all my family. Dance was always there from where I woke up in the morning until I went to sleep at night, so I can basically say that dance is my life, it has always been a point of support for me. When you go on stage there is a magic happening, when from the backstage you step on stage, this is one of the most amazing and scary feeling that you can experience in your life, from when you are in the back that you are so nervous trying one step after the other to not make any mistakes to when you take your first stage and your tension goes down and you feel your body all moving by itself, I think this what I most enjoy about dance and my career.”
Female Dancers
Caroline Powell
“I was born in 2003 in the United States. I trained privately with my coach in Dallas, prima ballerina Olga Pavlova before graduating at Colorado ballet’s pre professional division school with the director’s scholarship. Before starting B&M2, I was previously working back in my home of Dallas for Pegasus Contemporary Ballet’s inaugural season as their apprentice.
There are so many reasons why I came to dance and why I continue to dance. Dance and performance is a challenge. We all strive for perfection, although never truly achieved, and the work to get there is so difficult yet so rewarding. The constant finesse is always something that has attracted me to the art, from such a young age. There is always something to be improved upon, always work to be done. There is also something so freeing about dance. It makes you express emotions you can’t with words. The ability to be able to say what one feels without using words is a powerful thing. Every person has been through different experiences, which creates different humans, this also applies to dancers. No two dancers are the same. Just to discover who you are as a dancer as well as a human is so rewarding, and to dance with other people who are different but to create something together as one team, is something special. Everyone is individual, but working together and creating and moving in unison is a beautiful thing to see and feel. The work and the rewards are both things in the movement and performance art that is dance, is why I love it and why it means so much to me. Everything I do for life ties into dance.”
Phillippine Duval
“I was born in 2006 in France. I started dancing at the age of 5, in a school near my home (Véronique Danse), so I practiced classical dance, jazz, contemporary, tap and hip-hop. In 2019, I joined the School of Ballet De Biarritz where I was also able to discover the Graham style and the pas de deux. I am continuing my journey by joining the B&M2 Junior Compagnie this year.
For me, dance means freedom of expression for everyone. It is also a certain way of growing, observing and learning different things. Dancing also means the fact that everyone can adopt a choreography with their experience or even their story.”
Marie-Adèle Muscat
“I was born in 2004 in France. I started dancing at the age of 6 in Toulouse where I am from. In 2019 I joined the Biarritz ballet school until last year. Since September 2022, I have been continuing my training within the B&M2 junior company.
When I discovered dance, it was first a way for me to channel my energy. Thereafter being quite shy I understood that this one could allow me to express the things that I could not say by word. In our generation where we have to conform to standards, art allows me a parenthesis of denunciation whose interpretation is free for everyone as well as a means of escaping for a moment. It’s a form of freedom since there isn’t just one way to do things, but precisely to find your own way of realizing yourself and interpreting things.”
Kimberley Dorrzapf
“I was born in the year 2000 in England, my mother is French and my father German. I started classical dance at the age of 5 then I studied modern dance in England. I dreamed of being on stage after attending a performance by the Royal Ballet’s Bayadère. I went to Paris when I was 19 for a pre-professional classical and contemporary dance training for 3 years. I specialized in the style of Balanchine and I discovered more the neoclassical side of the dance and the technique of Graham which I love.
Now I am in Manon Bastardie’s B&M2 junior company where I continue to develop as a dancer and am grateful for these magical stage experiences and innovative choreographies.
I find that dancing is the most beautiful way to communicate. It can connect us all. Artistic expression in all its forms connects our humanity and allows us to express all our facets. I like to convey strong emotions and messages, give of myself and radiate outside to impact the public.”
Manon Pedeboscq
“I was born in 2001 in Dax in the South West of France.
I started dancing in 2004 in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax at the Corps et Graphia studio, where I practiced classical, contemporary and Modern Jazz.
In 2008, I joined the slippers and company dance school in Rion-des-Landes in order to have more hours of dancing per week.
In 2015, I joined the Carole Massoutié training center in Toulouse to follow a pre-professional course in flexible hours in several disciplines. I had the chance to work with various renowned teachers and professional dancers.
For 4 years, I carried out my schooling and my dance course at the same time until I obtained my baccalaureate.
In 2019, I joined the B&M2 Junior company of Manon Bastardie in Biarritz.
One year later, Manon Bastardie offered me an intern contract in her professional company, and I signed my 1st contract with the B&M company in 2021.
I had the chance to work in the company Illicite in Bayonne during the 2021/2022 season for a few shows.
Dance means so much to me. It is my place of refuge of expression and freedom. When I dance, I am another version of myself.
I can express everything I feel the way I want, without feeling judged. I live the dance through the movement, the music, the place by immersing myself in its energy, without forgetting that released by the public. There is a quote from a French poet and writer André Suarès who says: Art is the place of perfect freedom”. This one perfectly describes what dance is for me.
Each show represents a discharge of happiness. When the curtain opens, the stress is still present but it only takes a few minutes for my bubble of energy to mingle with those of the other dancers with whom I share the stage and we form one and the same person.
The music that resonates in my body, the heat of the spotlights and the energy of the public take me to another world. I no longer think, I no longer think, I am carried away in a whirlwind of adrenaline, happiness and strong emotions. The scene represents for me a kind of therapy.
At the end of each show, I feel both drained but so much lighter. There is still a hint of nostalgia, but this one is very positive and it fills me with happiness.”
Grace Jenner
“I was born in 1998 in the south of England and was drawn to dance from a very young age. I began dancing aged 3 at the Hilary Marston School of Ballet and Haslemere Performing Arts, and later joined the London Studio Centre Associates where I studied a range of dance styles. In 2016 I chose to focus on classical and contemporary dance and moved to Scotland to study at Ballet West for 3 years, where I obtained a BA (Hons) degree (1st Class) and had the opportunity to tour Scotland with full length ballet productions.
Following this, I spent one year training independently in London, before moving to France in September 2020 to join the B&M2 Junior Company. I was then delighted to join the B&M Company as a professional dancer in February 2022.
As a young dancer I was drawn to the beauty of dance and found performing allowed me to be confident in a way I was not outside of dance. As I grew up I discovered how dance enables me to express my emotions better than I can in words, and the ability to share that with an audience. I find it amazing how dance transcends languages and allows us to connect with an audience in any place across the world. This is one of many reasons why I enjoy working in the B&M Company so much as the emotions of the piece are so deeply intertwined with the choreography. Throughout my life dance has been a constant safe place, through both good times and bad, and allows me to both understand the world around me and escape from it. My hope is that through performance I am able to provide this same feeling to the audience.”
Clémence Bonnemaison
“I was born in 2001 in France. I started ballet dancing when I was 3 years old. The dance pleases me a lot, I started flamenco in addition to classical dance at the age of 7 until I was 14 years old. I quit flamenco to get into modern jazz. In 2017, I went to Bordeaux in sport Etude Danse where I still have classical dance and modern Jazz but also contemporary. At the end of my schooling, I joined Manon Bastardie’s B&M2 junior company. I then went to Madrid for a year with Elephant In The Black Box to return in September 2021 to the B&M2 junior company.
Since September 2022 I have the status of trainee in the B&M company of Manon Bastardie.
Dance for me is therapy, it’s my best means of expression, it allows me to release my positive and negative feelings, dance reflects my deepest emotions, it’s a real outlet, in addition to being my greatest passion.”
Male Dancers
Nabar Martinez
Born in Pamplona and specially trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Paula Gutierrez Dance School (Pamplona), Navarre Dance School (Pamplona) and Professional Dance Conservatory of Riba-Roja del Túria (Valencia).
In 2018 he began his career as a dancer at Elephant in the Black Box Company (Madrid) where he performed pieces by different choreographers, including “Nichts” by Marco Goecke, “Romeo & Juliet” and “Fado Do Retorno” by Jean-Philippe Dury, “SIUK” by Francesco Vecchione and “1936” by Marco Blazquez.
In 2020 he joined the Ballet Contemporani de Catalunya (Barcelona), where he worked with Miquel G. Font and danced pieces such as “Xoc Anti Tempo”, “Focs de Sant Joan” and “Plancton”.
In the 2023-24 season he worked with Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich as a dancer for the opera “La Sonnambula” (Teatro Real, Madrid). He also worked with the Ogmia company (Madrid) interpreting “Mother Tongue” by Eduardo Vallejo Pinto.
He also learned Basque dance at school and later his father, himself a dancer in several Basque dance groups, passed on his knowledge to him.
“What is dance for me?
When I was a kid dancing was a hobby for me, it was a cool thing I did after school. It was not until adolescence that my relationship to dance changed: like many young people my age, I started going dancing with my friends in the evenings. This is where I felt
something very special, a huge connection with sound and space. I discovered there the game of improvisation by following the rhythms, noises, sensations… It is undoubtedly this stage of my life, which at first seemed banal, which lit the flame of my passion for dance. .
It was therefore at the age of 18 that I made the decision to make this passion my profession and after a few years of training, I began to work professionally little by little.
During this period dance had different meanings for me: play, sensation, expression, work, repetition, instinct, challenge, relationship, learning, style, aesthetics, art… I experienced
dance as a cocktail of all these values mixed with different condensations.
To this day, my relationship with dance is defined by a variable combination of many components, an alloy which, with several materials, solidifies, melts, evaporates and
sublimates.”
David Serrano (Animus)
David Serrano is a Barcelona-born dancer who trained at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, where he completed his studies in dance.
He began his professional career doing projects in Thailand and Singapore. In 2015, he joined the dance company LaMov, where he danced the repertoire of choreographers such as Sharon Fridman, Itzik Galili, Francisco Lorenzo and Victor Jimenez. During his time at LaMov, he participated in some of the company’s most prominent projects and travelled to different places around the world.
At the end of 2019, David started his career as a freelance dancer and has worked with several companies since then. Among them, his collaboration with Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich’s Metamorphosis Dance stands out, where he has been part of the creative process and has performed
some of the company’s most emblematic pieces. He has also worked with Manon Bastardie’s B&M Biarritz, Compagnie Illicite Bayonne, Ballet Contemporani de Catalunya and LaMov, among others.
In addition to his career as a dancer, David also teaches in dance schools in different regions of Spain. He has taught and directed rehearsals for some of the companies where he has worked as a dancer.
In 2023, David works in Lisbon, at Vasco Wellemkamp’s Companhia Portuguesa do Bailado Contemporaneo (CPBC), as a repetiteur of Metamorphosis Dance in the creation of the piece S.CONCERTO.
David has his own company and teaching project called Godai Dance Project, which he founded in 2020. The company has performed at various dance festivals and focuses on exploring new body
languages and creating pieces that connect with audiences through emotion and aesthetics. In addition, David teaches contemporary dance and other disciplines, where he focuses on providing a
comprehensive training to students and fostering their creativity and expressiveness.
“What dance means to me?
For me, dance is much more than just moving my body to music. It is a way to connect with my body, my mind and my essence. When I dance, I feel a very pure emotional and inner connection, which allows me to discover myself as a person and as a dancer. There are no labels or false facades, just a sense of physical and emotional freedom that connects me to everything around me.
By dancing, I free myself from my fears and worries, and immerse myself in a state of fluidity and creativity. I discover new aspects of my body and mind, and learn to listen to and trust my intuition.
Dance allows me to express what I feel in a unique and authentic way, and gives me a sense of liberation and empowerment.
In the end, we dance to be free. The freedom to feel and be is essential for personal growth and self realization. By dancing, we are free to be who we are, and to share our true essence with the world.
Dance allows us to connect with our own truth and with the universe, and gives us a sense of unity
and belonging.”
