Choreography: Katarzyna Gdaniec and Marco Cantalupo

Dancers: Elodie Boulet and Gerald Durand

COMPANY LINGA

Katarzyna Gdaniec and Marco Cantalupo make their wish to become independent come true in 1992 when they decide to leave the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and to found their own company Linga (the symbol of fertility in Hinduism). In 1993 they were offered to become the resident company of Théâtre de l’Octogone, a national stage located at Lausanne (CH), where they created a permanent space to develop choreographic research. Several prizes (Choreography Competition Hanover, Leonide Massine prize in Positano, Italy, etc.) have been awarded to the company for its choreographies whose language and artistic concept soon become part of the repertoire of other companies: Erde (1994) was created for the company of the Opera of Dresden, Solo (1994) for the soloist Vladimir Derevianko and Concerto (1997) for the National Theatre of Mannheim, the Opera of Florence, the National Ballet of Portugal and the Ballet of the Opera of Ankara. In March 2008, Linga will sign again a new piece for the Ballet of the Opera of Ankara.
The company’s style has a demanding and physical approach of dance. The choreographic process has progressively brought to light a vocabulary in connection with political and social issues. A way to explore through dance the impacts a social situation may have on the body. Concerto represents the beginning of this process and then, with Go! (2004), a piece about immigration, the company develops a more hybrid style, including dance theatre, a component which will become an integral part of the company’s choreographic research. Emballe-moi (2005) denounces consumer society, La Kitchen (2006) dares to speak of conjugal violence, mucus and angels (2007) questions femininity and Speeed (59 minutes precisely) the fascination of our society for speed.
Today Company Linga has become one of the leading companies of contemporary dance in Switzerland and is invited to participate in the most important events of the international scene.

Katarzyna Gdaniec, Choreographer
was born in Poland. From the age of 8 she dedicated herself to artistic gymnastics and won the Artistic Gymnastics European Junior Championships in 1974. Then she started her studies at the National Ballet School in Gdansk, where she graduated. In 1983 she won the 1st prize at the National Dance Competition of Gdansk, which enabled her to participate in the Prix de Lausanne and to obtain a Johnson Foundation Prize. Once her studies in Gdansk completed (baccalaureate), she was offered a scholarship at the Ballet School Princess Grace in Monte-Carlo. In 1985 she entered Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXe Siècle and danced with the company as principal dancer until 1991. Katarzyna Gdaniec has been a choreographer since 1987. She created her first piece for a young choreographers workshop of the Ballet du XXe Siècle. From 1992, she entirely devotes herself to the choreography leaving Béjart’s Ballet Lausanne to fund with Marco Cantalupo the Compagnie Linga for who she co signs more than forty choreographies.

Marco Cantalupo, Choreographer

Marco Cantalupo was born in Genoa, Italy. He studied at the ballet school of the Scala in Milan and later at the ballet school of the Hamburg Opera, where he graduated. Several stays in the U.S.A. gave him the opportunity to work with the choreographer Daniel Ezralow (Momix, ISO). He danced with the Hamburg Opera, and then as a soloist with the Staatstheater Gelsenkirchen, the National Ballet of Portugal, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Stadttheater Bern and the Béjart Ballet Lausanne. He choreographed for various independent projects in Italy before funding Linga with K. Gdaniec.

Elodie Boulet studies at the Ecole Supérieure de Danse Rosella Hightower in Cannes (FR). She danced with the International Young Ballet of Cannes and joined the Compagnie Linga in may 2001.

Gérald Durand was born in France. He graduated at the dance school of the Paris Opera. He danced with Maurice Béjart, the Stadttheater in Bâles, the Stadttheater in Berne, the Monte-Carlo Ballet, the Gulbenkian in Lisbon and different independent companies. He joined Company Linga in October 2005.