Jean-Claude Gallotta

Jean-Claude Gallotta is a French choreographer, dancer and film director who shaped contemporary dance in France and beyond. After encountering American postmodern dance in New York in the late 1970s, he founded Groupe Émile Dubois with Mathilde Altaraz in Grenoble in 1979. The company became one of France's first national choreographic centres in 1984, establishing Gallotta's practice at the intersection of French contemporary dance and American postmodern influence.

Gallotta's breakthrough came with *Ulysse*, created in Grenoble in 1981, a work that brought him international recognition. The piece exemplified his approach to mixed-age and mixed-background casting. When he recreated *Ulysse* in 1993, he engaged directly with film and video as extensions of choreographic language—using camera movement and editing not merely to preserve the stage work but to reveal choreographic style itself.

Over his career, Gallotta developed a repertory exceeding eighty choreographies that consistently intersects dance with film, video, literature and classical music. He directed two feature-length films, further exploring how cinematic technique and choreographic thinking could inform each other. His work stands as a model for how a choreographer might work across media while maintaining a coherent artistic vision rooted in the body and its relationships.