Michel Kelemenis

Michel Kelemenis is a French dancer and choreographer born in 1960 in Toulouse who has spent four decades developing a distinctive movement language that bridges abstraction and figuration. He began dancing in Marseille at 17, building on earlier training in gymnastics. In 1983, Kelemenis performed with Dominique Bagouet at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier, and in 1984 he co-created *Aventure coloniale* with Angelin Preljocaj. He founded Kelemenis & cie in 1987, establishing the company as a sustained vehicle for his creative vision.

Over his career, Kelemenis has created more than 60 works, with 40 of these made for his own ensemble. His choreography has been performed internationally and has attracted commissions from ballet and opera companies. His artistic approach combines finesse with athletic performance, drawing on both contemporary vocabulary and selective references to dance history. In February 1998, he premiered *Kiki la rose* at Les Hivernales d'Avignon, a solo he both choreographed and performed. The work engages with the legacy of Vaslav Nijinsky through selective echoes of the historic port de bras from *Le Spectre de la rose*, rather than reconstructing the ballet itself. This piece represents the third solo Kelemenis dedicated to Nijinsky's influence on his own practice.