You think SAFMOD’s cool? Check out this guy who actually pays homage to the master of multimedia dance construction. Uh, that would be the late Alwin Nikolais who pioneered this stuff when he returned from serving in WWII.

Philippe Decouflé

(1961- )

Philippe Decouflé creates video-danse, and this is what sets him apart from many contemporary dancers and choreographers. In his works, he combines dance, live video, film, music, spectacular costumes and cartoons.

Born in Paris, Decouflé originally wanted to become a clown. At age 15, he attended École du Cirque and studied mime. Later, he trained in contemporary dance with American choreographer Alwin Nikolais in France and New York. Nikolais is considered a pioneer in combining multimedia effects with abstract dance.

Decouflé has taken the principles he learned from Nikolais and developed his own brand of whimsical entertainment that always explores the relationship between video and dance. Created with children in mind, his works Codex (1986) and Decodex (1990) evolved from a book depicting imaginary plants, animate vegetables and fantasy animals.

In 1992, Decouflé created a production for the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France. Dancers dressed as human snow-globes performed a synchronized bungee-jumping routine. In his work Solo (2004), he shows the audience pictures of his family and talks about them.

Decouflé founded his dance company DCA in Bagnolet, France, in 1983. According to him, “D” stands for diversity, “C” for camaraderie, and “A” for agility. Decouflé is the recipient of numerous awards, among them Le Prix de la qualité from Le Centre National du Cinéma for his film Caramba! (1986).

This is one of the very cool videos he has made. http://www.cie-dca.com/dca.html

If anyone can help with the French translation here, please respond.