Camping at the CN D

2019
2023
Camping 2021 © Marc Domage
Camping 2021 © Marc Domage
Camping 2021 © Marc Domage
Camping 2021 © Marc Domage
As part of its Artists in the Community programme, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports a range of initiatives in the performing arts that centre on transmission, engagement and advancing the work of young artists. It is as part of this commitment that the Foundation accompanies Camping at the Centre National de la danse (CN D). This event is unique in France, and each year unveils a packed programme in Pantin (Île-de-France) and in Lyon.

Camping was launched by the CN D in 2015 under the auspices of its director, artist Mathilde Monnier. It seeks to offer an original programme of encounters and experiments by organising two weeks of workshops, talks, classes, shows, ateliers and projections in the CN D’s spaces in Pantin and Lyon. Over the course of previous years’ editions, Camping has become a key event for the international dance scene, and today welcomes hundreds of dancers – students from dance schools the world over, renowned professionals, and passionate amateurs – as well as a broad public.

The Foundation has closely supported Camping since its first edition in 2009. In January 2017, this support was recognised when the partnership was awarded the “Un projet, un mécène” prize for cultural patronage by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. With the emphasis it places on the training of young artists, the transmission of skills and the transversal nature of artistic practices, the platform offered by Camping closely echoes the priorities of the Artists in the Community programme.

In 2019, for its fifth edition, Camping played host to some 700 artists, including 300 students from twenty-nine dance schools across the world. After a fallow year due to the pandemic, Camping returned to Pantin and Lyon for its much-anticipated sixth edition in June 2021. While adapting to ongoing public health restrictions, the festival once again welcomed a broad audience, with the participation of fourteen French and European dance schools. It featured nine live performances, one broadcast online, and nineteen workshops led by major figures from the contemporary scene. Featuring several projects that were postponed in 2020, the carefully curated programme welcomed all who love dance and the arts, whether professionals, amateurs or spectators, young or old.

In 2022, Camping returns with an even more ambitious format: more than thirty workshops will take place at a range of participating structures in Pantin and the Île-de-France, as well as at partner institutions in Lyon, addressing some 700 “campers”, including 300 students from dance schools across the world. Performances, talks and parties complete this vast programme, devised in collaboration with Gisèle Vienne, associate artist at the CN D.

Disciplines
Performing arts
Lieu
Centre national de la danse
Pantin
France
Several French premieres form part of of Camping.
Camping’s programme showcases the richness and breadth of contemporary artistic practices.
“Campers” from all kinds of artistic backgrounds are invited to share their skills through some thirty-nine workshops.

See also