Bettina Blanc Penther, Cie No Small Mess, SECRETLY TROUBLED, 2024, creation step

In this solo dance, a cinematic atmosphere prevails, where the dramaturgy of gesture and sound moves between figuration and abstraction. On a white stage, against a background of sound that shelters the dance, a character progresses from situation to situation, playing with the embarrassment and intimacy he creates with the audience. A choreographic work on the feeling of shame and on the different gestures provoked by the exposure of bodies to public view.

Born in 1991, Bettina Blanc Penther lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, in 2017 they joined the Fresnoy Studio, National des Arts Contemporains, to make two short films, Too much Tenderness and I am a Beliver, which were shown at festivals and exhibitions such as the Art Press Biennial, Xposed festival in Berlin and Queer Lisboa. In 2019, in parallel with her plastic practice, Bettina joins the Displays curatorial study group at EnsadLab-PSL as a student researcher, to work around the notion of the agentivity of works. It was here that they began their choreographic work on the feeling of shame. At the same time, they perform and collaborate with choreographer Marcela Santander Corvàlan on her piece Quietos et Boccas de Oro. In 2021, Bettina and choreographer Pauline Brun founded the Nice-based company No Small Mess, which is responsible for her choreographic project Secretly Troubled. She is now beginning a collaboration with choreographer Anthonia Baehr.

Trained in classical and jazz piano at the Conservatoire national of Nice, Diane Blondeau went on to study art history and archaeology at Nanterre X. In 2012, she obtained her DNSEP from the Villa Arson, national school of art in Nice. Based in Dijon, she is the winner of the Storefront residency-exhibition at Frac Bourgogne, and an associate artist for 2020 at Why Note, a center for musical creation supported by DRAC Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. She takes part in numerous group exhibitions, co-signs Talking Dance, a project of choreographic sound pieces initiated by Valérie Castan, and creates sound for Pauline Brun's pieces.