Entertainment

The French dancer and choreographer Antonin Rioche is considered one of the most distinctive poetic voices in contemporary dance. After training at the renowned Ballet Junior de Genève, he went on to work with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Sasha Waltz, Michael Keegan-Dolan, and Olivier Dubois. His artistic breakthrough came with his solo Ohboy!, born from an exploration of loneliness, which was later adapted into an award-winning dance film. Since 2018, Rioche has been working as Resident Choreographer at Korzo Theater in The Hague, where he has established a unique, visual, and emotional movement language through works like Finally a Sign of Life, Huidhonger, and Glitter. With his latest creation, We Are Doing Great, Rioche explores the theme of “adulting” – the moment we expect to finally feel like adults, accompanied by the simultaneous realization that we may always, in some way, feel like children. He examines the gap between the person we thought we would become and the person we actually are: a space filled with doubt, shifts, and unexpected beauty. For the creation of this work, Rioche invites French filmmaker Tommy Pascal, known for his documentaries on major dance companies. This turns the creative process itself into part of the artistic narrative, adding a cinematic, intimate dimension to the piece. Rioche merges dance, text, film, and visual art into a poetic movement language that transforms personal experience into universal imagery. As the founder of the platform Funny People in Paris, he develops interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of dance, fashion, and film. Through his work, Antonin Rioche brings a new, sensual, and emotional perspective to contemporary dance – rich in subtlety, depth, and moving humanity.

Photocredit: Philippe Vogelenzang