Nicolas Cantillon was born in 1972 in Melun and Laurence Yadi in 1973 in Argenteuil (France). They share their personal and professional life between Switzerland and France. After an experience as a singer and guitarist in the group CRYSE 17, Nicolas Cantillon decided to take dance classes and entered the Marius Petipa Conservatory in 1989.

During her early years, Laurence Yadi was a sport student in Paris where, in 1991, she successfully ended her studies. Two years later she received a dance scholarship and was admitted to the Alvin Ailey Centre in New York.

Upon the completion of their respective training, Laurence Yadi and Nicolas Cantillon began their artistic careers in a number of productions either as dancers, or as choreographic assistants. Occasionally their paths crossed as a result of working for the same organisations, namely, the J. Art Ballet located in Paris, as well as the Company Alias in Geneva, where they met and collaborated with Gisela Rocha and Rui Horta.

Nicolas Cantillon and Laurence Yadi created their first piece in 2003 called La vision du lapin, which questioned the codes of representation. Then, with Simple proposition in 2004, they embarked on a research project about duos and the fragmentation of movement. This piece inspired the 2005 short film Durée déterminée which was produced by Frédéric Lombard and Jennifer Bonn.

Climax, which followed in 2006, is a solo piece interpreted by Nicolas and illustrating the designs of a secret passage between joy and melancholy through continuous flowing movements. For this choreography the Lietchi Foundation honoured the company with the Award for the Arts. In 2007, the piece has been re-adapted under the name On stage, and danced by Laurence, as a condensed version of Climax and showcased the emerging reflection of time and rhythm. That same year, they also created Merry-go-round for the Geneva Junior Ballet, reconfiguring the model provided by Climax to accommodate the dimensions of a large ballet group.

Also in 2007, the Company developed a new research on the links between folk music and choreographic creation, with the plan of a trilogy. As such, En concert is a set of songs and original music scores performed live on the stage by the choreographers. It is the prelude to 2008’s Laï laï laï laï, a piece for 4 dancers representing the opening part of the trilogy.

In 2009, they continued the evolution of Climax by creating Listen & Watch in collaboration with the American guitarist and composer Sir Richard Bishop from Seattle, WA, and Steffen Basho Junghans, a German musician from Berlin. In September of the same year, Laurence Yadi and Nicolas Cantillon explored the source of being in love and created the duo Romance-s.

February 2010