Nicolas Cantillon was born in 1972 in Melun and Laurence Yadi in 1973 in Argenteuil in France. They divide both their professional and personal lives between France and Switzerland. After some experience as a musician, Nicolas Cantillon started training as a dancer at the Marius Petipa Dance Conservatory in 1989. During her early years, Laurence Yadi was a sports student in Paris where, in 1991, she successfully completed her studies. Two years later, she received a dance scholarship and was admitted to the Alvin Ailey Dance Centre in New York. Upon the completion of their respective trainings, 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 companies, such as Ballet J. Art in Paris and the Geneva company Alias, Gisela Rocha and Rui Horta…

Nicolas Cantillon and Laurence Yadi created their first piece, called La vision du lapin, in 2003. This piece questions the codes of representation and gives a significant role to video installations. Then, with Simple proposition in 2004, they embarked on a research project about duets, minimal art and the fragmentation of movement. This piece inspired the 2005 short film Durée déterminée, co-produced with Frédéric Lombard and Jennifer Bonn on the frozen sea in Finland.

Climax, which followed in 2006, is a solo piece illustrating the designs of a secret passage between joy and melancholy through continuous flowing movements. For this choreography the company received the Lietchi Foundation’s Award for the Arts. The piece was re-adapted later with the title "On stage" in a shortened form, almost like a “dance shot”, as a condensed and accelerated variation of Climax, showcasing a reflection on time and rhythm. That same year, they also created Merry-go-round for the 20 dancers of the Geneva Junior Ballet, thus reconfiguring the same model to the dimensions of a large ballet group.

Still in 2007, the Company developed a new research on the links between folk music and dance, in the form of a trilogy. As such, En concert is a set of songs and original music scores performed live by the choreographers themselves. It is the prelude to 2008’s Laï laï laï laï, a piece for four actors in a fantastic and coloured setting calling on nostalgic child dreams of the seventies. In 2009, they continued the exploration of Climax for a luscious, abstract, uninterrupted and almost hypnotic dance by creating Listen & Watch in collaboration with the American guitarist and composer Sir Richard Bishop. This duo builds the third volume of the trilogy.

The same year, Laurence Yadi and Nicolas Cantillon create the duo Romance-s. This contemporary “pas de deux” of elegant austerity is performed in total silence. It is a love story that also recalls different chapters of the History of dance.

In 2010, the two choreographers create Figure 5 for three dancers and the experimental jazz drummer Nicolas Field. This piece is followed in January 2011 by Nile (in French: Nil), a ballet for 6 dancers with a new composition by Sir Richard Bishop and lights by Patrick Riou. The same year, they are invited to create a new version of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka for the Ballet of the Operahouse of Geneva and also take part in several big tours in America (USA, Porto Rico, Colombia), Southern Africa (South-Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe), Europe and Egypt.

Laurence Yadi, Nicolas Cantillon – Compagnie 7273 have been receiving since 2009 support from the City of Geneva, of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and Pro Helvetia – The Swiss Arts Council. Since 2003 they have performed and toured throughout Europe, Africa, America, Asia and the Middle-East.

They received the LIECHTI AWARD FOR THE ARTS in 2006 and the SWISS DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY AWARD in 2011.