After studying classical dance, Angelin Preljiocaj began studying contemporary dance with Karim Waehner. In 1980, in New York, he attended courses by Zena Rommet and Merce Cunningham. After working for a few months in the Quentin Rouiller company, he spent the 1981/82 season at the Centre National de Danse Contemporain in Angers with Viola Farber.
In 1982 he was hired by Dominique Bagouet's ensemble, becoming his assistant in 1983. The following year he created a duo with Michel Kelemenis: Aventures coloniales which he presented at the Festival International Montpellier Danse and at the inauguration of the Théâtre Contemporain de la Danse in September 1984.
In December of the same year he founded his own company, with which he presented, at the 17th International Choreography Competition "Le Ballet pour Demain", the choreography Marchè Noir, which won the "Premio Ministero della Cultura". In 1986 he created Larmes blanches and A nos héros. In the summer of 1987 his latest creation, inspired by the myth of Joan of Arc, participated in the Avignon Festival. In A nos héros, Angelin Preljiocaj – today considered one of the most talented authors in the French “nouvelle danse” – creates a choreographic language capable of expressing the different faces of the Hero starting from the “imagerie” of socialist realism. To explain the meaning of the operation, he quotes two sentences by the philosopher Bergson: “The call of the Hero, on a spiritual level, is the engine of creative evolution” and “heroic action simulates emotion and creation. It is also the abnegation of the individual in the face of events”.
