Ris et Danceries, a French group founded in 1980 by Francine Lancelot, is renowned today as one of the most interesting ensembles in "baroque" dance. The name of the Company itself indicates a focused research aimed at reviving an expressive heritage from the past: "Ris" - as stated in the Company's presentation dossier - refers to the entrance of loves, games, and pleasures in the works of the 17th and 18th centuries, "Danceries" is the term given to 16th-century dance music.
Francine Lancelot spent her childhood in Montpellier, moving to Paris at the age of fifteen, where she pursued various dance courses. In 1954, she studied in Berlin with Mary Wigman. Upon returning to Paris, she worked with Françoise and Dominique Dupuy. She later collaborated with Pierre Conté at the Théâtre de l'Atelier and with Jean Dasté in Saint-Etienne, where she was engaged as a dancer, choreographer, and actress. It was during this time that she attended a performance of traditional Yugoslavian dances, which influenced the direction of her future research.
Returning to Paris, she began collecting folk dances for the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires from 1964 onwards. During these years, she deepened her studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and began teaching. Léone Mail, then the inspiration behind dance at the Ministry of Culture, convinced Claude Bessy to invite Francine Lancelot to teach at the Paris Opera. During this period, Lancelot met Philippe Beaussant, founder of the Institut de Musique et de Danses Anciennes, where she organized several seminars.
After ten years of intensive research, in 1979 she met Antoine Geoffroy-Dechaume, a harpsichordist and musicologist, with whom she compared her discoveries. The following year, she decided to found her own Company, bringing together dancers, choreographers, and researchers in "Ris et Danceries". From 1980 to the present day, Francine Lancelot has created about fifteen shows based on the reconstruction of historical dances. Lancelot has also participated in various productions and has signed some personal creations, where inventions and respect for history are balanced harmoniously. Among these are the solo "Bach Suite" (1984) and the ballet "Quelques Pas Graves de Baptiste" (1985), created for the Paris Opera at the invitation of Rudolf Nureyev.
Among her most valuable collaborators are François Raffinot, Andrea Francalanci, Beatrice Massin, and Ana Yepes.
Recently, the research of Ris et Danceries has focused on new challenges, studying the ancient traditions of Italian, Spanish, and English dance. In this vein, the Company's latest creation, commissioned by the Biennale de Lyon and premiered at Oriente Occidente, is titled "Zarandanzas". The theme of this show explores the different relationships between music and dance in 17th-century French and Spanish cultures. The first part of the work, of a historical nature, presents a wide repertoire of Spanish dances from the period associated with religious processions, popular festivals, and dance schools, compared to French court and stage dances of the same era. The second part reinvents a way of dancing based on possible transformations between the two expressive styles. Directors, composers, dancers, and musicians from both countries collaborated on the show, under the direction of Ana Yepes for this occasion.
