“Change everything!”: Jean-Paul Montanari will deliver his 45th and final edition of the Montpellier Dance Festival in 2025

Is there an art to programming?

This cannot be learned. If the painter goes to the Beaux-Arts, the musician, to the conservatory, the programmer that I am has only his intuition.

What was the trigger?

In a theater dedicated to theater only, I had started to program dance. In the first four companies that I choose, there is a guy called Dominique Bagouet…

We are at the beginning of the 80s. At the heart of the dance revival…

I arrive with him in his luggage in Montpellier. We know the story. I will then spend my life traveling the world, meeting artists and drawing up a line of programming which has to do, to put it quickly, with choreographic writing, with these artists who can bring something so personal. Raimund Hoghe, Robyn Orlin or Forsythe who I showed before everyone else.

“Among the first companies I programmed, there was a guy called Dominique Bagouet”

And for which, pleasure is not always immediate!

But the audience eventually understood. The first time Cunningham came to dance, it was a riot. They shouted at him, “Go learn to dance at Béjart’s!” 20 years later, everyone was standing up applauding him. William Forsythe with Kammer/Kammer had people leaving in groups. You could only see the dancers through a screen. He was laughing like a madman backstage. Forsythe did that once, not twice. He only thought about subverting the audience!

What criteria allow you to evaluate the aesthetics of a dance movement?

None! There is a sense of things, an intuition. I am rarely wrong. I have been programming dance for 45 years. After a while, you don’t make mistakes, with time, you know everything. Not Léo Ferré but almost! I fall in love with creators through their work. This love is not eternal. Bagouet’s works are 12 years of passion. With Raimund Hoghe, it lasted 14 years. Mathilde Monnier, 20 years! The hardest thing is not saying no the first time, it is saying that we are not going to continue together.

What are the signs then?

There is a beating heart. Tears come to the eyes. You feel that it responds to something new. Dance is not only seen with the eyes, but with the body. I have had contractions during a show. The body resonates with memories, problems, desires, who knows?

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Has the time come for you to step out of your comfort zone?

We must make the institutional imagination work. How can we rediscover the intelligence, the historical importance of the gesture of Georges Frêche and Bagouet who invented the first CCN National Choreographic Center in December 1980 and the Montpellier dance festival in June 1981? The world has changed and I don’t believe in this smuggler story. We need a break, change everything!

With your departure and that of Christian Rizzo at the end of the year, what do you think of the merger between CCN and Festival that we are talking about?

Merger? A term for industry or banking. A mission letter was signed by Carole Delga, Michaël Delafosse, and Rachida Dati and sent to the presidents of the two associations, Josiane Collerais, for the CCN and Didier Deschamps, for Montpellier Danse. They must lead a steering committee. A report has been submitted.

Should we give time to time?

The 45th edition is built. I don’t have any advice to give, but why not take advantage of the power vacuum of these two structures to think about these 7,000 m² of the Agora. What corresponds to the evolution of dance, behavior, funding, audiences?

Can CCN and festival really merge?

The CCN is certified by the Ministry of Culture. Legally, it cannot merge, hence the idea of ​​choosing a common director. But the CCN is Region-State, and Montpellier Danse is essentially Metropolis. The powers are different.

Popular or elitist?

In 1994, Georges Frêche said that if he didn’t do something “popular”, he would be accused of elitism. Is contemporary dance eternally misunderstood?

That year, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne is on the Place de la Comédie! I join the mayor’s office. I organize a popular festival, I set up tango workshops in cafés, capoeira, etc. All of Montpellier’s dance is on the street!
With contemporary dance which has more to do with music and poetry, there is not much to understand, you just have to let yourself be carried away, in an approach to the body, to energy, to movement, to time and autonomy of dance: this art which is not in tow, which is not an illustration of music. This is, moreover, his great revolution.

How does dance pay the price for its popularization?

The price to pay is entertainment. By getting closer to this thing that terrifies me: the “tiktokization” of the world which trivializes dances, by applying an aesthetic, that of ugliness.

But everyone is dancing!

Trisha Brown said that contemporary dance was born with the twist, the first dance where the two dancers are separated. As in medicine, it has its researchers. Merce Cunningham, Bagouet or McGregor are among them. They work on things only understandable to them.

Does one destroy the other? What is the impact on a budget for example?

No, everyone must have their place. We are allocated a share of resources for creation. Little by little, we are asked to take from this share, the animation, the reception, the support for the prevented public… We would need two budgets. One constant for creation, the other for the animation which can cost €50,000 per year. We have to pay the artists! The rental of the Corum where we make the majority of the revenue, is €400,000 per year for 26 days of occupancy, or 12% of the general budget. To obtain a million euros of ticket revenue, we have to show choreographers that everyone loves like Merzouki or Preljocaj, but also young people who are starting out. And that is also expensive.

Is dance a major art in your eyes?

If dance is a major art, which I believe, then it is capable of describing the world around it, of criticizing it, like literature, painting, music. Or it’s just entertainment. The arts must tell the world. Make him understand, make him look. The best authors say through the body, something about the world, happiness or unhappiness.