When you pass the dancers in the halls of Studio 217 on Thursday, it’s not a pretty glittery outfit that everyone is wearing. In this intensive day of rehearsals, the dress code requires instead to put on a tracksuit and avoid shoes with heels. Between the fitting of the costumes a little later and the first tests on the floor of Dance with the stars, the day is long. However, while they are focused on the prime of the next day, one music remains in the minds of the dancers: that of the following week.
Without even knowing whether or not they will be qualified for the rest of the competition, the celebrity coaches receive, every Wednesday, the three essential elements for their choreographic work the following Friday: the title of the song, the style of dance and scenography. This last point, the cornerstone of the entire show, is managed by Hakim Ghorab and Kevin Vivès who imagine the scenes of the program animated by Camille Combal in 360 degrees. “We have to think about the environment that separates in light, decoration, graphics, projection on the ground, styling and pre-production”, lists Hakim Ghorab.
Scenography is the starting point for all professional dancers. Before they build their first steps, they must rely on all the precise indications of the evolution of their choreography. As part of the last bonus, for example, it was Hakim Ghorab and Kevin Vivès who told Christophe Licata that Dita Von Teese would start her performance seated on a chair in the center of the floor. All these instructions are noted in the storyboard, a document considered the bible of the show, sent to the teams on Saturdays.
A “puzzle” to build for two
Once this information has been recorded, the choreographic work begins. And for that, everyone has their own little method. “I mentalize the floor, I see Chris Marques with improbable jackets, I see lights, the hot seat and I wonder what could be impacting and highlight my celebrity”, says Inès Vandamme who imagines what could look like his performance in his head before trying movements in front of his mirror an hour or two later.
Elsa Bois, who is teaming up with Michou this year, first immerses herself in music. This allows him to feel the parts where to put the accent and to place the important moments of the choreography like the litters or the very technical parts. “But there’s no real structure,” she says. Sometimes I start from the beginning and progress to the end. Sometimes I start with a part because I want something very specific and I build around it. “
The previous premium barely finished the day before, the dancers therefore find their partner on Saturday in the rehearsal room. At that moment, Samuel Texier knows all his sequences, his lifts and his steps, “so I do the puzzle with Wejdene” in order to refine their choreography together. Like Elsa Bois, the one who was eliminated last week decided on all his steps and his lifts suitable for the type of dance before tailoring them to the singer of Anissa.
Saturday thus begins the process of setting up the work to come for the week while the day of Sunday leaves the possibility of rearranging things a little bit. “The goal is for the whole choreography to be created and learned by the celebrity on Monday evening”, testifies Inès Vandamme, who participated in the competition with Jean-Baptiste Maunier. Even if the footsteps are blurry in the heads of the celebrities, the dancers assume that the stars of the show can fall asleep in the night from Monday to Tuesday knowing all their movements.
“Dance with the stars”, it can be revised
The first fifteen seconds of each of the choreographies are driven by the artistic direction who will ask the celebrities to place themselves on the stage, on the stairs or on the floor. Once the performance begins, it is the dancers’ turn to play. “Depending on the type of dance, we are sure to want to place technical steps. This allows, over a choreography of two minutes, to have 35 seconds of creation just with technical steps ”, explains Inès Vandamme. It is up to them and them to create the link between technique and artistic.
In order to facilitate the construction of her steps, Elsa Bois worked this summer with her coach Diana Ribas who helped her to imagine “blocks of choreography”, namely technical and dance parts that Michou’s partner comes to place in function. of the intensity of the music. “It’s like the imposed figures,” she sums up, referring to the widths, lengths and diagonals she thought about before the season started. “The figures, I use them, I link them together and in the end, it creates a choreography,” she adds.
Samuel Texier also prepared his arrival in Dance with the stars. In addition to physical preparation to keep up with the rhythm, the young man repeated step sequences, whether in Latin dance or in standard dance, “as if I was revising before passing the baccalaureate”, he smiles. This preparation facilitated his collaboration with Wejdene and allowed him not to waste time. “I did my lesson and now, when I have an exercise to do, I will draw from my lesson”, he compares.
Beware of the off topic!
Like all learning, celebrities and their partners are not always immune to being off topic. During the third premium, Chris Marques quirked at the end of Tayc and Fauve Hautot’s performance: “we just saw a brilliant performance but I have a concern, it is that it is a rumba that we had to do. . And he had very, very little rumba dance in terms of content, ”said the uncompromising judge.
“I try to be really careful but it’s true that it’s something that scares me a little, that people tell me that it’s not enough danced”, answers Elsa Bois when asked if she fears having to face a similar criticism. “If we do not put certain technical steps, we will be off topic,” concedes Inès Vandamme. Present a chacha without a lock step and without a New York figure on the floor of Dance with the stars, so it would be like making a copy of philosophy about justice without mentioning Plato’s allegory of the cave.
This season, the dancers are still reassured by the presence of Emmanuelle Berne, former participant of the show and now director of the choreography, who comes to the dance halls to see the choreographies and give her advice. Objective: to stay in the nails of the imposed style of dance. If the specifications are not respected, the pros of DALS may well waltz from the floor to their sofa without going through the box face to face.