It is impossible to talk about Germain without echoing my mother. She was part of the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera and I was raised in that world. This discipline that inspires me embodies rigor, self-sacrifice, perseverance and sensitivity. I admire and respect it. For all these reasons, it is a chance to be able to collaborate with Germain who embodies them perfectly. His generosity and sensitivity touch me, I hope I can continue to count on his trust to develop many other projects.
erwan le louër – co-founder of le gramme.

What nourishes you in your profession, what is the source of your inspiration?
People inspire me first and foremost, it can be the people around me like complete strangers that I meet in the street or that I observe through live performance, cinema... Everyone's story, postures, behaviors, certain words, visions of the world make me want to experiment with things, to explore other aspects of my personality on stage.

Who are the people or projects that constitute references for you?
Pina Baush constitutes a monument for me and many others of course. There are few shows that upset me as much as those I saw of her. I also think of Nureyev who is a pillar in our ballets, he still influences our style. Our current masters were his students and still pass on his strength, his personality, his originality like a heritage. Florence Clerc, for example, was one of the star dancers with whom he often danced. When I work with her, everything seems easier to me because it is more intelligent and deeper; through his teaching I receive that of Nureyev.
There is also Marie-Agnès Gillot, an immense artist who put dance at the service of herself as much as she put herself at the service of dance. Finally, my friends, my daily dance companions are also references. Hugot Marchand is a bit like my twin through our parallel paths while both being very different, Hannah O'Neil and Léonore Baulac are extraordinary dancers who inspire me. I dance with them, the word “with” is crucial, our complicity allows us to provide a much richer response through the moving dialogue that we have when we dance together.


What compliment touches you on your job?
It's an almost visual compliment in reality, something beyond words that is more of a state. We sometimes see this in someone who has never seen a dance show or not the one they need. Then something opens in the person, a door between them and us. Like when you see in someone's eyes that they have finally fallen in love, you know then that you share the same emotion. The compliment on the technical perfection of a movement or a sequence affects me a thousand times less than that moment.

The city or cities that inspire you or resemble you?
Paris, which is my adopted city, may not look like me but I feel at home there. Because it's a wonderful mess, it's culturally abundant, you can see something different every day. I also love Tokyo, I have something passionate about this city between fascination and anxiety because of its diametrically opposed culture and always almost impervious even if I dance there a lot. And between the two, there is this little hamlet on the hill in Givry in my native Burgundy…

What is the art of living according to you? How would you define your way of being and living?
I would like to continue living like children do. Even if it means being accused of immaturity. This term only belongs to those who have stopped living in the moment, in pure joy. I am happy living spontaneously, through chance, through surprises. I don't like planning or organizing, although I have to. I like the idea of ​​having a free afternoon and “come what may”. We should never refuse to be a little crazy (provided that we respect the madness of others). There are those who dream of being adults and those who want to keep their childhood, I am one of them. I like the candor that sees beyond a world coded by money, so-called virility, image. I take immaturity as a compliment, I feel very good and alive there.

How would you define your creative signature?
I like to confront myself. I want to avoid codes and be as honest as possible in the interpretation, as authentic. When I interpret Prince Albrecht (Gisèle) for example, I experience the story and this ballet as I will experience them - me Germain - in 2020 in the street. I obviously interpret roles in which I experience love stories with women, I experience them in the same way as I would experience them with a man.

What are your favorite dance moves and routines?
I really like the pirouette steps, the inversions, the little drums... but ultimately what I'm looking for is fluidity in the dance. You have to see and experience dance as you read the verses of poetry, otherwise you fall into something fearsomely circus-like.

Your reference ballet?
I have always dreamed of dancing the Bolero. For many reasons. For having seen “Les uns et les autres” by Claude Lelouch when I was little, for having admired Jorge Donn, then Nicolas Le Riche and Sylvie Guillem. Because it's a trance, a cross between little death and an ode to life, because it's a mixed and universal role, a choreography made beyond gender but for people. This work by Béjart will never get old and neither will my dream of dancing it since childhood!

Your biggest challenge achieved?
Another advantage of my desire to remain a child is that children rush headlong with complete confidence, only to realize afterwards that they have achieved a challenge. It was for Nureyev's classic version of Romeo and Juliet. This ballet is incredibly difficult with almost more steps than musical notes. Exhaustion becomes transcendental, it serves to express Romeo's love for Juliet, his anger, it serves his death. Exhaustion has this ability to put you on edge, to make you experience this merciless struggle of two people who in just three days love each other and then die. I like this exhausting and ultimately realistic vision of love, far from the romantic and blue-flower side.

Your ritual in your job?
I have the habit of not creating a habit, I avoid rituals which are little things that bind instead of liberating, this amounts to creating an addiction. I therefore strive to proceed a little differently each evening, to renew myself, find new avenues, and never become complacent.

The type of dance that annoys you?
The pretentious dance or the simply beautiful entertainment one that won't bother anyone. When the choreographer thinks that the movement he produces is sufficient in itself. We then obtain a dance of form only and the total absence of words unlike a Cunningham for example. His words are so intelligent and intelligible in abstraction, and it is from this abstraction that an always random emotion is born.

If you weren't a dancer, what job would you do?
Minister of Culture.

A favorite place to usually find yourself?
I'm at the Opera almost every day, whether I work there or not, it's my second home. Otherwise you can find me at the theater, on the public side this time.

Your favorite object? How much does he weigh ?
I think first of my glasses. I love this object which is an extension of myself. But I ultimately prefer the drawing of a bouquet of carrots in a star shape by Fabrice Hyper that my lover gave me for my birthday.

What has weight in your life?
Those I love, the relationship I have with them: my lover, my family and my friends. They are the ones who define me, they are the foundation on which I can rest, the ones who ensure that even without being in their company I am never alone.

Your LE GRAMME object(s), what is/are they? How do you use the doors/doors?
I officially have three bracelets: a bangle and two 15g ribbons in 925 silver. I often add the 21g ribbon in polished silver that I gave to my darling, which is also how I discovered the brand. I wear them stacked and reversed.

If LE GRAMME were a ballet, what would it be?
Without hesitation the ballet of Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker: Rain. A ballet without a stage or background, the decor is made with the walls of the stage frame, the only element of decor is an arc of ropes which descend from the ceiling and which is jostled by the dancers. The figures are geometric, this ballet is ultimately mineral, mathematical, spontaneous and gender-neutral.