Centre Chorégraphique National Montpellier — Languedoc-Roussillon
The Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon is more than a rehearsal space; it is a living ecosystem where contemporary dance, visual art, and academic research collide every day. Situated in a renovated eighteenth-century convent at the edge of Montpellier’s medieval quarter, the CCN has, since its creation in 1984, functioned as a national platform for daring artistic thought. Its studios, bathed in Mediterranean light, witness daily encounters between choreographers, composers, scenographers, and philosophers who together explore what it means to give shape to the immaterial. Visitors often describe an almost laboratory-like atmosphere in which the boundaries between disciplines dissolve in joyful experimentation.
Under the artistic direction of Christian Rizzo, the institution has continued to deepen its commitment to research-driven creation while remaining fiercely open to the public. Each season begins with an intense residency programme that invites international companies to occupy the house for several weeks, sharing process showings, public rehearsals, and late-night conversations in the garden. This approach extends the CCN’s founding mission: to make the normally hidden phases of artistic construction visible and therefore discussable. By witnessing the successes, the mistakes, and the countless micro-decisions that sculpt a new piece, audiences learn to read choreography with the same critical pleasure normally reserved for literature or film.
The CCN’s touring network has expanded dramatically over the past decade, allowing the house productions to travel from provincial French theatres to landmark stages in Asia, North America, and the Middle East. Each itinerary is conceived as an exchange rather than a simple export: alongside every performance, the company proposes workshops for local dancers, public talks, and site-specific interventions that showcase Montpellier’s choreographic vocabulary within new architectural contexts. In return, guest institutions send their own insights—video archives, critical writings, and emerging artists—back to the studio in Montpellier, enriching the organisation’s ever-growing documentation centre.
Education remains a central pillar of the CCN’s philosophy. The master exerce programme, an intensive postgraduate course, welcomes dancers and thinkers eager to navigate the porous frontier between practice and theory. Over eighteen months, participants develop an original project mentored by a constellation of visiting artists, curators, and scholars drawn from fields as diverse as robotics, sound engineering, and political theory. Younger audiences are not forgotten: weekly workshops for schools encourage children to discover contemporary movement through play, while a bilingual podcast series demystifies technical vocabulary and situates dance within broader social debates.
Finally, the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon strives to act as an urban commons, a place where residents can gather even when no performance is scheduled. The lobby doubles as a library and a free co-working area, the café hosts readings by local poets, and the courtyard becomes an open-air cinema on warm summer nights. Whether you are a seasoned professional, an amateur enthusiast, or a curious passer-by, the CCN invites you to cross its threshold, follow your ears toward the distant echo of pointe shoes on marley, and claim your own space within the unfolding choreography of civic life. All are welcome to stay, to question, to dream, and, above all, to dance together.