Anne Nguyen

Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Anne Nguyen was awarded the Nouveau Talent Chorégraphie SACD prize in 2013. She was an associate artist to Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse from 2015 to 2018.

Square Root, Yonder Woman, PROMENADE OBLIGATOIRE, bal.exe, Autarcie (....), Kata, À mon bel amour... The titles Anne Nguyen gives to her pieces reveal her many influences: from mathematics to the martial arts, myths to utopian concepts. Intending to go into the field of physics, she finally abandons that particular path when she discovers the world of breakdance and battles. She first expresses her desire to set the mind free through the body in written form with her collection of poems Manual of the City Warrior. She choreographs her first solo, Square Root, around these poems. Her choreographed pieces are dedicated to sublimating the essence of the different hip-hop dance styles: breakdance with Yonder Woman and Kata, popping with PROMENADE OBLIGATOIRE and bal.exe. They explore the idea of the collective, through such pieces as the female quartet Autarcie (....), the group piece À mon bel amour or the trio Underdogs.

Anne Nguyen combines a raw, virtuoso gestural vocabulary with a geometrical, pure, destructured choreographic expression that exalts the power of abstraction. Parallel to her choreographic works, Anne Nguyen writes, directs and choreographies theatre -dance pieces where hip-hop dance becomes the opportunity to reflect more broadly on our society: the duet Goku’s Trial, performed in classrooms, which explores the idea of creative freedom, Hip-Hop Nakupenda, a danced conference, and quartet Heracles on his head, which questions the relationships between breakdance, sports and art, echoing breakdance’s entry as an official discipline of the international sporting scene.

Anne Nguyen is regularly called upon for her expertise in hip-hop dance. From 2012 to 2018, she has been teaching an artistic workshop on hip-hop dance at Sciences Po Paris University. Convinced that dance is a positive good for society, she creates Dance of the city warriors, a path of interactive installations offering the audience a chance to become immersed, digitally and physically, in the world of hip-hop dance, as well as SKILLZ, a free-access online video game designed to expand the public’s knowledge of the different hip-hop dance styles.