Antonin Rioche
Antonin Rioche (1994) is a French storyteller, director, choreographer, and writer. He finds interest in all art forms, particularly in photography, film and fashion. Antonin creates through different lenses of expression. Movement is the root of creation, but not automatically its starting point. His work often departs from writing a text that translates his thoughts, emotions and personal experiences. From there, poetic interpretations emerge about general human emotions.
Born in Angers in 1994, Antonin trained as a dancer at Ballet Junior of Geneva where he had the opportunity to explore the work of choreographers like Roy Assaf, Marina Mascarell, Crystal Pite and Mats Ek. After that, he worked as a freelancer with the likes of Olivier Dubois, Theo Clinkard and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. He created his debut solo piece, Ohboy! during the Eastman Summer Intensive 2017, after being invited by Cherkaoui. The project became a major success and a milestone in his professional career. The piece was created for Benjamin Behrends and inspired by his personal experience of his freelance life as a dancer. The solo talks about his relationship with loneliness and the difference between being alone and feeling lonely.
Antonin always approaches his creations by being in a constant dialogue with his inner world and seeing beauty in every outcome: ‘As long as you invest your time, focus and leave space for contemplation and growth, beauty will emerge organically.’ Since 2018, Antonin has been a house choreographer at Korzo theater in Den Haag, The Netherlands, with his works being supported by NDT & Holland Dance Festival. During this journey he had the opportunity to create The Others and Finally a Sign of Life for the Korzo yearly program; Here We Live and Now. In 2021, Antonin created Huidhonger, a piece for Conny Janssen Danst. In that same year he was invited by Korzo and Nederlands Dans Theater to create his first full-evening performance; Glitter, a questioning on fame, acknowledgement and the fear of time passing by. In 2022, he premiered a new full-length performance, co-produced by Nederlands Dans Theater called Ohgirl!, an intimate solo piece about anxiety and the fear of missing out, questioning the weight that people sometimes carry on our shoulders.
Antonin loves cinema and draws a lot of his inspiration from filmmaking. He is also known as a short film director, as he likes to translate his dance pieces into cinematic experiences, like – for example – Finally a Sign of Life and The Research Project; The Leftovers. Both were selected to be screened during Cinedans and Dance Days Chania in 2022. Antonin is very interested and actively involved in the development of educational programs by teaching and choreographing for schools and workshops.
During the summer of 2023, Antonin will create a new work with international dancers who join him in his creative process for ten days. The outcome of this collaboration will be presented at Dock11. Antonin’s next steps will be like a grand jeté as he decided to move to Paris, where he will have the opportunity to broaden and develop his company Funny People, a platform for collaboration curated and directed by himself.
"As long as you invest your time, focus and leave space for contemplation and growth, beauty will emerge organically."
— Antonin Rioche
