Dupuy, Françoise née Michaud (1925--) and Dupuy, Dominique (1930--)

Françoise and Dominique Dupuy are French dancers, teachers, choreographers, and writers who met in Paris in 1946 and were married in 1951. Along with Jacqueline Robinson, Karin Waehner, and Jerome Andrews, they are key figures in the development of modern dance in France. In 1955 they founded Les Ballets Modernes de Paris (BMP), one of France’s first modern dance companies and initiated a collaboration of more than six decades as members of Jean Weidt’s company, Ballets des Arts. Prolific writers as well as choreographers, in 1969 they founded Rencontres Internationales de Danse Contemporaine (International Encounters of Contemporary Dance, RIDC), a pioneering teacher training institution, and in 1996 Le Mas de la Danse (Provençal House of Dance), a research and study center for contemporary dance as well as a publishing house. Une Danse à l’œuvre, a co-authored collection of essays on their dance practice, was published in 2001. They continue to explore the themes of heritage, memory, and the aging dancer.