15 Facts About Alain Platel

Alain Platel was born on 9 April 1956 and is a Belgian choreographer and director.

Alain Platel trained as a remedial educationalist, working with physically and mentally disabled children, but continued to study mime and later to take courses at the Paul Grinwis Academy of Ballet.

Alain Platel founded les ballets C de la B in 1984 on a dare from a former teacher.

Stabat Mater was the first in a succession of small-scale productions made by les ballets C de la B during the late 1980s and early 1990s, for which Alain Platel shared directing roles with other members of the company.

Alain Platel's productions included three collaborations with the author and theatre-maker Arne Sierens and Ghent-based youth theatre company Victoria.

Alain Platel organised the Beste Belgische Danssolo competition between 1995 and 1997, open to solos of any style and designed to discover new talent.

Shortly after making allemaal indiaan, Alain Platel announced that he would no longer be making productions.

In 2006, Alain Platel directed his own full-length documentary about the dancers of les ballets C de la B, entitled les ballets de ci de la.

Since 2006, Alain Platel has continued to direct new work with les ballets C de la B, usually in collaboration with other artists.

Alain Platel's productions have always involved varied ensembles of performers with different skills, levels of training, backgrounds and body types, including amateurs, children and elderly performers.

Alain Platel's work includes large-scale celebrations of amateur performance, such as Because I Sing which featured sixteen London choirs, and le Sacre du Printemps : a 'mass choreography' that involved 300 participants from various Ghent dance groups.

Alain Platel has acknowledged Pina Bausch as an important inspiration, calling himself 'a child of Bausch'.

Alain Platel has pursued an artistic career, rather than a profession or a craft.

Alain Platel is a unique personality, and has no parallel in the world of dance and theatre.

Alain Platel is able to communicate, without artificiality or affectation, all the anxieties, contradictions, desperation, dreams and drives of a fascinating and tragic young generation that he truly empathises with.