Choreographer and dancer
Nicolas Zemmour graduated from the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional du Grand Avignon and was trained in the Folkwang Universität Essen, learning Pina Bausch’s dance technique and philosophy. Dancer at the Ballet Prejlocaj for many years, he left France for Canada in 2019 and created the ZemmourBallet in Sherbrooke. The ZemmourBallet acquired the status of Permanent Resident Company at the CASJB (Centre des Arts de la Scène Jean Besré) in 2022.
I think of dance as a vital way of expressing emotions, meaning and shapes. I go back to the origins of the word “e-motion”, meaning what is outside of dance’s movement, time, and space. Emotion is meant to take you further, beyond a story, beyond a feeling, beyond an understanding. I let my creation process carry me away and I transcend these concepts in my choreography. Dance becomes alive in a living body, freed from the weight of gravity.