Collectif Quatrième Souffle

This collective was hatched in 2006 when Muriel Henry met hip-hop dancers Patrick Pirès (alias P.Lock) and Hakim Hachouche in Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu.

While touring internationally with this dance company, they noted the common points between their disciplines: an appetite for improvisation, audience participation, humour, and their penchant for performance, be it physical or verbal.

Keen to take things further, in 2009 they invited a drummer to come on board – and set up a lab around experimentation and improvisation, blending dance (hip-hop and contemporary), theatre and clowning. They write together, blending their tradecraft and shifting boundaries. Their first piece, Le 4e souffle (2011), premiered at the Suresnes Cités Danse festival, and gave the collective its name. Dubbed “a theatrical UFO” by Mourad Merzouki at the Karavel festival, the show toured for five years, racking up 100-plus performances in France and worldwide. Under Muriel Henry’s direction, the collective has continued its experimental output with a quartet, A flux tendu (2015), and a trio, Tu me suis ? (2017).

In 2019, two fresh pieces have enriched its repertoire: Chez moi, a duet with Vincent Simon and Muriel Henry; and L’adulte mode d’emploi, a short-form clowning solo for the classroom, by Muriel Henry.