Éric Minh Cuong Castaing

Born in Seine-Saint-Denis county, northeast of Paris, the choregrapher and visual artist Éric Minh Cuong Castaing, founder of the Shonen company (named after the Japanese word for teenage boy), was an associate artist at Ballet National de Marseille (2016-2019) and since 2020 has held the same post at the Comédie de Valence theatre.

Éric Minh Cuong Castaing leads creative endeavours (shows, installations, performances, films...) that connect dance with new technology (humanoid robots, drones, augmented reality, etc.). His projects, which he describes as in socius, take shape within social realities in partnership with institutions (research labs, schools, hospitals, NGOs) outside the arts world. He explores the relational modes of bodies and their representations in the age of technoscience – reaching beyond dualities such as art/society, reality/fiction, nature/culture, organic/artificial.

A graduate of the Gobelins school of visual arts (Paris), Éric Minh Cuong Castaing first worked for several years as a graphic designer for animated films. Curious about the relationship between body and image, as in real-time choreographic writing, he discovered hip-hop in 1997; then Japanese butoh with masters Carlotta Ikeda and Gyohei Zaitsu; and lastly contemporary dance, notably with the German choreographer VA Wölfl.

Castaing’s work, which receives backing in France and Europe, has garnered various awards in the fields of dance and contemporary art (Audi Talents 2017, Pulsar 2017, Scam “Brouillon d’un rêve numérique” grant, “Créateur numérique Lagardère” grant, SACD Beaumarchais dance grant, first prize for artistic and cultural audacity from the Fondation Culture & Diversité).

He was one of three award winners at the first-ever European Dansathon, initiated by the BNP Paribas Foundation and Lyon’s Maison de la Danse.