Composing dance

Soa Ratsifandrihana
 

How are dance pieces composed? What tools do choreographers use to compose and notate the movements and the circulation of performers? Personalized note-taking, video, drawings, Laban or Benesh notation… there is not one single way to ‘write’ dance. The podcast Composing Dance explores the diversity of notation systems through dialogues with contemporary choreographers. 

Our guest is Brussels-based French and Malagasy dancer and choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana, the author of the solo g r oo v e (2021) and the quartet Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna (2024). Ratsifandrihana reveals the secrets of her choreographer’s notebooks in this interview with CN D Magazine Editor-in-Chief Belinda Mathieu.

An interview by Belinda Mathieu
Sound recording and editing by Charlotte Imbault
Sound design by Céline Gillain

Belinda Mathieu is a journalist and dance critic who works for several publications, including Télérama, Trois Couleurs and Sceneweb. She holds degrees in French literature (Université Paris-Sorbonne), journalism (ISCPA) and a MA in dance from Université Paris VIII. She is also the editor of CN D Magazine.

Charlotte Imbault is an artist and art critic whose work unfolds between writing and spoken word. She creates situations in which people who have never met come together—through sound editing, interviews, the creation of a journal, programming, exhibitions, conferences, or workshops. She was associate editor of Mouvement and co-founded the journal watt in 2017, conceived as an open-air studio. In 2018, she launched the podcast What You See.

Decolonizing dance (1): Filling in the gaps in history from France and Belgium
Marie Pons, CN D Magazine, 2026
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Rouge Cratère 
documentary by Soa Ratsifandrihana and Chloé Despax
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Research and notation presentations
CN D, 2026
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