Behind the Craft

Aina Alegre

While the culture sector is finally speaking up about gender inequality, what is the reality on the ground? A recent report by the ACCN, France’s Association of National Choreographic Centers, notes that the number of women at the helm of these publicly funded dance venues has gone down significantly. In 2023, 63% were run by men. Against this male-dominated background, last January, choreographer Aina Alegre took over the co-direction of Grenoble’s National Choreographic Center (CCN) with dancer-performer Yannick Hugron. This past summer, they implemented a “gender equality charter” with the 18 other CCNs in order to reverse the trend.

As part of CN D Magazine’s “Behind the Craft” podcast series, Alegre discusses the multiple factors that hinder the career development of women in dance, from a lack of desire to apply for management positions to the difficulties they face in producing large-scale works. She also explains what “reparative parity,” a central measure of the charter designed to favor a temporary imbalance in favor of women, means to her.

Aina Alegre is a choreographer, dancer and performer, and the co-director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble. She approaches choreography as a terrain for opening up imaginary worlds around the body. Influenced by fiction as both genre and practice, her work explores the body in plastic environments, and her choreographic style is closely connected to rhythm and music. Her work also explores memory and the anthropology of gestures.

More information
ainaalegre.com
ccn-grenoble.com