CONTEMPORARY DANCE

Arriving in Edinburgh to work with X Factor Dance, Philippe Decouflé was faced with an unexpected array of talent. ‘I was surprised at how good the dancers are,’ says the legendary French choreographer. ‘They’re very experienced and open-minded, and it’s nice to create work with a group like that.’

Decouflé is indeed working with the strongest line-up of dancers X Factor has ever seen, including ex-members of DV8, Richard Alston and Scottish Dance Theatre. But the real feather in X Factor’s cap is Decouflé himself. Playing alongside a new work by artistic director, Alan Greig, Morceaux Choisis (Choice Cuts) will be the first Decouflé work seen in Scotland for many years.

Over the past two decades, Decouflé has staged countless major shows, including ceremonies for the Winter Olympics and the spectacular Decodex and Shazam, not to mention choreographing New Order’s ‘True Faith’ video. X Factor’s comparatively small budget, however, forced Decouflé to hark back to his early creativity.

‘Because it’s a relatively small production, I couldn’t develop much in terms of video or sets,’ explains Decouflé. ‘So I’ve gone back to something quite simple and pure. Using little parts of pieces I’ve done before mixed with some new work. There’s a lot of dance in it.’