YOUFA

Born on 31 December 1998 in the south of France, Alice Pautard alias Youfa discovered dance at the age of 4. Like many children of the 2000s, she was rocked by TV clips: “My father always recorded clips on cassettes, he loved it. My father, sensitive to music and video, enrolled her in her first dance class; this was the beginning of a passionate journey.

Academic, classical, modern jazz and contemporary dances made up his first years of learning. At the age of 10, as if by evidence, she turned to urban dances: hip-hop, dancehall and street jazz. She also practiced music hall and African dances. Over time, she developed a love for show and performance, in search of an attitude that characterises her.

Insatiable and determined, Youfa has developed a more personal approach to her art, which nevertheless bears the marks of a studied knowledge of her predecessors: Pina Bausch, Mourad Merzouki and Parris Goebel, key figures in the history of live performance. They inspire the overflowing expressiveness that marks her performances.

Youfaa integrates her entire history of musical registers to create hybrid movements. What makes her performances so unique is undoubtedly the essence of her creative process, which is based on the translation of her impalpable emotions into bodily phrases in a paradoxical manner. Indeed, her technical gesture oscillates between the clarity of her movements and her style, with a more tribal approach to the music, as if it transcended her body.

When asked what she is looking for through her art, she speaks of catharsis, always with the aim of self-fulfilment and emotional transmission.