DK-BEL COMPANY
PRESS
France 3, 3000 and some
‘The choreographic work engages itself in the retransmission of emotions as well as the experience of the crossings, without forgetting those who were lost on the way. A militant action, this piece has the objective of putting forth a welcoming, generous, human relationship. ’
Portuguese television, Anamesa Festival
Le Petit Journal, Lauréate Trophée des Français de l’étranger
‘Head and hands overflowing with ideas; a daily aspect of Sophie's everyday life. Who ever thought that dance and disability were incompatible? In any case not her. After her arrival in Greece in 2010, this choreographer put into place the piece ‘Anamesa mas’, ‘in between us’. Composed of 17 dancers of whom 5 are heavily disabled, this project has gradually evolved throughout the years to finally become a well-known international festival. Always striving to overcome limitations, Sophie has also co-produced the first choreographic underwater performance in the world.’
Courrier International, Portrait of Sophie Bulbulyan
‘To render visible what we cannot see’. This is the goal that Sophie Bulbulyan put for herself when creating her dance company. An expat now rewarded for her militant and humanistic performances. ’
France 24, Portrait Sophie Bulbulyan
Le Petit Journal, Sophie Bulbulyan Choreographer
‘Sophie Bulbulyan is profoundly convinced that it is through artistic and athletic activities that a social impact can be made, especially by allowing the participants to feel human. It is no doubt with this certitude that she finds the strength to produce these crazy projects combining able and heavily disabled dancers, from different nationalities and performed on an international scale.’
Le Mouv, Debout
‘When one types ‘Villiers le Bel’ in the google search, a photo appears. It takes place in the street, it is night, there is light coming from a lamp post, but what it enlightens isn’t a heart, instead it is an enflamed car. A police car completely burnt out and severely run over. Near it, behind a security line, stands two young individuals, dressed in jogs with pulled down hoods. This is the image that Parisians have of Villiers-le-Bel, it is in fact for this specific reason that the Val d’Oise neighborhood is notorious for, including the 2007 riots. Nevertheless, there are also other events taking place, some that may even bring goosebumps. DK-BEL dance company allows (apparently ingrate) teenagers and disabled (apparently completely immobile) individuals to dance. And it is beautiful. Absolutely stunning.’
National Greek television NET, Anamesa Mas
Le Parisien, Debout
'A performance combining both theater and dance, with DK-BEL Company […] accompanied by four professional artists, non-professionals from ACTA Company and occasional comedians from Villiers-le-Bel wishing to ‘show a population that can co-exist and have values’. ‘We can come from Villiers-le-Bel and be proud, with our head held high.’
Télérama, The Zapappatamo Family
‘Everyone arrives with their own story, perception of the body and esthetic references (hip hop or breakdance has left traces), but it is definitely contemporary dance that is practiced within an ambitious artistic circle.’
Canards Boiteux, Comme Unique
‘This exceeds the label of what beauty is, what Dk-Bel proposed.’
Patrimoine en Val de France, The DK-BEL Company,Sept 2009
The audience, won over, hesitates between emotion and admiration. The performance evokes even more respect taking into consideration that its evolution took place in Villiers-le-Bel, a neighborhood rather unknown for its engagement in solidarity projects… DK-BEL pulls it off very well.
Transition, by Hélène Merlin-Kajman, The DK-BEL Company
‘The performance of DK-BEL and the Yamas is a proposal – an exposition: we are exposed to a transfiguration that wounds our hope of an imaginary healing towards our imperfections, which we most often ask of beauty […] However, here we find that the fervor of the dancers banishes any prospect of burlesque. There is joy- joyous amazement- and in this new path, comfort and imaginary healing, without transiting through expulsion.’
L'Express, The DK-BEL Company
‘For each festival, a standing ovation is made for the small troop. ‘These young teenagers and disabled individuals from the hoods are closer than what may seem, states Corinne. They are all animated by the shared feeling of rebellion; whether from the complicated hoods or from a wheelchair.’ An experience from which every participant returned transformed. ‘For the first time, the disabled dancers were mixed with the able ones, which placed them in the same problematics of a regular teenager’ highlights Corinne. ‘At first, we had tears in our eyes, almost pity’ adds Sophie. Today it isn’t disabled youths that dance with able individuals. In our heads, the difference has been erased.’
Théâtre du Blog, Debout
‘Acta and Dk-Bel have respectively staged and choreographed for the forty professional and non-professional artists that have made the stage vibrate with their impetus, accompanied by a remarkable work of entrances and exits of which the complexity has been noted in the circumstances.’
Reportage LCI,Debout
‘In our neighborhoods: Culture to regain confidence’.