Biography
Born Frédéric Gafner in Geneva in 1969 from parents in dance and photography, Foofwa d’Imobilité studied at the Ecole de Danse de Genève and was a member of the Geneva-based Ballet Junior. He danced professionally with the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany (1987-1990) and with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, in New-York (1991-1998).
In 1998, he started his own work with solos and duets. Basing himself in Geneva, he founded Neopost Ahrrrt in 2000 and created : Media Vice Versa (2002), on media and digital images, Perform.dancerun.2 (2003), on the relations between dance and sport, and Injuria (2004), on the precariousness of dancers’ conditions. He collaborated on three pieces with French choreographer Thomas Lebrun: Le Show (2001), Un-Twomen-Show (2004) and MIMESIX (2005) and toured throughout Europe with them. He created also Benjamin de Bouillis (2005), a solo about out-of-body experiences, Live & Dance, (2005) a piece for 8 dancers or non-dancers, Incidences (2006), a multi-media and indeterminate piece about rituals and primitivity, BodyToys(2007), a trio about the manipulated bodies of the entertainment business, and The Making of Spectacles(2008), a quartet asking the audience to construct the dance by voting in a public, democratic process. Foofwa made numerous dance videos and collaborated with artists such as Alan Sondheim, Nicolas Rieben, Christian Marclay and Antoine Lengo and has had large group pieces commisioned by the Nederlands Dans Theater 2, the Bern Ballet and the Ballet Junior.
Foofwa won several international dance competitions, among them, a bronze medal at the 1986 International Dance Competition in Jackson, Mississipi, a 1987 Prix Professionnel at the Prix de Lausanne, a 1995 New York Bessie Award and the 2006 Swiss Prize for dance and choreography. He is a recepient of a 1999 Swiss-based Fondation Leenaards cultural grant, and a 2009 individual grant from the New York-based Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Since 2000, he has received financial support for his projects from public and private funds in Switzerland. For 2007 to 2009, Neopost Ahrrrt / Foofwa d’Imobilité is receiving generous support from the Arts Council of Switzerland Pro Helvetia, the City of Geneva’s Department of Cultural Affairs, and the State of Geneva ‘s Department of Public Instruction.
Foofwa has performed as a dancer around the world, notably at the Paris Opera, the Fenice Theater in Venice, Italy, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. His work has been presented by The Kitchen, Chez Bushwick and the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale de la danse in Lyon, France, and over 40 other cities in Europe.
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