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UNDER/GROUND

Danses au centre

ballroom Scene Rennes • BOUZID AIT ATMANE • ELAMINE MAECHA • ENGRENAGE[S] • HABIBITCH • INÈS MAURICIO • COLLECTIF OFFENSE • KARIM KH • LES RATZ • LINDA HAYFORD • MACKENZY BERGILE • MOUNIA NASSANGAR • MWENDWA MARCHAND • NADIA GABRIELI KALATI • OUMRATA KONAN • OUSMANE SY • PARADOX-SAL · PRIMITIF • RAPHAEL STORA • SAIDO LEHLOUH • SANDRINE LESCOURANT • SUZANNE DEGENNARO • W*ACK À RENNES

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The 2026 Edition

DANSES AU CENTRE

Hip hop, funk, house, waacking, dancehall and voguing were not born in dance studios. They emerged within communities where dance was first and foremost an act of existence and resistance—carrying diasporic memories, colonial legacies, queer identities, lived experiences of violence, and fiercely claimed joy.

UNDER/GROUND is dedicated to these dance forms. Led by the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne in partnership with the TNB and 19 partner venues and organisations, the event bringing together 24 artistic teams for more than 45 events that transform personal experience into collective strength, and the stage into a space for celebration, remembrance, and affirmation.

Performances, talks, workshops, premieres, parties and training sessions: each offers a way of creating together differently, while affirming that the dance forms long pushed to the margins are already at the centre—on their own terms, in a space that is full, legitimate and entirely theirs.

PERFORMANCES

Bodies that have invented everything. From these languages of resistance and self-affirmation has emerged a contemporary dance scene that is both distinctive and richly diverse—a vitality reflected throughout this programme. Sixteen performances, including six new creations, to discover on stage.

Interférence(s)

A programme where artistic works, places and voices come together. Performances, carte blanches and conversations create opportunities to explore the tensions, resonances and solidarities that connect different stories. Open to everyone, and free of charge.

Featurings

Battles, parties and jams created in collaboration with the people who keep Rennes’ dance scene alive every day. The collectives at the heart of the city’s hip hop, funk, whacking and ballroom communities take the lead in six events, from the dance floor to the cypher.

Cinema

A documentary film series that makes viewing an experience in itself. Those who dance, those who film, those who watch: different ways of seeing, framing and sensing bodies in motion. Each screening is followed by a discussion with the artists featured in the programme.

• As part of Clair Obscur’s Rendez-vous at the Arvor • In partnership with TNB Cinema •

Participate

Dance battles and parties

A 100% locking battle, a waacking night at the Salle de la Cité, a celestial kiki ball at Le MeM, a jam where children are free to step into the circle whenever they choose, a battle designed as an introduction to the fundamentals of the form, and an opening night where music and dance become one. Whether you come to watch, dance, compete or simply take it all in, there is a place for you.

Open/ground

Professional Days · 13–16 October

Self-taught artists operate with their own logics. Institutions with their own habits. Four days dedicated to working through that gap: encounters, round tables, shared tools, and a day focused on dancers’ health, at the CCN and Hôtel Pasteur.

Open to arts professionals and anyone concerned by these issues. Free, registration required.

• Process • Tools • Talks •

Workshops and trainings

Watching others practise. Trying without having to justify oneself. Digging into a form, a history, a gesture, until something resonates.

Throughout the event, open-access training sessions and workshops with artists from the programme offer two ways of learning and deepening one’s practice.

• Workshops • Trainings • 

Explore the programme

  • THE SOUND IS YOURS 8:00PM | Les Ateliers du Vent Tickets
  • Focus Funk X EOV locking battle 2:30PM | CCN / St-Melaine Tickets
  • Interférence(s): Bodies, Memories and Legacies 11:00AM | Musée des Beaux-Arts — Maurepas Free
  • Style Wars — Tony Silver et Henry Chalfant 6:00PM | Cinéma Arvor Tickets
  • A Conversation about Dance History 7:00PM | Le Conservatoire - Site Blosne Free
Play

Meet the artists

Collectif-Whack-a-Rennes
W*ack à Rennes — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Fostering an Inclusive Local Scen Rooted in club and queer cultures, W*ack à Rennes nurtures an inclusive local scene...
Suzanne-Degennaro
Suzanne Degennaro — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne The Dancefloor as Political Space Through whacking, Suzanne Degennaro has developed an artistic language in which the body becomes a...
Sandrine-Lescourant
Sandrine Lescourant — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Looking Otherwise Self-taught and forged in battle culture, Sandrine Lescourant develops, through Compagnie Kilaï, a research practice exploring the body...
Saido-Lehlouh
Saido Lehlouh — Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Otherness as a Starting Point The floor as a starting point, the danced encounter as a manifesto: a...
DSC02070_paysage
Raphael Stora — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne. Body, Camera, Lineage Between cinema and hip hop, and between personal and family histories, Raphaël Stora returns to the body...
francois-bazenet-danseur-compagnie-primitif-opera-de-rennes
Primitif — U/G 2026 Partner Dance as Primitive Echo of Our Existence The first company to bring parkour to the stage, Compagnie Primitif develops a raw form of hip hop in constant dialogue...
Paradox-Sal
Paradox-Sal — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Bound by House Founded by Ousmane Sy, Paradox-Sal is an all-female crew that brings together multiple styles around a shared language:...
Ousmane-Sy
Ousmane Sy — Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne House at Heart From Antony to international stages, Ousmane Sy made house dance a unifying language shaped by...
Collectif-Whack-a-Rennes
W*ack à Rennes — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Fostering an Inclusive Local Scen Rooted in club and queer cultures, W*ack à Rennes nurtures an inclusive local scene...
Suzanne-Degennaro
Suzanne Degennaro — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne The Dancefloor as Political Space Through whacking, Suzanne Degennaro has developed an artistic language in which the body becomes a...
Sandrine-Lescourant
Sandrine Lescourant — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Looking Otherwise Self-taught and forged in battle culture, Sandrine Lescourant develops, through Compagnie Kilaï, a research practice exploring the body...
Saido-Lehlouh
Saido Lehlouh — Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Otherness as a Starting Point The floor as a starting point, the danced encounter as a manifesto: a...
DSC02070_paysage
Raphael Stora — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne. Body, Camera, Lineage Between cinema and hip hop, and between personal and family histories, Raphaël Stora returns to the body...
francois-bazenet-danseur-compagnie-primitif-opera-de-rennes
Primitif — U/G 2026 Partner Dance as Primitive Echo of Our Existence The first company to bring parkour to the stage, Compagnie Primitif develops a raw form of hip hop in constant dialogue...
Paradox-Sal
Paradox-Sal — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Bound by House Founded by Ousmane Sy, Paradox-Sal is an all-female crew that brings together multiple styles around a shared language:...
Ousmane-Sy
Ousmane Sy — Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne House at Heart From Antony to international stages, Ousmane Sy made house dance a unifying language shaped by...
Oumrata-Konan
Oumrata Konan — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Making the Intimate Political Whacking, self-taught learning, and academic training: a dancer who turns the body into a space where...
Nadia-Gabrieli-Kalati
Nadia Gabrieli Kalati — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Where Memories Meet House dance, Pan-African heritage, and bodily memory converge in a research practice that turns the body...
Mwendwa-Marchand
Mwendwa Marchand — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne One Dance, Two Legacies Between Afro-Caribbean energies and academic techniques, a choreographer who turns dancehall into a bridge between two...
Mounia-Nassangar
Mounia Nassangar — Associate Artist with FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne TAKING A STANCE THROUGH THE BODY Choreographer, model, and producer, Mounia Nassangar turns whacking into a language that moves...
Mackenzy-Bergile
Mackenzy Bergile — Associate Artist with FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne The body as memory Choreographer, self-taught pianist, and poet, Mackenzy Bergile treats gesture and sound as a single material...
Linda-Hayford
Linda Hayford — Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Metamorphosis as Method With Shifting Pop, Linda Hayford develops a gestural language of metamorphosis that never settles into...
Les-Ratz
Les Ratz — Collective supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Rooted in Rennes’ Streets Founded more than ten years ago in Rennes, Les Ratz carry breaking as a street...
Karim-Kh
Karim KH — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Tow worlds, one language From the underground battle scene to contemporary stages, between choreography and filmmaking, Karim KH builds a...
Jenny-Victoire
Jenny Victoire Collectif Offense — Supported by FAIR-E / Rennes et de Bretagne Indiscipline as Method A musician, technical director, and performer, Jenny Victoire Charreton develops an “undisciplined” practice at the crossroads of...
Ines-Mauricio
Inès Mauricio — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Between gestures Posture, gesture, presence: a long-term research practice into what bodies carry and transmit without saying it. Instagram Instagram...
DECOLONISER_1
Habibitch — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne. A Mind in Motion From voguing to sociology, from the lecture hall to the dancefloor: an artist who never separates gesture...
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Engrenage — U/G 26 Partner GROOVE GENERATOR A Rennes-based production house and artistic workshop built around groove and African-American cultural traditions. Instagram Dripicons-web Facebook Ei-social_youtube_circle Founded in 2003 by hip hop dancer Franck...
SOURCE18
Elamine Maecha — Associate artist with FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne Design, a Language of Its Own Graphic designer, typographer, and researcher, he deconstructs visual representations of hip hop to...
Daphne-Demaison
Daphné Demaison Collectif offense From clay to stage Model maker, ceramicist, and performer, Daphné Demaison brings visual art, sculpture, and performance into dialogue in a practice that does not choose between making and...
Bouzid-Ait-Atmane
Bouzid Ait Atmane —Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne A LANGUAGE OF ENCOUNTERS From battle to stage, from video game to performance: Bouzid Ait Atmane builds a...
BALLROOM
Ballroom Scene Rennes — Supported by FAIR-E / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne. PERFORMING TO EXIST Born in 2021, Ballroom Scene Rennes is one of the most active ballroom scenes in France,...

Lastest news

Battle & Ball: How to Register

Registration: How It Works A 100% locking battle, a whacking night, a celestial kiki ball: three events where you’re not just here to watch. Whether...

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Ticketing: how it works

Where, when and how to book your tickets The UNDER/GROUND online ticketing opens on 24 August. The system is simple: everything can be booked via...

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Cinema: watching bodies

Big screen: bodies beyond the frame Two screenings at Cinéma Arvor extend the programme onto the big screen. Those who dance, those who film, those...

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Open/Ground : professional days

OPEN/GROUND: four days spent working through the gap Self-taught artists operate with their own logics. Institutions with their own habits. In hip hop dance, voguing,...

Read more

Blossom: a shared stage

Blossom : a shared breath On 9 October at L’Aire Libre, six artists from the Kilaï company and around fifteen local residents will share the...

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Discover the UNDER/GROUND teaser

The UNDER/GROUND teaser is now online Bodies filmed at the heart of the movement, a Crystallmess track in sustained tension: the UNDER/GROUND 2026 teaser, directed...

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UNDERGROUND.BZH

+45 events · 16 performances (including 6 new creations) · 3 carte blanche projects · 4 crossovers · 1 participatory performance · 6 Feat. (battles, parties & club formats) · 9 Interference(s) · 1 international research residency · 4 professional days · 1 film series · workshops & training sessions

And more to discover as the website unfolds.

In partnership with TNB — National Theatre of Brittany · Guillaume Régnier Hospital Centre · Clair Obscur · Rennes Conservatory · Marmaille Festival / Lillico · Hôtel Pasteur · La Criée, Centre for Contemporary Art · National Choreographic Centre (CND) · Le MeM · Le Triangle, City of Dance · Théâtre de Poche · Les Ateliers du Vent · Rennes Public Libraries · Lycée Bréquigny · Maintenant Festival · L’Autre Lieu Media Library – Le Rheu · Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes · Théâtre de l’Aire Libre – le joli collectif · Le Tambour – Cultural Department, Rennes 2 University

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