THE


FRENCH INDEPENDANCERS


a little known group of people with a key act…. The 11 dancers (Florence, Nathalie, Ulrich, Didier, Serge, Christelle, Michèle, Nadine, Amélie, Marie and myself, Franck) put together all their personalities and their communal dream of becoming the one group, the French Independancers. And we all feel as if that dream did become a reality for the space of a few unforgettable moments.


We were proud of the applause and proud of our choreographers.


For Nathalie Jolivot, this was an It all started during the 2010 CBA with


a little chat between myself and Laurent. We had talked about Line dance in France and in particular, how things were changing in terms of music, style and dance ability and levels. We agreed that it would be a splendid idea to showcase what a new group of amateur dancers from France could do and show perhaps a different image.


I liked the challenge to fi nd a group


of dancers who could perform perform brand new chereography specially designed for the Crystal Boot Awards. I knew we had to fi nd the right people, the right music and the right dance. I also knew that we had the perfect choreographers with Florence Chevallet and Nathalie Jolivot, two talented ladies who have already gained a worldwide following with some well written dances.


The girls started working together in the


spring of 2010 to write the choreography after we had made our minds up on the music mix. The music search took us a whole day but I think it was worthwhile.


We then started to work with the group


itself that would eventually become The French Independancers. We wanted, the whole eleven of us, to learn and become


a “belle equipe” (fi ne team). We knew that Line dance such as we had witnessed at the Crystal Boot event was top level and we wanted to be as good as we possibly could.


We rehearsed one Sunday each


month, as we all had work and family commitments. None of us lived in the same counties and we had to work individually on the dance. We then would meet once a month and rehearse together what we had learnt alone. The huge diffi culty was to ensure that the group would be able to reach the level and the competence needed to give a performance as close to perfection as possible. Our backgrounds were all different and so were our abilities.


The rehearsals then had to be arranged more often as the CBA date started to near. We also had meetings on the general presentation of


the dance and


our costumes. Every person of the group brought his or her own idea. We had become the team we wanted to be, every voice was an important one, everybody counted.


and yet,


On the night, we were very nervous very


excited. We also felt


honoured that the organizers of an event as prestigious as the CBA had trusted


Florence Chevallet has similar thoughts. “I


think Line dance is not always


understood at its true worth in the world of dance. So even if our style of dancing is seen as achievable by everyone, there is no doubt it can become as complex and as rich, technically, as any other genres.


This challenge was worrying too. interesting and I had been to the CBA


before…could we be good enough to be on stage?


For us choreographers the diffi culty was to bring a group of dancers together, all with different levels and ages and make them work as one. It did require lots of work, tenacity, patience and dedication. It has not always been plain sailing but we are all thrilled to have participated in this unique experience. Thank you Franck to have started us on this wondrous journey and also to Betty and Laurent who trusted us from the onset….”


experience she would not have missed. She says: “This was a personal challenge. To be able to put together four cohesive minutes of dance with great music and costumes was a terrifi c achievement. To work with two brains and four feet was new for me. Florence and I knew we had to complement each other and though we had some doubts along the way, neither of us (nor the rest of the group) ever lost the motivation deep within our hearts. I am proud to have been involved in showing what a group of social and amateur dancers could do in front of so many professionals that night.”


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