SOPHIE LAPLANE / Choreographer
Photo Credit ©Rimbaud Patron
Franco-British choreographer Sophie Laplane is based in the UK. She trained at The Conservatoire National Supérieure de Paris and spent a year at Ballet de Lorraine before dancing with Scottish Ballet for thirteen years. After taking up her career as a choreographer, the artistic director of Scottish Ballet Christopher Hampson appointed Sophie Artist in Residence in 2017.
Her creations for Scottish Ballet include Oxymore,, showcased at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013, Maze, which was later adapted for film and won Best Screen Dance Short at the 2015 San Francisco Dance Film Festival and Sibilo , billed as part of Scottish Ballet’s 2016 Autumn Tour and which in 2019 had its US premiere at the Ballet West Choreographic Festival in Salt Lake City. Her latest work, Dextera, a one act piece was created as part of Scottish Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Spring Bill, alongside Sir Kenneth Macmillan’s Elite Syncopations. As part of Scottish Ballet’s Digital Season 2019, Sophie created A Work in a Week: Idle Eyes which was live-streamed throughout the process.
For Ballet Black, Sophie created, Click! which premiered at The Barbican, London in 2019, and the previous year she created Watusi for the National Youth Ballet UK at Sadler's Wells, London.
Sophie was first invited to take part in New York City Ballet's New York Choreographic Institute in 2018 when she created Vis-à-Vis and returns there again in Spring 2020. Concurrently, Scottish Ballet will present Sibilo at the Joyce Theater in New York and in London at the Royal Opera house, the Linbury Theatre in March 2020.
Sophie has a Masters Degree in Choreography, from The Central School of Ballet, London.
Her choreographic style is characterised by its inventiveness and wit , portraying the complexity of human interaction from the raw and brutal to the poetic and tender. Above all, Sophie wants her work to be accessible and for audiences to relate to the humanity inherent in her choreography.
Photo Credit ©Kenny Mathieson
Photo Credit ©Rimbaud Patron
Photo Credit © Christina Marie Riley
"For me choreography is a way of creatively expressing myself. It's the desire of wanting to translate a concept into movement. It's a sort of puzzle, most of the time it feels as though you are a creative detective in many ways - you have this idea or concept and the concept is effectively a big puzzle. You have to find the links between different parts of the puzzle and you don't know where each turn will take you.
I enjoy using everyday things as simple props choreographically. I am drawn to strong visual images and these play into the quirky and angular movements that i use within my work. I feel humour is both useful and interesting on stage. Most of all i try to create something that people can relate to or identify with.
The puzzle eventually makes sense when all of the pieces finally fit together but there are always little sections or extra pieces left. These become part of the next puzzle i create."