Manuel Vignoulle

Bio
Dancer with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and choreographer..

Born in France, he studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Danse (Paris) and went on to work with contemporary French choreographers including Claude Brumachon, Corinne Lanselle, Karine Saporta and Bernardo Montet.

Manuel worked with Rheda, a modern-jazz choreographer, and has performed for television, film, fashion, opéra and musicals. He has also been assistant choreographer in collaboration with Alvin Ailey (USA), Het Nationale Ballet (Netherland) and State Theater Dance Company (South Africa).

In recent years, Manuel danced for Ballet du Grand Theatre de Genève (Switzerland) - which was named best European ballet company in 2006. There he worked with choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Adonis Foniadakis, Cisco Aznar, Annabelle Ochoa Lopez, Carolyn Carlson, Benjamin Millepied, John Neumeier and Malou Airaudo, among others.

Manuel appeared as a guest for La La La Human Steps (Canada), the Het Nationale Ballet (Netherlands) and State Theatre (South Africa).

He has also choreographed and performed his own work «Urban Evidence», «A-WAY», «4-3-2» and «Conversation» at the Geneva Festival, the Geneva Opera House and the Theatre du Loup (Switzerland).

At Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (New York) Manuel has perfromed works by Ohad Naharin, Hofesh Shechter, Didy Veldman, Jo Stromgren, Alexander Eckman and Benoit-Swan Pouffer.

Class Description
My class draws its inspiration from the various experiences I have had throughout my carrier, whether in contemporary, modern-jazz or ballet training.

We start with a pre warm-up in the centre which is directly inspired from Yoga, in order to loosen the body and prepare it for the ballet barre. Once at the barre, I work on a mixture of classical technique, as well as a lot of upper body movement.
The class then leads up to a piece of set choreography, where the dancers will challenge their technique, their understanding of space and their own interpretation.

Often dancers can only afford one class a day. It is essential for this class to be complete so that they can remain in shape mentally and physically, in order to be prepared for the various casting calls and auditions they may have.

The class is for the dancers to test, challenge and better their ability to follow the given combination with accuracy and precision, but without losing their personality in the process, or the quality that makes each one of them unique.
Essentially, the class is the place where you experiment new ways of using your body, new ways of thinking within your body for a better understanding of your dancing.