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Our Team
BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
President: Monique Simier
Treasurer: Clara Saholy
Secretary: Géraldine Paganini
BE PART OF THE TEAM
Currently no positions are available. If you are interested in being part of the administrative, artistic or volunteer team of Compagnie Mot pour Mot, you can send us a spontaneous application by email with your CV, cover letter and your availability dates, we will reply as soon as we can : compagniemotpourmot@gmail.com
ADMINISTRATIVE AND ARTISTIC TEAM
Chartered accountant firm
Accounting department
Clara Barbuscia was born in Marseille, in the south of France. She was introduced to dance and theater from childhood within her family and took her first steps on stage around the age of 15 at the Théâtre de la Plaine in the northern districts of Marseille. After studying dance at the Sorbonne University in Paris, she continued her formal training for four years at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. In parallel with her training, she learned the techniques of Lester Horton, Martha Graham, José Lemon, Merce Cunningham, etc. During this period, she went to teach at the dance school of the Federal University of Salvador de Bahia (UFBA) in Brazil and specialized in Yorubas and Afro-Brazilian dances. From 1985 to 1987, Clara joined Eneida Castro's Compagnie Orisha, a modern Afro-Brazilian dance company. She is multilingual, and speaks five languages fluently.
In 1987, she joined the Dance Theater Factory, in the framework of an exchange dynamic between New York and Paris, which quickly changed its name to that of Mot pour Mot back in Europe. She has adapted and staged new works by contemporary authors such as Henri Michaux, Jacques Prévert, Magyd Cherfi, Alain Monnier, Jacques Rouxel, Bernard Leblon and most recently the poet Ronny Someck, and collaborates with several dancers from the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv. Choreographer, dancer, actress, author and director, Clara Barbuscia is also a member of the SACD (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers). She has also been acting director and jury at the intercommunal conservatory of music and dramatic arts Manitas de Plata de Sète and an approved teacher of Horton and Dunham techniques at the Marais de Paris Dance Center. In 38 years of activity within the Company, she has toured all over the world and received several honorary awards.
FRANCK LIBERT
Actor
CÉCILE COMBREDET
Actress
Franck Libert is a French actor. He studied cinema at the Conservatoire National de Région de Marseille for three years between 1994 and 1997. He made his stage debut in 1995, appearing in a number of plays including Tribune Est (1997), Octobre (2003), Alone in Babylone (2007) and Inutile de faire des économies, le bonheur ne s'achète pas (2013). In 1996, he began his career in front of the camera, starring in Josée Dayan's Les Héritiers. On the small screen, the actor has appeared in a number of popular productions, including Caïn (2012), Le Stagiaire (2016), Tandem (2017), Section de recherches (2018) and Alex Hugo (2019). Also in Plus belle la vie, he plays a number of roles, including the manager of a bar-restaurant and a police captain. His film credits include Taxi (1998), Ravages (2007), Cassos (2012) and La Vraie Vie des profs (2013). In 2022, he won the lead role in the film Pas... de quartier. In 2012, he founded and became artistic director of the Compagnie Haut les crânes. Through the company, he also works with a variety of organisations, as part of forum theatre and various other activities. On television, he joined the cast of the series Ici tout commence en 2022, playing chef Alban Christo.
Cécile Combredet is a French actress, puppeteer, singer and playwright. She has worked as a performer with Matthieu Penchinat, Compagnie Lackaal Dukric, Compagnie BAO, Compagnie Humani Théâtre and Compagnie International Alligator. Over the last 10 years, she has been involved in the creation of around ten shows for young audiences, which have been programmed at Théâtre D'Ô, Théâtre de la Vista and Montpellier Quartier Libre. As an actress, she has also appeared in several series and films: Le Piano (2010), Le Secret d'Elise (2015), La Promesse du Feu (2016), Le Pont du Diable (2018), Candice Renoir (2020), Zaï Zaï Zaï (2020), ReuSSS (2022), Mister Spade (2024), Les Pennacs: Un Air de Famille (2024), etc.
YANKALLE FILTSER
Dancer
Yankalle Filtser is a freelance dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. A graduate of Maslool in Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, he became a certified Gaga Technique teacher after working with the Batsheva Dance Company, the Inbal Dance Company and the Kibbutz Dance Company. He is the youngest member of the Israeli Choreographers Association. Yankalle Filtser has received numerous grants from the America Israeli Cultural Foundation, Danceweb of the International Impulstanz Festival in Vienna, Ministry of Culture and Sports, Pais Foundation, Clore Foundation, Rabinovich Foundation, Batsheva Excellence Project, MiMoDa studio Los Angeles. He is a member of the Yafo Creative and The Pool collectives. He has created artistic projects, choreographic works and workshops in studios, companies, international stages and prestigious institutions throughout the world such as: Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Mahsan 2, Batsheva Ensemble Dancers Create shows, Inbal Theater, USC Glorya Kaufman School, Chapman University in Los Angeles, Studio XL and Human Bodies in Italy, CDCN Les Hivernales in Avignon, The Gibney in New York, InShadow Festival in Lisbon, Marameo and Dock11 in Berlin, etc. As a model, he was defined as ‘the next face of the Israeli modelling world’ by AT magazine and has taken part in productions and fashion shows for major brands: H&M worldwide by Erdem, American Eagle, Erroca, Renuar, ATA Wear, Maya Negri, Carolina Lemke Berlin, Opticana, Weshoes, Azrieli Group, Story, Vonberg, Homecore Paris, Gindi TLV Fashion Week, Luxottica, Hed Mayner, Castro, Comme Il Faut and Boutique Verner. Represented by the Yuli agency, he now works as a freelance model and has appeared in a number of magazines, including Vogue Italia.
IMED ALIBI
Musician
IRENE SCARPATO
Singer
MARZOUK MEJRI
Musician
Imed Alibi is a renowned Tunisian percussionist and musician. Born in Maknassy in 1978, he began playing percussion at an early age in popular and classical orchestras in North Africa and the Middle East. He moved to Montpellier in the early 2000s to study at Paul Valery University. In 2002 he joined the music group ‘Les Boukakes’, touring with them for eight years and producing two studio albums ‘Bledi’ (2004) and ‘Marra’ (2008), the group was nominated for a BBC 3 Music Award in 2006. In 2014, he released his first solo album ‘SAFAR’ which was very well received and reviewed by many prestigious media. He also recorded music for films such as ‘Palestro’, ‘Les prisonniers du FLN’, and Ayat Najafi's ‘No land’. Imed became artistic director and programmer of the Carthage International Festival from 2020 to 2021, the Carthage Musical Days in 2019, and the Sousse International Percussion Festival for 3 years. He has been a member of the jury for Visa for Music in Morocco, Babel Music XP in Marseille, the Institut Français and Music in Africa. As an artistic advisor, he worked for 5 years with Le +SilO+ in the south of France, recently with Candid Foundation in Germany on the Alhan Libya project and with Massive Music in London in the UK. He works for UNESCO's Music and Sustainable Development programme in Morocco. He has also been chosen to be the expert on the subject for the future European capitals of culture. In 2021, he unveiled his new album ‘FRIGYA’, a blend of electronic and percussion, and was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture. In 2022, after being nominated for the Songlines Awards in the UK, he became head of the music department at L'Atelier des Artistes en Exil in Paris. In 2024, he was invited to speak at the AlUla Future Culture Summit. Having taken his music to over 60 countries, Imed Alibi is now a true ambassador for Tunisian and Mediterranean music around the world.
Irene Scarpato is a singer and interpreter. Born in Naples in 1989, she graduated in jazz music from the Conservatorio di Napoli San Pietro a Majella, having previously studied vocal technique with teachers of modern singing and opera. As a student, she took part in jazz training, performing with Maestro Valerio Silvestro. Her debut album ‘Stanza 223’ was released in 2014 with the group Titoli di Coda, in which she participates as a singer and co-writer of Italian pop music. The latter immediately won critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the S.I.A.E. prize at the ‘Senza Etichetta’ competition, Premio Bruno Lauzi, with the song ‘Seci fosse l'amore’, which she wrote, and the Biella Festival prize. In 2017 she took part in the Musicultura live auditions and won the critics' prize for best lyrics at the Bologna Musica D'Autore, she followed this up with her participation in the 2017 Venice Biennale lending her voice to the films “La Chimera” and “Veleno” by Diego Olivares. Her trio, Les Suonno D'ajere, have established themselves as the new ambassadors of Neapolitan song around the world, performing at major festivals and prestigious venues: Vienna's Konzerthaus, New York's Lincoln Center, India's JodpurRiff Festival, Slovakia's Bratislava Music Festival, Korea's SeoulMusic Week, Lisbon's WOMEX, Marseille's Babel Music XP. The trio has also won a number of prestigious awards: Premio della CriticaFausto Mesolella, Premio Folkest 2019, the Premio Bianca D'Aponte International, the Mention of the International Jury and the Best Interpretation Award in Cagliari at the Prix AndreaParodi. She takes the role of Ermelinda in ‘ScaloMarittimo’ directed by Giuseppe Miale di Mauro at the Teatro San Ferdinand in Naples. She sang some of the songs on the soundtrack of the film ‘Posso entrare? an ode to Naples’ by Trudy Styler.
Marzouk Mejri is a symbol of the fusion between North African and Mediterranean traditions, and a cultural activist who uses music to build bridges between cultures and generations. Marzouk Mejri, a musician originally from Tunisia, blends the sounds of his homeland with the rhythms of Naples, transforming each note into a universal message of hope and identity. Tunisian musician, singer and composer Marzouk Mejri specialises in percussion instruments such as the bendir, darbouka and tar, as well as wind instruments such as the nay and zokra. Born in Tebourba into a family of musicians - his father was a percussionist in a traditional brass band - Marzouk inherited a love of Tunisian music, which he has enriched with contemporary influences. In 1994, he moved to Naples and began collaborating with renowned Italian artists such as Daniele Sepe, James Senese, Peppe Barra, Peppino di Capri, La Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare and the 99 Posse. The city became his artistic base, where he developed a unique style that blends Tunisian traditions, Neapolitan sounds and Afro-Berber rhythms. In 2008, Marzouk Mejri founded the Marzouk Ensemble, took part in a number of world music festivals and released his first album, Genina. The album won him international acclaim. In 2011, he created Fanfara Station, a dynamic project that celebrates the acceptance and transmission of musical traditions. In 2018, Marzouk Mejri founded the duo Maluf System with Neapolitan musician Salvatore Morra. Their debut album, Eddiwen (2024), reinvents Tunisian music by exploring contemporary sounds. The project blends Sufi spirituality, Andalusian nuba and southern Tunisian rhythms in an innovative post-revival perspective. Alongside his musical career, Mejri is involved in cultural and social initiatives, including the documentary LA VIE DE MARZOUK (2017), produced by RAI Cinéma, which offers a glimpse into his life between Tunisia and Italy. He is also involved in promoting Tunisian culinary traditions, such as the artisanal couscous from his home village, the first Slow Food-labelled product in Africa.
NAOMY HUYNH
Dancer
MICHEL MARRE
Musician
Naomy Huynh is a dancer and circus artist. She studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Montpellier. She went on to work with Flogab Centre International des Disciplines Aériennes, Festival International du Cirque de Masse, Disneyland Paris and CIRCUS PROBST.
Michel Marre is a jazz trumpeter, buglist and tuba player. He plays euphonium and piano, and discovered jazz with the New Orleans group Hot Peppers. He studied Occitan and Breton music, which led him to compose and record several albums with François Tusques' Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra. Since then, he has continued to compose, contributing to numerous albums and playing with a host of musicians, including Archie Shepp Quintet, Jean-Marc Padovani, Louis Sclavis, Daniel Humair, Jean-Marie Carlotti, Marc Ducret, Gérard Pansanel, Serge Lazarevitch, Sophia Domancich and the Occitan singer Claudi Marti. He has toured in several major European festivals. He has also taken part in several creations for dance, theatre, cinema and television documentaries. In 1998, he was a laureate of the Villa Médicis and continued his writing work (repertoire for wind band and traditional musicians, contemporary music). In 1999, he created Gavachs, a large orchestra with Indian musicians.
TINA BARBUSCIA
Production Manager
Tina Barbuscia is a production manager. She holds a Master 2 in Performing Arts from the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III, during which time she spent a year at the School of Arts and Humanities of the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisbonne. At the same time, she pursued various professional experiences in festivals throughout Europe, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Paléo Festival Nyon, Cinemed Festival du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Montpellier, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs parallel selection during the Cannes Festival, LEFFEST Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival in Portugal, CDCN Les Hivernales in Avignon, Festival d'Avignon. She has since worked with several professional companies.
OLIVIER BOVET
Circus artist
Olvier Bovet is a circus artist, actor, clown, acrobat, stilt walker and climber. He created the Compagnie à Tiroirs which presents shows intended for a young and family audience. The Company travels the world: France, Brazil, USA, Italy, Portugal, Germany, etc. The Company has been noticed in various festivals in the young audience category: International Festival Au Bonheur des Mômes (Le Grand Bornand), Festival Les Zaccros de Ma Rue (Nevers), Festival Vivacité (Sotteville-lès-Rouen). Since 2024, he has worked with the Cie Happés de Mélissa Von Vépy.
TERESA MELO
Circus artist
Teresa Melo is a Brazilian circus performer, singer, percussionist and stilt-walker. She has performed at a number of festivals, including the Festival international Au Bonheur des Mômes (Le Grand Bornand), Les Zaccros de Ma Rue (Nevers) and Vivacité (Sotteville-lès-Rouen). Alongside Olivier Bovet, she is a member of Compagnie à Tiroirs.
EDITH VESPERINI
Costume designer
Edith Vesperini is a French costume designer and costume designer. Costume designer, she enters the cinema at the invitation of producer Michèle Ray-Gavras. It is in the cinema and on television that she flourishes, participating in more than 70 films, dressing Isabelle Huppert (A Dam against the Pacific by Rithy Panh) or Dominique Blanc (Alexandra David-Néel by Joël Farges), Jean Carmet (Miss Mona by Mehdi Charef) or Laurent Terzieff (The raft of the Medusa of Iradj Azimi). In 1992 and 2001, she was awarded two César for the best costumes. In 2022, she was decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
FRED GRÉMEAUX
Sound engineer
PATRIC JEAN
Director
Fred Grémeaux is a cinematographer, sound engineer, director and composer. He has worked as a reporter for CBS News in Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Middle East, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Fred has also worked for Arte, Canal +, TF1, France TV (2, 3, 5, Ô) and PBS. He has directed 18 films, including several portraits of artists, and has taken part in over 90 documentary and fiction films around the world. A trainer at F.E.M.I.S (Fondation Européenne des Métiers de l'Image et du Son), he has worked with such renowned artists as BB King, Jimmy Cliff, la Mano Négra, Rita Mitsouko, Jeff Mills, Zebda and Manu Chao. He has taken part in the production of numerous recordings of concerts, shows and operas, including some at the Festival d'Avignon and the Festival Montpellier Danse.
Patric Jean is a Belgian film-maker, author and lecturer living in France, as well as a philologist by training. He has made over a dozen films with great commitment, which have received numerous prestigious international awards. He was awarded first prize in spoken word at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. In 2003, one of his films, "La Raison du plus fort", was selected by ACID at the Cannes Festival. His public appearances in the press and media (L'Humanité, Le Monde, Charlie Hebdo, La Pensée et les Hommes, Echos, Huffington Post, Arte, RFI, BFM TV, Europe 1, etc.) have made him a media activist on issues such as gender equality, social issues, social exclusion and masculinism. At the same time, he has worked on video shows at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris and the Théâtre National in Brussels.
FRANCIS TILLE
Machinist
François Tille is head grip. He has worked on films with Mathieu Vadepied, Éric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, Claire Denis, Lola Doillon and others. He has taken part in over 90 films in the course of his career. He is best known for his participation in the films Catacombes (2014), Boomerang (1992) and Intouchables with Omar Sy and François Cluzet (2011).
PASCAL PEREZ / IMHOTEP
Composer
THOMAS DARNAL
Composer
YANICK DUMAS
Editor Director
Yannick Dumas is a director, editor and cinematographer. He began his career in Montpellier in 1986. In 2000, he began making documentaries, working for TF1 on a portrait of a family of 8 children living in self-sufficiency in the Pyrenees. Since then, he has worked mainly on documentaries for a number of TV channels. He works on scientific, historical and nature films. He is also particularly keen on cultural films. For example, he films all the dance, music and theatre festivals in the region for cultural TV channels. He also makes teasers for companies to showcase their performances.
Thomas Darnal is a French composer, musician, keyboardist and guitarist. He is the son of singer-songwriter Jean-Claude Darnal and actress Uta Taeger. In 1987, he joined the Mano Negra on keyboards through his high school friend Antoine Chao. After La Mano Negra, he founded the group P18. He accompanies Amadou and Mariam, as well as King Daddy Yod and Royal de Luxe.
PIERROT FERAL
Décorateur
Pierrot Feral is a designer, accessory designer and costume designer. He has contributed to the costumes of several performances by Compagnie Mot pour Mot, including Jacques Rouxel’s Les Shadoks, le retour, and Carl Norac’s Plus tard, Hagit Grossman’s Poetree. He also runs CTOON based in Sète.
EVA BARBUSCIA
Actress, Director
Eva Barbuscia, born in Tunis (Tunisia), grew up in the northern districts of Marseille. In 1976, she was co-founder of the Théâtre de la Plaine, alongside her brother Serge Barbuscia. After studying at the University of Aix-en-Provence, she trained with Jacques Lecoq, as well as at the Actor's Studio. Eva Barbuscia worked with Petrika Ionesco (theater/opera), José Giovanni and Éric Duvivier (cinema/television). In the theater, Eva Barbuscia directed numerous productions, often based on literary works : La Chanson du Mal Aimé, Safari Tea Time, Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith, La Bovary c'est Lui, Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie, The Fables of La Fontaine, L'Ecole des Couples, etc. These shows were presented in festivals and on national and international tours: Paris, Avignon, Spain, Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Caribbean, etc. Eva Barbuscia devotes much of her life to poetry and published her poetic collection of her poems, Piacere, in 2013 with La Féline. She worked for many years with Compagnie Mot pour Mot.
HUGUES LE BARS
Composer
SANTIAGO ISIDRO-PIN
Decorator
Hugues Le Bars was a French multi-instrumentalist musician and composer. He worked for the theatre, dance, film and radio. In the cinema, he wrote several soundtracks, including Bertrand Blier's Les Côtelettes, Coline Serreau's Saint-Jacques... La Mecque and Jérôme Boivin's Confessions d'un barjo. On television, he composed the soundtrack for the TV series Oggy et les Cafards and the "bébé-funk" theme music for Jean-Luc Delarue's La grande famille (Canal+) and Paris-Première. On the radio, he composes the theme music for numerous programmes (on FIP, France Inter, France Culture). For dance, he has worked with Maurice Béjart, for whom he composed the music for nine ballets. He has written the music for numerous productions by the Compagnie Mot pour Mot.
Santiago Isidro-Pin was a set painter. He worked on over fifty films, including those by Patrick Grandperret. He also created numerous sets and paintings for the Compagnie Mot pour Mot.
BIRA REIS
Instrumentaliste, Percussionniste
Bira REIS was an instrumental and percussionist. Born in Bahia in 1945, he has been an educator, wind musician, arranger, composer and researcher. He has gained international recognition for his research in the field of music. He founded and coordinated the Oficina de Investigação Musical (OIM), where instruments are made in Pelourinho. Bira Reis was a disciple of Walter Smetak and a reference in instrument construction. He was part of the OLODUM music group. Linked to the golden age of Olodum bloco, Reis composed "Vinheta Cuba-Brasil" and "Reggae Odoyá", the latter being recorded by Jimmy Cliff. He worked for the Mot pour Mot company.
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