UK gets a slice of French culture

Les Sept Planches de la Ruse also forms part of the London Mime Festival

Dance inspired by the movements of a conductor and a new staging of Dante's writings will form part of a major Franco-British performing arts season.

Paris Calling will feature an array of drama, contemporary dance and circus productions at 20 UK venues over the next seven months.

The season is being billed as "a British version of the French performing arts scene".

Plans were revealed at the French Institute in London.

Laurence Auer, French Embassy cultural counsellor, said the aim was to encourage cultural collaborations and address the "uncertainty" between performing arts in the UK and France.

World premieres

The season opens with mime artist Aurelien Bory's Les Sept Planches de la Ruse, at London's Barbican next week.

His Les Sept Planches de la Ruse features 14 artists from China, and is based on a Chinese puzzle - the tangram.

Other highlights include several UK and world premieres, such as Romeo Castellucci's Inferno/Purgatorio/Paradiso, based on Dante's epic The Divine Comedy.

Works by acrobatic company Circo de la Sombra, leading French choreographers Xavier Le Roy and Jerome Bel, and upcoming and established French playwrights, will also be staged.

Xavier le Roy brings two separate performances to Sadler's Wells

Speaking at the launch, Alistair Spalding, artistic director of Sadler's Wells, said the French should be "applauded" for putting culture at the heart of the country's political and economic agenda.

"This season offers the opportunity to continue our exploration of practice within Europe, which is sadly often missing from these shores.

"The artists in the Paris Calling season are testing the boundaries of performance and theatre which will inform both audiences and artists living in London."

Le Roy's Le Sacre du Printemps is inspired by Sir Simon Rattle, who conducts the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra.

He has created a piece based on Sir Simon's movements - recreating his actions on stage while a soundtrack of different instruments plays out from under the seats in the auditorium.

Bel's world premiere of 27 Performances is an hour-long lecture in which he talks about performances which have influenced him.

And actress Juliette Binoche - who is a patron of Paris Calling - takes her collaboration with choreographer Akram Khan, In-I, to Leicester's new arts centre Curve.

Other venues include The Young Vic, Tate Modern, the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, the Oxford Playhouse and Northern Stage, in Newcastle.