Musée de la Danse, Tate Modern

A museum of dance - what might that look like? This is the question posed by the avant garde dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz, as he and a host of 75 dancers and dance figures from across the world take over the Tate Modern for one weekend.
Charmatz will put the ‘most ephemeral of all art forms’ on display throughout the huge London gallery, from Turbine Hall to collection rooms. This is an occupation of one institution by another, the National Choreographic Centre of Rennes and Brittany, or the Musée de la Danse, taking on the space and inspiration that Tate Modern has to offer.
This is not for the faint-hearted, the easily shocked or those who like their dance in structured and familiar formats. It's work for those who like a challenge and are prepared to take risks, even when they may not pay off
Interspersed with workshops and warm-ups, Charmatz’s own works will be on display in the Turbine Hall, and this is a great opportunity to see them without having to commit - it’s genre-bending, boundary-pushing stuff, but certainly not a mainstream vision of dance. Manger, 2014, sees performers chew up and spit out paper, presenting ingurgitation as a claim to originality. A bras-le-corps (1993), Roman Photo (2009), and Levee des conflits (2010) will also be shown.
But it’s not all dance of the intellectual kind. A giant 4m disco ball - necessary proportions for the cavernous hall - will shower spangly encouragement when the hall becomes a nightclub dance floor in the evening.
Expo Zero is another work curated by Charmatz, in the form of a think tank. 10 figures from contemporary dance, architecture, philosophy and more will create a mix of performance, perspectives and discussion through which visitors might be led by one participant or another.
20 dancers for the 20^th century will occur throughout the gallery. The 20 dancers will respond to the art on display, and any choreography they ‘find,’ in their own dance vocabulary, from ballet to folk, pop, hip hop and krump. There’ll be workshops throughout, offering visitors little sections of dance history they can take away with them.
Curator Chatherine Wood said of Charmatz to the Guardian, he’s “trying to build a space for dance that goes beyond what’s been given to him.” His choreography falls between captivating and inaccessible but the point of putting such a man in charge of the choreographic project is his utter fearlessness. He’ll bring together some of the most creative thinkers and talented dancers, and who knows what will result?