Director of Chaillot national dance theater from 2011 to 2021, Didier Deschamps succeeds Brigitte Lefèvre at the helm of the Cannes Dance Festival. His debut edition runs from Friday, November 24, to Sunday, December 10. Le Monde sat down with Deschamps for an exclusive interview.

The big difference is the relationship with the audience. At Chaillot, I lived the theater on a daily basis, and there was continuity in my encounters with spectators and artists. At Cannes, the festival has a different temporality, taking place over a short period and in a biennial rhythm. But I did not need to adapt on what, for me, is the basis of a programmer's work: not being content with displaying one's tastes and promoting the diversity of aesthetics. Among the challenges of this first edition, I insist on the intergenerational aspect, with a mix of young people – I invite dance schools to participate – and older people, in a context of marked ageism. I hope there are old people in every young person's life!

First of all, politically speaking, I think we are experiencing a worrying moment when our societies are closing in on themselves and erecting geographical, economic and mental borders between people. It is more and more difficult to meet the other and easier to see one's neighbor as a danger than as an asset. That is why I opted for an open programming, with dance as well as circus. I invited choreographers from Taiwan and Norway, whose shows are also very open in their themes. Bergen-based company Carte Blanche is presenting a piece entitled Birget; Ways to Deal, Ways to Heal, by choreographer Elle Sofe Sara. Of Sami origin, she questions the colonial heritage and the attitude of the Norwegian state towards these long discriminated-against indigenous populations. She underlines a problem that we encounter everywhere: how to preserve one's roots and integrate into a dominant society?

I am not forgetting environmental concerns, but they do not stop me from setting up and taking part in tours. To reduce carbon footprints, I have organized a series of back-to-back European dates for Taiwan's Cloud Gate company, from the Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona [Spain] to Sadler's Wells in London. I am against "house arrest" of any kind. In fact, I would like to have a discussion with the choreographer Jérôme Bel, with whom I disagree when he urges artists not to travel [in particular, he refuses to fly when touring his shows]. We must continue to support artists' borderless thinking. Cannes is producing a new piece by Amala Dianor, who has been roaming the world's underground dance halls, creating the dances that will invade tomorrow's social media.

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