Simon Renou [https://simonrenou.wordpress.com/] is an artist, dancer, film-maker, director and stage comedian. He has over twenty years of experience working in the arts and was a TV reporter for seven years. Renou is a curious person who likes to work in an interdisciplinary manner. He writes scripts, performs as a dancer and clown and has won awards for various projects that have brought dance, motion capture and animation together.

As a filmographer he has produced several works and has been involved in projection-mapping projects, dance films, as well as writing and directing his own films and works. His collection of videos can be found here https://vimeo.com/simonrenou. Renou’s film Transmission is a short teaser that includes Roma dancer Pétia Iourtchenko talking about the links between a choreographer and a dancer. The choreography tells a story about a performer, professor and his pupil. As a director, Renou says, ‘I just want to show the dance and let the public have his [sic] own interpretation. I participated with Pétia and Alissa Doubrovitskaia on the choreography and the performance. It is a co-creation.’

Renou met Pétia Iourtchenko in 2011 while filming his dancing and fell in love with his work. During the filming Renou asked if he could join Iourtchenko’s course and for six years he studied under him and danced with his company, Romano Atmo. Currently, Renou is pursuing new partnerships and working on new projects, yet maintains close links with Romano Atmo and Iourtchenko.

Renou’s collection for the RomArchive is a unique source of materials ranging from films about Pétia Iourtchenko’s teaching and choreography to a short video on the ‘Motion Capture’ project that the two carried out. Renou loves to mix the traditional with the contemporary and his use of modern technology has enabled his work to preserve Roma cultural heritage.