Around this time last year, I was working on the 25th edition of attenDance, the only yearbook on dance published by Ashish Khokar. Specifically, I had just completed my text on Jean-Paul Montanari, the director of the Montpellier Danse Festival, who had done so much to introduce the world's dance traditions to a French and Western audience. Little did I know that this text would take the form of an obituary. On the 25th of April 2025, dance lost one of its greatest stalwarts - someone with a profound and instinctive understanding of the arts. I thought back on our meeting, just a few weeks prior organised by Elisabeth Petit, and realised it was perhaps the last recorded interview of him while in office. It was Jean-Paul Montanari's last day as director for Montpellier Danse, as he was retiring. What was supposed to be a brief interview went for over an hour, during which he spoke at length about his life, his deep love for dance and the small moments of pure pleasure when he listened to Vilayat Khan.
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