Chaillot Expérience Mode

Chaillot Expérience Mode: When Dance Meets Haute Couture

Born in April 2025 under the initiative of the Théâtre de Chaillot — Théâtre national de la Danse, Chaillot Expérience Mode is a unique event in the Parisian cultural landscape. Designed to take place just after Fashion Week, this mini-festival offers an unprecedented dialogue between two worlds that coexist daily on the Trocadéro stages without always meeting: dance and fashion.

The Théâtre de Chaillot, located in the Paris wing of the Palais de Chaillot opposite the Eiffel Tower, regularly hosts fashion shows by the biggest couture houses. With Chaillot Expérience Mode, the theatre reverses the perspective: it is no longer fashion that takes over the stage, but dance that embraces fashion, sets it in motion, questions it, and reinvents it through the body.

A Dialogue Between Young Designers and Choreographers

One of the unique aspects of Chaillot Expérience Mode is its promotion of encounters between young fashion designers and young choreographers, creating new duos who present original creations blending costume, movement, and scenography. These collaborations are supported by the theatre, which provides its spaces, technical resources, and expertise in performing arts.

Beyond the creations, the festival offers performances, round tables bringing together players from the fashion and dance worlds, screenings of films and documentaries on the links between these two disciplines, costume and movement workshops, as well as dance classes open to the public — notably voguing, an emblematic discipline at the crossroads of fashion and urban dance.

A Prestigious Patronage

The 2026 edition is under the patronage of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, an iconic figure in French fashion known for his artistic and transgressive approach to clothing. His presence as patron underscores the festival's ambition to build bridges between haute couture, contemporary creation, and performing arts.

The Théâtre de Chaillot: A Jewel in Trocadéro

Created in 1920, the Théâtre de Chaillot became the Théâtre national de la Danse in 2016, the only national theatre in France entirely dedicated to dance. Located in the Palais de Chaillot, on the Place du Trocadéro, facing the Eiffel Tower, it has two performance spaces — the large Jean Vilar hall (1,200 seats) and the Firmin Gémier hall (390 seats) — and vast areas for exhibitions and meetings. This exceptional setting, combining Art Deco architecture and a breathtaking view of Paris, gives Chaillot Expérience Mode a unique spectacular dimension.

Among its highlights, the festival hosts musical and choreographic reinterpretations of iconic works. The 2026 edition notably features a reinterpretation of Kraftwerk's Radio Activity, performed live by Rodolphe Burger and brought to life by choreographer Léo Walk and his dancers.