PORTRAIT. Julien Poli, world champion and same-sex dance activist

Founder of the association Let us dance in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, Julien Poli, world champion of same-sex sports dance at the Gay Games 2018, pleads for the recognition of this practice by the French Dance Federation, chilly at the idea of ​​seeing two men or two women dancing together.

"Sport is a bit of my outlet"

If it were a dance, Julien Poli would be the tango for its passionate, angry and somewhat directive side. If there was a dish, it would be zucchini flower fritters, a dish from Nice – his hometown – and a Proust madeleine embodying fat and sweetness for him. And finally, if he was one of the Dancing with the Stars jurors, he would be Fauve Hautot, because they competed together and he finds her "extraordinary". This hyperactive 41-year-old, who would look ten years younger, is delighted that singer Bilal Hassani can have a male partner on the TF1 show this year.

This former competitor, whose tattoo covering his left forearm represents couples of male-male, female-female and female-male dancers, took time to find his calling. As a child, the dark-haired man with the piercing gaze tried his hand at figure skating, gymnastics, cycling, taekwondo, rowing… “I always needed to exercise myself, sport is a bit of my outlet”, book Julian Poly. The son of a hospital executive and a bank branch manager, he grew up in a district of the Côte d'Azur capital, and dreamed of becoming an archaeologist... then, curiously, a judicial officer.

Finally, Julien Poli opted for musicology with the aim of becoming a music teacher. An ambition that he quickly abandoned, even if he was passionate about teaching. A little lost, he finds himself in Besançon, in an advertising/marketing BTS which kicks him out at the end of the year. Annoyed, the young man wants to end his studies. But, thanks to a new BTS in business communication, he became passionate about graphic design, the job he still practices, in parallel with his career as a dancer and teacher.

Discovering same-sex dance at Tango

It is from a rented room on rue du Faubourg du temple that Julien Poli indulges in this second activity. A small room with all-white walls, soberly furnished with a desk and a large computer screen, which allows him to work with full concentration, away from home. He will only leave her at the end of the day to join her husband and son at home, then his dance school at 8 p.m.

Julien Poli discovered dance at a Parisian party in 2005. Frustrated at having to leave a bar that closed at 2 a.m., the future dancer and one of his friends looked for a club. They are then advised to go to Tango, a mythical gay club in the third arrondissement. “We arrived in front of the storefront and it made me think of a swingers club, there were tiles on the walls, it was super weird,” he says, amused.

In the discotheque, he is dazzled by people of all ages who reproduce the choreography of Vogue, of Madonna: "Vogue was my song, it rocked all my adolescence". He then comes across flyers placed on the tables: Tango opens at 10:30 p.m., “it’s great, finally a club that doesn’t open at one in the morning! " The following weekend, Julien Poli takes a friend there and realizes that at this hour, it is a same-sex dance for two: "It was the first time that I saw two boys dancing together, two girls dancing together, a girl leading a boy”. Although he has no basis in waltzing, the young adult rushes on the track. He will then return every weekend.

Same-sex dancing, a revolution in traditions

The real revelation will take place a few months later, when the future competitor takes ballroom dancing lessons in a school in the Marais with the renowned and late dance master Jean-Jacques Schiemer. “From September to April I went from the first level to the fourth. I was at full throttle, I went dancing every weekend, if I missed five minutes of dancing, it was dramatic. Very quickly, he moved on to competition because it was "the carrot" that motivated him to work.

But he only competed with female dancers until 2008, when he discovered the possibility of presenting himself with a male partner at the EuroGames in Barcelona. Then follow two seasons during which he performs with his partner Axel Zischka as a "follower", which follows. More comfortable in this role, Julien Poli returns to “mixed” competition to then offer better teaching to his students. Because in dance for two, the roles are very marked. Traditionally the man leads and the woman follows. In same-sex dance, everyone is free to dance according to their preferences.

World champion, a consecration and a final point

Back in same-sex for the 2017-2018 season, this perfectionist is training with his dance partner Corentin Normand for the Gay Games . The competition marked the high point of their careers: the duo became world champions in same-sex standard dancesport. And its final point: Julien Poli now wishes to devote himself to his personal life and to teaching.

Marie Fréville is the president of Let us dance, one of the students and a close friend of the athlete: "Julien is ultra dynamic, he brings a crazy atmosphere to his classes and I think that's really the key. But we also work, we do a lot of technique. In his school, Julien Poli welcomes “oddly” many heterosexual people.

When asked about the non-recognition of same-sex dance by the French Dance Federation (FFD) from his silent graphic designer's office at 8:30 a.m., this perfectionist raises his voice: "This doesn't is not because it does not move internationally that it cannot move nationally, I am completely against that idea. I'm sorry but opening a same-sex ballroom dance section and making it a separate entity [...] I don't see how that's a problem”. For him, the problem also comes from the teachers, sometimes very close to the federation, and still closed to the idea of ​​seeing two girls or two boys dancing together, just like a girl in the role of leader and a boy in the role of follower. “Since birth we grow up with this idea that the girl is led and the boy leads,” he analyzes.

By recognizing the same-sex dance, “France would make a huge leap forward!

The teacher often hears remarks hostile to this dance. A couple of women or men would be less "pretty" or "harmonious" for some, while others worry about external reactions, like this former dance master of the competitor: "Can you imagine if tomorrow a mother comes to me see and say to myself 'I don't understand why two boys can dance together'. what do I tell him? ".

But Julien Poli remains hopeful. The view of society on this practice should evolve, just as it is changing, according to him, on marriage for all since it was voted. Moreover, if he had to choose his President of the Republic, this disappointed Emmanuel Macron would name the former Keeper of the Seals Christiane Taubira, at the origin of this law: "She is an extraordinary woman because of her culture, of her knowledge […] I already dream of having a woman in power, so a black woman in power, that would be just extraordinary. France would make a huge leap forward! ".

By Élise PONTOIZEAUIn partnership with the Journalist Training and Development Center (CFPJ).

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