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Dancing at Dusk – A moment with Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring

Till November 29th, 2024 FILM ONLINE
40 minutes

An Iconic Choreography in an Extraordinary Setting

© Polyphem Filmproduktion

In this stunning film, Pina Bausch’s iconic choreography The Rite of Spring is danced in an extraordinary setting, on the beach in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal.

Filmed in 2020 as the world descended into lockdown, it captures the last rehearsal of a specially assembled company of 38 dancers from 14 African countries and documents a unique moment in their preparations for an international tour. A rare opportunity to watch one of the world’s greatest dance works.

Dancing at Dusk was first shown on Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage in July 2020. That year Pina Bausch’s 1975 seminal work, The Rite of Spring, was due to tour the world. Performed by a specially assembled company of 38 dancers from 14 African countries, this international co-production between Sadler’s Wells (UK), Pina Bausch Foundation (Germany), and École des Sables (Senegal), should have opened in March 2020 in Dakar as part of a double-bill with a new work created and performed by Malou Airaudo and Germaine Acogny, common ground[s]. However, just days before the premiere, performances were cancelled as governments around the world banned public gatherings and began shutting their borders due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Before disbanding and going into lockdown, the company seized the moment by performing a last rehearsal on a beach near their base at École des Sables in Senegal. Filmmaker Florian Heinzen-Ziob and his crew were able to capture this unique moment in a stunning film.

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North America France

Akram Khan – GIGENIS

November 20th – 24th, 2024 Sadler’s Wells, London
January 11th – 14th, 2025 Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris
February 12th – 16th, 2025 The Joyce Theatre, New York
April 10th, 2025 UCSB Arts & Lectures, Santa Barbara
April 17th – 19th, 2025 The Kennedy Center, Washington
60 minutes

Akram Khan
Returns to His roots

© Maxime Dos

So that was where he came from, and the story puts in place several elements that went on to recur throughout Khan’s career: classical kathak, contemporary dance, commercial dance, famous figures, international touring, a strong technique and a compelling stage presence. Yet to “come from” somewhere is about more than personal biography: it’s also about cultural milieu.

Sanjoy Roy

A choreographer and dancer rooted in the tradition of his practice, and a creative interpreter of stories that need to be ‘felt’ – Akram has revolutionised the world of dance. His deeply moving style is simultaneously poetic, innovative and experiential underpinned by intelligently crafted narrative structures. With his bilingual mastery of Kathak and contemporary dance, he has developed a uniquely individual voice as a protagonist of cross-cultural encounters. It is this very encounter, that provokes a personal need for this new creation: a unique work featuring an ensemble of seven renowned artists of Indian Classical Dance (including Akram himself) and seven live Indian Classical musicians.

Drawing from his deep-seated connection to traditional practices and his ability to weave narratives through movement, Akram’s GIGENIS transcends time, invoking the collective memories of our civilisation. It is not just a performance but a profound statement— a testament to the enduring resonance of tradition in a rapidly changing world.

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Archive

Xie Xin / Imre & Marne van Opstal – Broken Bob

October 18th/25th, November 9th/16th/21st, December 22nd, 2024 Staatstheater Darmstadt, Darmstadt
70 minutes

A Double Bill Creation for Hessisches Staatsballett

© Andreas Etter

After the successful productions Timeless by Xie Xin and I’m afraid to forget your smile by Imre & Marne van Opstal, which was nominated for the DER FAUST 2023 theater prize, the Hessisches Staatsballett combines the dance positions of these currently groundbreaking choreographers for the first time in a double evening in Broken Bob. The marble is created in the earth like the ashes after the fire. In a long transformation, under heat and pressure, its fine lines paint themselves into the stone; tell of the past like the black from the ravages of the flames. Traces decorate and they stick. Hidden deep in the layers of being and buried in the overlay of inner impressions, a broken sense of beauty appears.

Powerful and sublime. Rice paper, gunpowder and six bodies are the ingredients of Xie Xin’s new creation Broken Sense of Beauty. In the piece, the Chinese choreographer deals with a personal tragedy. When dance comes into play, it’s about movement. About movements and their structure. Does this exist outside of the movement that produces it? When structure comes into play, it’s about systems. About systems and their meaning. Does this lie outside of the system that generates it? When meaning comes into play, it’s about people. About people and about Bob. In their new creation I am Bob, Imre & Marne van Opstal explore the effects of patterns in dance. In close connection with music and text, the Dutch siblings create a large choreographic network of identity.

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Archive

Marco da Silva Ferreira & João Pais Filipe – Terra Cobre

December 14th, 2024 Concertgebouw Bruges, Bruges
50 minutes

Sound, Noise and Silence

© Bruno Simao

Cowbells were declared an Urgent Heritage Safeguard by UNESCO in 2015. In Terra Cobre, the artists challenge traditional Portuguese iconography and symbolism, placing it in an exploratory and sensory context.

The work consists of a sculptural and sonic installation and a 50-minute performance, performed by Marco and João at the beginning or end of the installation. The installation serves as a backdrop for the performance and contributes to the atmospheric and performative narrative.

Marco and João, collaborating for CARCAÇA , explore concepts of identity, culture and society; reinterpreting ancient cultural heritage and challenging established conventions. They use cowbells to create a sculptural, sonic and physical composition that depicts a landscape full of memories where shepherds and animals come together.

Categories
Mediterranea APAC

Marco da Silva Ferreira – C A R C A Ç A

November 8th – 10th, 2024 National Performing Arts Center, Taipei
November 15th – 16th, 2024 Rohm Theatre Kyoto, Kyoto
November 20th, 2024 The Museum of Art Kochi, Kochi
December 10th, 2024 Theater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen
December 18th – 19th, 2024 Auditorio de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
January 25th, 2025 Teatro Municipal da Covilhã, Covilhã
Feburary 7th – 9th, 2025 Perth Festival, Perth
75 minutes

A rising Portuguese Choreographer to Follow

© Jose Caldeira

Collective identities are sources of belonging and inclusion but when they become mainstream, they can turn the other way around. I can recognise this issue in dance.

Marco da Silva Ferreira Interviewed by Springback Magazine

In CARCAÇA,  a very diverse cast of ten dancers, including Marco da Silva Ferreira, and two musicians form an unconventional and joyful corps de ballet. The dancers perform intricate footwork that merges standardized folk dances with contemporary urban dance styles that mainly appear in groups that were or are considered minorities (for example LGBTQIA+ communities or communities from ex-colonies). In this choreography, Marco da Silva Ferreira uses dance as a tool to investigate communities, the construction of collective identity, memory and cultural crystallization. In other words: what if folk dances had not crystallized, had continued to redefine themselves and had incorporated the present at every moment?

The cast explores their collective identity in a physical, intuitive and unpretentious flow of the body, dance and cultural construction. They start from familiar footwork, coming from clubbing, balls, cypher battles and the studio and they use the physical vocabulary of the contemporary, social, urban context as a lexicon of identity (house, kuduro, Top Rock, hardStyle, etc.). Through a slow and structured construction process they connect these styles with the heritage and memory of dances from the past. These standardized and unchanging folk dances have remained stagnant and have not been able to integrate new definitions of bodies, groups and communities, which were considered inferior. For these groups it was necessary to break with the authoritarian, totalitarian and paternalistic past.

In CARCAÇA  an exercise is proposed that integrates the past and the present. The performance makes you think: How do you decide what to forget and what to remember? What is the role of individual identities in the construction of a community? What is the driving force of an identity? What world does the individual and collective body traverse? Or, better put, what bodies traverse the world?

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North America

Aakash Odedra & Lewis Major – Little Murmur

October 30th – November 2nd, 2024 Bristol Old Vic, Bristol
November 13th, 2024 Jumped Up Theatre, Peterborough
January 10th – 19th, 2025 The New Victory Theater, New York
35 minutes

A Portrait of Growing up with Dyslexia

© Aakash Odedra Company

Aakash Odedra Company, Lewis Major Projects and The Spark Arts for Children present Little Murmur by Aakash Odedra. A new dance theatre show for everyone age 7+, families and schools.

Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, Aakash found school very challenging. Defined by his learning difficulties, not his abilities, dance became his mode of expression. Combining visual design and technology with dance and humour, Little Murmur explores the warped and exaggerated realities of living in a world you struggle to process. Little Murmur is a stunning visual treat for young audiences and their families. Based on Aakash Odedra’s hugely moving show Murmur, this is an honest and heart felt conversation about the trials and tribulations of living with dyslexia. Watch bodies and words fly like flocks of birds, a murmuration, a little murmur.

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France

Abou Lagraa – Carmen

November 30th – Dec. 1st, 2024 Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg
January 25th – 26th, 2025 Théâtre Suresnes Jean Vilar, Suresnes
January 28th, 2025 Théâtre Alexandre Dumas, Saint-Germain-en-Laye
January 30th, 2025 Le Manège Maubeuge, Maubeuge
February 2nd, 2025 Scènes & Cinés, Istres
February 4th, 2025 Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence
February 7th, 2025 Le Carré, Sainte-Maxime
February 11th, 2025 Romans Scènes, Roman-sur-Isère
February 15th, 2025 Théâtre de Roanne, Roanne
February 18th – 21st, 2025 Maison de la Danse, Lyon
90 minutes

Carmen by
Tunis Opera Ballet

© David Bonnet

Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” is one of the most famous operas in the world. Still, in Tunisia, it was shown for the very first time in February 2024 – and then as a choreographic opera with the ballet ensemble at the Tunis Opera House. Abou Lagraa, the choreographer, has been working with North African artists for many years. As the child of Algerian and Egyptian parents, his dance roots are, for once, not in hip-hop, but in contemporary dance, including with S.O.A.P., Rui Horta’s legendary Frankfurt company.

In order to find his way back to the pure emotions that underlie the famous arias, Lagraa opted for a sparse, almost minimalist production. For him, the title character not only represents the idolized, teasing seductress, but above all freedom until death. Carmen is the romantic concept of an emancipated woman – a woman who poses a danger to men. Lagraas’ interpretation of the plot draws on the oriental perspective of the story. He deliberately portrays a Carmen of the nomads, the Berbers, and ancient North African people. The choreography oscillates in wave movements and is reminiscent of the power of the Mediterranean Sea that unites the Maghreb and Europe.

Categories
Benelux France

Amala Dianor – DUB

October 9th – 12th, 2024 Maison de la Danse, Lyon
November 20th – 21st, 2024 L’Empreinte, Brive-la-Gaillarde
November 24th, 2024 L’Archipel, Perpignan
December 11th – 14th, 2024 Théâtre de la Ville, Paris
December 18th, 2024 Le Corum, Montpellier
February 7th, 2025 Le Forum, Fréjus
February 11th – 12th, 2025 Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
60 minutes

A Melting Pot
of Urban Dance

© Pierre Gondard

In DUB, Amala Dianor explores how today’s globally connected youth has embraced the legacy of hip-hop culture to forge new choreographic identities. After travelling across continents seeking out the underground world of urban dance and delving into social media where movements are reimagined, extended, and exchanged, the iconic Franco-Senegalese artist has brought together talented dancers from diverse geographical backgrounds, each influenced by a plethora of aesthetics and encompassing different styles, from whacking and dancehall to jookin and pantsula. As they adapt their practices and blend their techniques to connect with each other, they create a space that’s even brighter and freer than their individual realms. Awir Leon’s live music and Grégoire Korganow’s evocative design contribute to the immersive, joyous atmosphere.


Categories
Mediterranea France

Marina Otero – Kill Me

September 25th – 29th, 2024 Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris
October 3rd – 4th, 2024 HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin

October 19th – 20th, 2024 Staatstheater Mainz, Mainz
October 31st – November 2nd, 2024 VIDY, Lausanne
November 5th, 2024 L’onde – Théâtre et Center d’Art, Vélizy
November 12th, 2024 teatr polski (Festival Prapremier), Bydgoszcz
November 21st, 2024 Temporada Alta, Girona
March 19th – 23rd, 2025 dansa metropolitana, Barcelona
March 26th – 29th, 2025 Les Célestins, Lyon

90 minutes

The Third Chapter of a Poignant Lifelong Project

© Sofia Alazraki

Bringing together Bach and Miley Cyrus, she creates with “Kill Me” a complete and radical work, sometimes unsettling, sometimes subversive, but always impactful.

Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d’Amore

Kill me (2024) is the continuation of Love me (2022) and Fuck me (2020), in turn it is part of the project “ Remember to live ”, in which I intend to present different versions of works until the day of my death.

Entering into the cliché of the midlife crisis, I began to film everything I did: with my heart open 24 hours a day, I recorded everything. 

Until one day I collapsed, I was given a psychiatric diagnosis and I decided to make my next piece out of it. I called on four dancers with mental disorders and Nijinsky, to make a piece that talks about madness for love. 

But let’s say that the topic is about mental health so that it enters the inclusive agenda of the art market. 

Because that is my punishment, having to make works that sell and thus stay alive in the world (of theater). 

Categories
France DACH region

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui – Ihsane

November 13th – 19th, 2024 Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva
January 18th – 19th, 2025 Staatenhaus, Cologne
January 24th, 2025 Festspielhaus St. Pölten, St. Pölten
March 30th – April 6th, 2025 Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
Duration: 90 minutes

Part II of Cherkaoui’s Diptych for His Parents

© GREGORY BATARDON

In Arabic, the word Ihsane represents an ideal of goodness, kindness and benevolence. In Islam, it refers to a form of communion with the universe. With Ihsane, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui continues a diptych begun within his Eastman company with Vlaemsch (chez moi), in 2022. While Vlaemsch was dedicated to his mother and his Flemish roots, Ihsane explores his relationship with his father, who left Morocco for Flanders, emigrating but always retaining – despite leaving – an unconditional love for his home country. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was still a teenager when his father died. Thirty years later, he searched for him in vain in a Tangier cemetery too full of graves. He continues to search for him through this creation bringing together dancers from the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Eastman. 

But in Belgium, Ihsane is also associated with a racist and homophobic crime that took place in Liège in 2012: a young homosexual man of 32, of Moroccan origin, beaten to death outside a nightclub. As someone who himself identifies as an artist, a queer and an Arab, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui identifies with and pays tribute to him through this production which revisits his family story. Ihsane is a journey towards the quest for inner peace, and the attempt to transcend conflict, abandonment and forgetting. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui dances the questions that obsess him: what do we have left when our place slips away and fades? How can multiple identities coexist in the same body?

As ever, the choreographer has assembled a unique artistic team, reflecting the effervescence and artistic vitality of this region of the world to which Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is linked through his ancestors. Tunisian musician and viola d’amore virtuoso, Jasser Haj Youssef, will compose the music and perform it onstage with Moroccan singer Mohammed el Arabi Serghini and Lebanese singer Fadia Tomb El-Hage. Stage design will be from visual artist Amine Amharech, who creates sensory and sensitive spaces into which Moroccan influences are often melded, while costumes are by fashion designer Amine Bendriouich, who elevates traditional forms of Berber clothing beyond norms and gender.

With Ihsane, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui watches the world change in a never-ending cycle of destruction and rebirth. He is wary of cultures when they imprison and separate individuals. He prefers geography in the making, ever-changing landscapes, and the shared space where we coexist. In this space, he reveals the invisible threads that connect us to each other.