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contemporary dance

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Contemporary Dance – Saeed Hani

Harmony
Contemporary Dance Workshop

Embark on an electrifying journey with Saeed Hani’s dance workshop! Immerse yourself in a pulsating world of improvisation, where rhythmic, shake-based movements weave a tapestry of communal connection. Feel the energy resonate as dancers explore proximity, awakening sensitivity through shared vibrations. Dive into the dance, where bodies become instruments of exploration, blurring the lines between manipulator and manipulated. Saeed Hani’s dynamic approach transforms the workshop into a dance of contagious qualities, where each participant infects others with their unique movement essence. Join this exhilarating practice of connection, where dancers delve deeper into self-discovery by absorbing and interpreting the rich qualities of their peers. Get ready to unleash creativity and movement magic!

Ages: 16+
Level: professionals and amateurs with a passion for dance

Photo credit:

Saeed Hani

Saeed Hani, a Syrian-German choreographer, dancer, and director of Hani Dance Company, honed his skills at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus before captivating audiences with the Caracalla Dance Company across Europe and Asia. Settling in Trier, Germany, in 2015, he collaborated with renowned companies like Theater Münster and Sommer Ulrickson Company.
Saeed Hani’s work is image-based, focusing on the human body and its power in a situation and environment that creates a moving painting, photo, or sculpture. Internationally acclaimed, Saeed showcased his Art in New York, Finland, Belgium, South Korea, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg Czechia, Ireland, Mexico, and Germany. Since its inception in 2016, Hani Dance, under Saeed’s visionary leadership, has blended talent and cultural diversity, earning acclaim for projects like “ONE NIGHT STAND,” “THE BLIND NARCISSIST,” “OUT OF RANGE,” and “INLET.” His latest piece, “KHAOS,” debuted with a residency at the prestigious Grand Theater Geneva, invited by star choreographer Sidi LarabiCherkaoui. In September 2024, Saeed Hani is commissioned by the city of Trier to launch the first edition of the “Movement Art International Dance Festival.” Additionally, he will create two new art pieces, one at GörlitzStadttheater in Germany in March 2025 and another at MierscherKulturhause in Luxembourg in October 2025. Hani was chosen to be the artist of Grand Luxe for 2024/2025.

With the support of Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg

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Contemporary Dance – Tomo Sone

Grounding Up
Contemporary Dance Masterclass

Contemporary dance class “Grounding Up” starts with a gentle warm-up and then moves on to challenging movement dynamics. We train with my motor language, which includes improvisation and spontaneity. These tools help enhance your physical and mental experience. We will explore how to use gravity and the weight of different body parts to expand our range of movement. By spreading energy while engaging yourself and the space around you, you can increase your awareness of your body. Grounding yourself and slowing your mind can lead to a lighter body and faster movements. I encourage dancers to experience the present moment fully. Our experiences will become significant work in the future, but they can only be truly appreciated in the moment.

Ages: All
Level: All

Photo credit:

Tomo Sone

Tomo Sone is a choreographer and performer who is expanding her activity internationally. After she had worked with several ballet companies in Japan, she started to train in contemporary dance and began her career as a choreographer in Israel. Her works have been presented at renowned venues and festivals, such as Suzanne Dellal Center (Israel), Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (Israel), Gdansk Dance Festival (Poland), the National Arts Festival by the Ministry of Culture in Japan (Japan), and Kyoto Art Center (Japan), among others. She was a finalist in the international solo contest at the Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporánea de la Ciudad de México (Mexico).

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Contemporary dance and acrobatics – Alexandros Anastasiadis

Organic Acrobatix
Contemporary dance and acrobatics workshop 

This workshop intends to construct a self-coherent structure of practicing dance, while addressing elements in all the stages of its complexity. An equal amount of attention is given to body conditioning, dance technique, acrobatic elements, the use of space and time, the relation between the performers and performativity.
Through all the stages of the work, engagement and awareness are challenged, by compelling the practitioners to constantly seek for connections between new and old information. The process of the class oscillates between two modes. One is to challenge ourselves to broaden the limits of our current potential and the other is to allow for the information to settle, becoming an organic part of our craft.
A coherent group dynamic is constructed throughout the practice, owing to, but also resulting in the work being based on the exchange of information, support, ideas and input. All the while, enjoyment of the process of working with our bodies and with people is continually encouraged.

Ages: Teenagers, adults
Level: Previous experience in dance, movement, and/or other performing arts

Photo credit: George Kondylis, Christos Spanos

Alexandros Anastasiadis

Alexandros is a dance artist raised in Greece. Since graduating from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2017, he has been living in Brussels and working as a performer and dance maker. He is interested in the body as the place where communication happens, where, playfully, we can renew social relations. In his look for dialogue, he is engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations learning and adapting methods and tools from other art forms into the dancing as well as challenging the classical stage format to establish direct contact between performers and audience.
He has been creating within collective structures (La Otra Familia) and has been working with Jazz and Improv musicians, making improvised shows, research sessions and jams, with an artistic community outreach.
Over the last year he created the group Dans Kapot (along with the band Don Kapot), which made a series of community and interactive performances. Their current project is heading towards a full-scale production with the support of Jazzlab and Kaap. His current solo work “the fall in between” has received the support of RADAR Mechelen, the Flemish Community Commission of Brussels and the Iles Artist Project.
As a performer he has participated in five productions of the company Ultima Vez and has also worked for Alexandrer Vantournhout and Julyen Hamilton.
He was invited to direct dance pieces for educational programmes (State Dance school of Thessaloniki, Greece, Fre3 Bodies in Barcelona, Spain) and worked as an artistic coach for dance creations. He teaches dance both through professional workshops in educational platforms and festivals across Europe and also through classes for children and communities i.e. for the Atelier Kids of Ultima Vez and for Platform K.

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Movement in water – Vitoria Kotsalou

BARE UNDERWATER
Movement workshop in water

The workshop explores the sea as a field that enables us to activate very different fields of movement, embodiment, and imagination. In the workshop we will explore concepts, movements, patterns, and ways of being that develop or unfold from being within and friction with water. Manoeuvring, breathing, floating, and dreaming are the key elements through which we will begin to penetrate different modes of dance/embodiment/movement/existence. Axes that have emerged from years of dance research in the water will lead us to develop strategies for exploring navigation of thought body. The workshop will expand in out of water practice as well, where we will have the opportunity to engage with how the water dance (amneotics) practice informs our dance practice on land.

Ages: Adults
Level: Skilled swimmers

Photo credit:

Vitoria Kotsalou

Vitoria Kotsalou is a psychologist and a self-trained dancer, performer, and choreographer based in Athens. Her eclectic training, not bound by one tradition, and constant research from many different disciplines carve out new fields of engagement for dance immediation. As a choreographer and artist, she operates dance as a way of being, a means of thinking and assimilating the world, and as a field of connection to the intelligence that governs the nature of things.
Vitoria is one of the founding members of the non-profit organization R.I.C.E. and the RSOD Dance School on the island of Hydra. She is a close collaborator of choreographer Michael Klien and a member of En Dynamei Ensemble since 2014. As a choreographer, she has composed the works Day out of Time (2017), Mount (2019), Rite of Spring – A Map (2021), Solar (With En Dynamei Ensemble-2023), Bare (2023). As a dancer, she has made important collaborations with Androniki Marathaki, Mariella Nestora, and Agni Papadeli Rossetou. She teaches dance to children, adults, and mixed-ability groups, and also choreographs theatre performances.
Vitoria approaches dance as a phenomenon of life, that has the potential to touch all socio-political aspects of society. Her passion, belief, and experience in the possibility of dance a force, that enables different ways of being, communicating, and forming relationships, expands to thinking through movement and coming into contact with an intelligence that exists in (and connects) all living organisms. Drawing inspiration from the study of different artistic practices, philosophical approaches, and collaborations, her thinking extends to social choreography through which she simultaneously observes the world and designs works that convey the possibility of changing or expanding the way it is perceived.

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Improvisation – Stavroula Siamou

Momentum and stillness
Improvisation Workshop

A significant part of our dance education focuses on the exact positioning of our body in space. An admirable virtue indeed. Still there is the thrill of speed and momentum that often defies the sobriety of stillness. How can we be open to a vibrant dialogue between these two parameters of movement? Can we appreciate the unique qualities of Apollonian precision on one hand and Dionysian momentum on the other? Is there a clear boundary between them?
5 days to ask and explore, to move and be still.

Level: All
Ages: All

 

Photo credit:

Stavroula Siamou

She was born in Athens in 1967. She graduated from the State School of Dance and continued her studies in New York, her main interests being in improvisation and release technique.
Upon her return in Greece, she danced with various dance companies, Edafos company, Sine Qua Non and Tzeni Argyriou being her long-time collaborators. In theatre she has co-directed Macbeth (W. Shakespeare), Mandragora (N. Machiavelli) at the Theatre of Neos Kosmos and has collaborated with various directors as a choreographer.

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Do Robots have emotions? – Manolis Saridakis

Greece

“The performance you’re going to see has to do with robots. I chose this topic because I feel like a robot sometimes too,”
notes Manolis Saridakis about his first choreography – a quite startling work thanks to its disarmingly incisive concept.
By means of his disarmingly incisive concept, Manolis Saridakis touches upon the exceptionally timely topic of robots, weaving critical issues concerning control, as well as both artificial and emotional intelligence, into his own endeavors with regard to autonomy and freedom of expression. The choreographer himself appears on stage, programing each “robot” to perform – both individually and all together – a dance of their own. He then transports them into a virtual bar/club setting where he gives a new command: “feelings on demand”! On the dance floor, Screwdriver cocktails in hand, each robot will tackle the emotion it has been assigned, upending their interrelationships in the process, and leading us into the climactic scene of this sci-fi adventure by the programmer and choreographer Manolis Saridakis.
The piece by Manolis Saridakis was selected for Onassis New Choreographers Festival 2022 – ONC9. The professional development of artists with learning disabilities has been supported in various ways by Europe Beyond Access, but this is the first time such a commission and presentation are being undertaken in Greece.
The dance piece “Do Robots have emotions?” by Manolis Saridakis was created as part of the Europe Beyond Access program, and within the framework of Onassis Stegi’s ongoing commitment to issues of accessibility when it comes to the arts in general, and dance in particular. The fact that persons with disabilities still do not have access to professional dance training in Greece renders the support this program provides artists particularly important. Medie Megas, Dancer, choreographer, and dance/choreography history teacher mentoring Manolis Saridakis during the creation of this work during the Europe Beyond Access program.

Choreographer’s note
The performance you’re going to see has to do with robots. I chose this topic because I feel like a robot sometimes too. I conducted an interview and did research to learn about robots: about how they move and how they help people. I had a few questions: Do robots have a mechanical heart? Is a robot brain the same as a human brain? Are robots ever bored when they do chores? Are robots doing whatever they want or whatever humans want? I hope seeing my performance makes you happy.
–Manolis Saridakis

“Can Robots Develop Feelings?” is the first performance ever choreographed in Greece by a person with learning disability and autism.
The performance will follow a presentation in the form of an interactive activity focusing on how the interaction of dance and disability is perceived in Greece and abroad. Personal experiences, images and common references will be shared amongst the creators themselves and the audience looking back into the history, exploring the impediments and most significantly the invaluable importance of accessibility of disabled persons to the art of dance and choreography.
Who can be qualified as a dancer and who as a choreographer? What is having accessibility to art actually entitled to? And last but not least, what kind of alterations need to be made for the art of dancing to embrace everyone regardless any kind of limitation?
The evening will finish with an open discussion during which all attendees will have the chance to pose their own questions relevant to the performance and the presented matters.

Credits
Concept: Manolis Saridakis
Choreography: Manolis Saridakis, in collaboration with the dancers
Dancers: Olympia Antonena, Eirini Kourouvani, Christos Christakopoulos, Manolis Saridakis
Dramaturgy – Mentoring: Medie Megas
Costumes: Marilena Kalaitzantonaki
Lighting Design: Konstantinos Bethanis
Make-up: Alexandra Rentzou
Original Music: Christos Christakopoulos
Additional Music: “Techno Eskalation!!!” by Max Minimal also features in the performance
Executive Producer: Christos Papamichael – Liminal,
Executive production on tour: Polina Manolia – Liminal
Production Manager, Coordinator of Artistic Activities for Europe Beyond Access: Christina Liata – Onassis Stegi
European Programs Coordinator: Dora Vougiouka – Onassis Stegi
Special thanks to: Niki Saridaki, Fotini Gioti, Giannis Makris, Manolis Andriotakis, Rodia Vomvolou

Production Credits
Commissioned & Produced by: Onassis Stegi Athens
via Europe Beyond Access, a project co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union

Supported in touring by: Onassis Stegi’s “Outward Turn” program

Duration: 20 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/731688663/23ec28085e

 

 

Manolis Saridakis

Manolis Saridakis lives in Athens, is 35 years old, and works in dance, theater, and music. He received his training as a contemporary dancer and choreographer as part of Onassis Stegi’s iDance, Europe Beyond Access, and Unlimited Access programs, held both in Greece and beyond, alongside contemporary and African dance workshops given by the Liminal arts organization. Manolis has appeared in Onassis Stegi productions (“Sweet Abyss”, “Deep Fusion Butterfly Band”, and more) and in a large number of theatrical performances staged by ARTOGETHER (Art of People With and Without Disabilities). He starred in the documentary film “I Am a Dancer” directed by Stavros Petropoulos, and produced by Onassis Stegi. He is studying découpage at the Theotokos Foundation, music at the National Conservatory of Athens, and qigong at the “Spring of the Young Forest” School for Martial Arts.

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(SWEET) (BITTER) – Thomas Hauert

Switzerland

Thomas Hauert is a dancer and choreographer whose sophisticated, improvisation-based research on movement has a strong relation to music – either actual music or the musicality of the movement itself. In his solo, his dance interacts with the baroque madrigal Si dolce è’l tormento composed by Claudio Monteverdi on a text by Carlo Milanuzzi. Hauert interprets this musica l poem of impossible love as the expression of a conflict between the bliss of pursuing an ideal and the torment of knowing that this ideal will stay unreachable – a tension which is a universal motor of life but takes as many forms, as many interpretations, as there are individual visions of this “perfect country”. In German, an untranslatable word exists to describe this exquisitely painful feeling of inextinguishable longing: Sehnsucht.

Credits
Concept, choreography & dance: Thomas Hauert
Light: Bert Van Dijck
Costume: Chevalier-Masson
Music; Claudio Monteverdi Si dolce è’l tormento, Salvatore Sciarrino 12 Madrigali
Production: ZOO/Thomas Hauert
Coproduction: Charleroi danse – Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (BE)
With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service de la danse / Pro Helvetia – Fondation suisse pour les arts / Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie / Ein Kulturengagement des Lotterie-Fonds des Kantons Solothurn / Wallonie-Bruxelles International

Duration: 30 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/236393563

 

 

THOMAS HAUERT

Having worked as a dancer with a.o. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, David Zambrano and Pierre Droulers, Thomas Hauert (CH) founded his company ZOO in Brussels in 1998. Cows in Space, his first piece was immediately awarded at Rencontres de Seine-Saint-Denis/Bagnolet. The company has since created more than 20 works, which have been performed all over the world. In addition to his work for ZOO, Thomas was also commissioned to create work for other companies including Zurich Ballet, Toronto Dance Theatre, Candoco Dance Company and Ballet de Lorraine. Complementing his choreographic work, Hauert has developed an internationally recognized teaching method based on the movement research conducted with his company. He regularly teaches workshops worldwide. In 2012-13, he was a guest professor for dance and performance at Institute for Theater Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2013 he is the artistic director of the new bachelor degree in contemporary dance at the Manufacture/University of Performing Arts in Lausanne.

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Adventures in planet love – Jordi L. Vidal

Belgium

An original and dynamic performance that combines floor acrobatics, contemporary dance and physical theatre.
This piece explores the diversity of romantic encounters in order to bring light on our prejudices, to overcome them and create bridges and better living together.

Credits
Concept, direction, choreography: Jordi L. Vidal
Performers: Julie Querre, Youri De Gussem, Victor Launay
Costumes, props and set: Noelle Deckmyn
Choreography coach: MichouSwennen
Photos: Matthias Walton, Loic Boon, Raphael Tillie
Videos: Matthias Walton, Silvia Marazzi
Graphic design: Silvia Marazzi
Coo production: “Het Lab” Cultureel Centrum Hasselt, Culturecultuur1060 Sint Gillis/Saint Gilles, Belgium
Creation residencies: La Roseraie, Espace Catastrophe, Institut Dalcroze, Foyer Populaire CC Court Saint Etienne, Cirqu’conflex, MCA-CAR Centre d’arts de la rue, Miroir Vagabond, Belgium.

With the support of SACD Belgium and Hart voor Kunstenaars fonds – Artists United &UAS, WBTD-Wallonie Bruxelles Théâtre Danse, WBI-Wallonie Bruxelles International number)

Duration: 25 min.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/649919753

Victor Launay

Victor Launay began dancing with Max Bozzoni and then joined the CNR Boulogne followed by the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Paris in the balletsection before joining the Junior Ballet in Aquitaine in 2003.Then 2 years later, he went to the Ecole-Atelier Rudra Béjart. He has worked regularly with the CCN de Nantes and, at the same time, with other choreographers.
In 2010 he became part of the founding team for the Opinion Public dance company where he performs in all of its productions for “Mr. Follower”, “Arcadia”, “Aeterna” and “RockingChair”.

Julie Querre

Julie Querre is a professional contemporary dancer who first studied at the National Conservatory of Bordeaux where she received a diploma of choreographic studies with high honors, and after at the National Choreographic Center of Roubaix. Finally, she graduated in Belgium at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (Artesis) with a bachelor in contemporary dance.
For the last years, she has worked with different choreographers and artists like, for example, Jelena Kostic, Koen de Preter, Martha! tentatief company, Otto Pichler and Barjo & Cie, Jordi L. Vidal as a dancer.

Youri De Gussem

Youri De Gussem started hip hop dance at the age of 11 in a private school. Thereafter he studied at the Athénée Royal des Beaux Arts of Brussels and Royal Conservatory of Antwerp He chose to finalize his formation at P.A.R.T.S., school founded and directed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in 2013.
As a professional dancer, Youri worked with Willie Dorner, Dimitri Leue, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, Jean Guillaume Weis, Ricardo Ambrozio, Jordi L. Vidal, Sarah Baltzinger, Marie Martinez, company Le Huit.

Jordi Vidal

Jordi Vidal. In the past 30 years he is active as a dance & physical theatre guest teacher for artists in the fields of dance, theatre, street theatre, clown, among others, at: Summer Studios/Rosas-Parts, Flanders Royal Ballet School, ESAC; Canaldanse Paris; NRW Tanzhaus Dusseldorf, Tanzfabriek and Dock 11 Berlin; La Faktoria Pamplona.
With more than 600 performances realized already all over Europe and around the world (Moroco, Philippines, Brazil, Mali) his creations have been presented at: Ferme du Buisson, Halles De Schaerbeek, deSingel Antwerpen, Mercat De Les Flors Barcelona, Culturgest, Berner Tanztage, Julidans, Spoffin and many more

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OBLIVION – Silvia Batet Dance Company

Spain

OBLIVION is a word that implies “to be forgotten”, but that can also be related to the idea of amnesty or forgiveness; it is a place of transformation between mourning and emptiness, between nothingness and memory. Based in a dreamlike world made of fantasy and surrealism, OBLIVION could be an image of afterlife, such as Dante describes it in The Divine Comedy: a space conditioned by the idea of the circle, by the eternal wandering of bodies through space; as if in the act of moving through space there was ultimately an act of surrender, a renunciation of everything that binds us to suffering: desire, memories, identity. “Vacare” in Latin, means to wander, to float; but it also means “to be empty”. OBLIVION is a a path that becomes easier to walk everytime, a dance of increasing entropy. After all, what is beyond, and oblivion could easily be the same thing.

Credits
Original idea, direction and choreography: Silvia Batet
Performance: Marta García, Cristina Reolid, Raquel Romero, Anna Serra and Pere Seda
Music: Sergi Puig
Music editor: Jose González
Stage and lighting design: Carles Borràs and Sergio Roca
Costume design: Marta Mas Soldevila / Skirts making: Anna Whirling
Production: Muntsa Roca, Rita Stivala – Anastàtica
Distribution: LANIU
External perspective: Anna Rubirola
Video and photography: Mila Ércoli

The performance was premiered 29th and 30th of July in Festival Grec 2021 (Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona). It has since then been danced in La Nave del Duende (Cáceres). It will be during 2021 in Istanbul Fringe Festival (Istanbul) and Prospettiva Danza Teatro (Padua, Italy).

Duration: 45 min.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ku48ItZTWA

 

 

The Company

The Silvia Batet Dance Company is a company based in Barcelona, composed by dancers, musicians, and light designers from all parts of Spain. The company started working professionally on 2017 andhas since then presented four dance pieces (“The Double Hélix”, “Pas de Carla, Iris, Raquel y Goretti”, “Réquiem” and “OBLIVION”) and has won in 2020 the important Choreographic Award “Premi deDansa de l’Institut del Teatre 2020”. The company has participated in numerous spanish nationalfestivals: RussafaEscènica (Valencia), EllasCrean (Madrid), QuinzenaMetropolitana de Dansa (Barcelona), and is currently in the process of internationalization, participating during 2021 inFlorence Dance Festival (Florence), Istanbul Fringe Festival (Istanbul), Prospettiva Danza Teatro (Padua)or Quinzena de Dansa de Almada (Portugal). The dance language of the company is characterized bythe formal simplicity and the structural complexity of the creations.
Links to the work and information on: www.silviabatet.com

Silvia Batet

Training And Studies
-Graduated in the Professional Degree in Classical Dance by the Conservatory of Valencia (2006-2013).
-University Degree in Dance and and Choreography at Institut del Teatre, in Barcelona.
-Training in urban dances in many schools, such as Pinneapple in London, Broadway Dance Centerin New York, Tribu Urbana, The Urban Dance Factory, Company & Company in Barcelona.
-Classical and contemporary dance training in schools such as Royal Academy of Dance in London,The Joffrey Ballet School in New York, Steps on Broadway in New York, Corella Dance Academy andInstitut del Teatre in Barcelona.
Professional experience
-Winner of the Premi de Dansa de l’Institut del Teatre 2020 Award with OBLIVION, premiered in Mercat deles Flors and finalist of the 34th Madrid Choreographic Contest. OBLIVION was premiered as a full lengthperformance in Festival Grec 2021, and has also been danced in EllasCrean (Madrid), SAT! Teatre
(QuincenaMetropolitana de Dansa, Barcelona), L’Estruch (Sabadell), Florence Dance Festival, HannoverChoreography Competition, Istanbul Fringe Festival and Premio Prospettiva Danza Teatro (Padua).
-Choreographer of Réquiem (2020), premiered in TeatreEstudi in Barcelona, and performed full length inRussafaEscènica 2020 (Valencia) and Quinzena de Dança de Almada (Portugal).
-Resident in several choreographic centers such as La Roca Umbert (Granollers, 2021), L’Estruch(Sabadell, 2021), La Visiva (2020) and Centre de creació La Caldera (2019).
-Choreographer of Pas de Carla, Iris, Cristina y Maria (2018) premiered in TeatreOvidiMontllor, andperformed in IF festival Barcelona 2018, and in the 32nd Madrid Choreographic Contest.
-Choreographer of La doble hélice (2017) performed in TeatreOvidiMontllor (Barcelona), L’estacióEscènika (Barcelona), GraciasxFavor (Santander), and awarded with a danceWEB scholarship forImpulsTanzViena in the 31st Madrid Choreographic Contest.
-Dancer in “De San Vito”, by the Catalan choreographer Andrés Corchero (2019).
-Dancer in “Halab”, by the choreographer Sol Picó, danced in Sismògraf (2017).
-Dancer in the Samson et Dalila opera by the company La FuradelsBaus, in the Palau de les Arts ReinaSofia in Valencia (2016).

Raquel Romero

Raquel Romero studied dance at the Professional Dance Conservatory of A Coruña and obtained the University Degree at the Institut del Teatre, in Barcelona. She has worked for choreographers such as Sol Picó, Lorena Nogal, Joan Català and Irene García La Quebrá, participating in numerous national dance festivals.

Marta García

Marta García studied dance at the Professional Conservatory in Seville and obtained the University Degree at Institut del Teatre, in Barcelona. She has worked in different operas (Orfeo and Eurídice, Dido and Eneas), participated in various national dance festivals (Coreofest, Burgos-New York, Sismògraf, Sabadell Choreographic Contest). She has worked for choreographers such as Lorena Nogal, Roser López Espinosa, Guy Nader and María Campos.

Anna Serra

Anna Serra studied at the NOD program in Turin, and became part of the junior company COBOSMIKA, directed by Olga Cobos and Peter Mika. She was also a dancer in FRE3 BODIES, postgraduate company directed by Nicolás Richini and Nadine Gerspacher (Barcelona). She has performed at festivals such as MAC Festival, Primavera Sound, Danseu Festival with Marina Mascarell, and The Soldier’s Tale with Ferran Carvajal. She is currently working in a new creation for Teatro Real, in Madrid.

Pere Seda

Pere Seda studied at the Professional Dance Conservatory of Institut del Teatre, in Barcelona and was part of the junior company COBOSMIKA. He has performed in different operas and has worked for choreographers such as Antonio Ruz. He is dancer and choreographer for the catalan traditional dance company EsbartMaragall.

Agnès Balfegó

Agnès Balfegó finished her studies at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona in 2018 with a Higher Degree in Dance. Since 2019 she has been a dancer with the Jesús Rubio Gamo company in the piece “Gran Bolero” (Max Award 2020). She has also worked in productions with Poliana Lima, Roberto Olivan, Teatro del Temple, Colectivo La Imperfecta, Anna Kathalin Nemeth, Luiz Fernando Bongiovanni and Ana Leitao, Valleto Company. As a creator, her solo EIXOS ’21 stands out, premiered and awarded by the jury at the 15m2 Festival. Her interest in exploring voice and singing led her to join the choral singing group “Fures in Nocte” with which she is collaborating currently, in addition to a solo musical project produced by “The Perimetrals”.

Sergi Puig

Sergi Puig studied the Degree in Composition and Musical Theory at the Conservatory of the Liceu Theater. Currently pursuing a Master in Composition at Kunstuniversität Graz (Graz). He was awarded the ANON composition award for Plural Ensemble. More than 12 original works premiered in the field of opera and classical music.

CarlesBorràs

Trained as a technician in the Spectacle Technology School of Barcelona (TTE). After working in film, events, concerts and television, he focuses his work on the world of performing arts. He started with the Vol-Ras company, and began to work as a technician at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. He has worked for different companies in both text theater and dance, with directors such as Jerome Savary, Josep Ma Flotats, Joan Ollé, Martí Torres, Alex Ollé, Miquel Gorriz, Alfredo Sanzol, Pau Miró, Silvia Munt, SergiBelbel, Cesc Gelabert, Alvaro de la Peña, Inés Boza, Agnès Mateus and Quim Tarrida. He is currently in charge of the technical coordination of La Caldera Centre de Creació.

Sergio Roca

Trained as a technical director of audiovisual and shows at the School of Audiovisual Media (EMAV, Barcelona). He also obtained his studies as a Lighting Technician and Sound Technician at the Spectacle Technology School (TTE). He has worked for companies such as Una del mucho, Agrupación Señor Serrano, PereFaura, Roser López Espinosa, LaPerla29, Animal Religion, NúriaGuiu, Pep Tosar, Raquel Klein, LaiaSantanach, Eulàlia Bergadà, Pau Aran or El Pollo Campero. He is currently in charge of the technical coordination of l’AnticTeatre.

Marta Sol De La Vila

Alsoknown as Sol de la Villa, she is a fashion designer. Trained in renowned firms in New York and London, her wardrobes include collaborations with the Vaikonur company and her latest work with the Silvia Batet dance company.

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WE – Caféturc Music & Arts

Turkey

“WE” draws inspiration from Anatolian esoterism on one hand, and from contemporary philosophy on the other hand, questioning the concepts of “unity in multitude”, “empathy”, “universal ethics”.

Who counts as human? Whose lives count as lives? And, finally, what makes for a grievable life? Despite our differences in location and history, my guess is that it is possible to appeal to a “we”, for all of us have some notion of what it is to have lost somebody…Let’s face it.
Judith Butler, Precarious Life

In “we”, three male dancers in the performance space alternately move through series of trio movement forms in close and constant physical contact, dual action dialogues, and moments of individual outbursts of energy. They dig deep into their memories and bodies striving to explore what binds us together. They tirelessly search for unity in multiplicity while re-enacting and re-staging their experiences of communion and conflict, tenderness and violence, strength and vulnerability, and trauma and healing along the way.

* “WE” was produced for the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet – Modern Dance Ensemble Istanbul (MDTist) and is still in the MDTist repertoire. With our endless thanks to them for their support.

Open discussion and Q&A with the contributors and the audience will follow.

Credits
Created with and performed by: Bedirhan Dehmen, Canberk Yıldız, Cem Yıldız, Mihran Tomasyan
Concept and Choreography: Bedirhan Dehmen
Music: Cem Yıldız
Lighting Design: Kerem Çetinel
Costumes: Günsu Sarı
Lights: Melis Karaman
Social Media: Planning Ponte Dijital
Management: Caféturc Music & Arts
Production: Biz Platform

“WE” was presented:
In Turkey:
Istanbul Modern Art Museum, Basilica Cistern (İstanbul), Fulya Sanat Merkezi (Istanbul. As part of Intercultural Dialogue Day, organized by Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, Modern Dance Ensemble), Moda Sahnesi (Istanbul), Bosphorus University, Karşıyaka Opera and Theatre (Izmir), Tiyatro D22 (Istanbul), Saint Bedros Armenian Church in Gaziantep, Antiphellos Antique Theater in Kas, old byzantine monument the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Archeology Museum in Sanliurfa.
Abroad:
Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin. As part of Voicing Resistance Festival), Suzanne Dellal Center (Tel Aviv. As part of Tel Aviv Summer Dance Festival), Les Halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels. As part of Europalia Arts Festival)

Supported by Anna Lindh Foundation

Duration: 50 min.
Τrailer: https://youtu.be/6uGVVTarHSE

 

Bedirhan Dehmen

Dancer-choreographer-director-acamedician.
Until 2007, member of Boğaziçi Performing Arts Ensemble.
Danced, choreographed, and/or directed in: Monday in the Sun (2008), Human Writes (2008, The Forsythe Company), Oneness (2010), Off Course (2010, Meg Stuart & Damaged Goods), WE (2014), The Eternal Spring (2015), Fullmoon (2015), Mecnun ve Leyla (2017), The Ballerina (2018), Marathon (2018), Bahr (2021), Aridu (2021).
Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sociology, Boğaziçi University.
PhD degree in Dramaturgy, Istanbul University.
Associate professor at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Contemporary Dance Department.
Teaches at Koç University as guest lecturer.
Founded Biz Platform in 2021, a platform for co-production/co-labor.

Cem Yildiz

Acknowledged as a “Modern Time Troubadour”, Cem Yildiz graduated from the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory. Having a prolific career with solo works, series/film soundtracks and collaboration with the international hit Acid Arab, Cem Yıldız has performed in world-famous electronic music festivals and stages in Turkey and Europe, like Montreux Jazz Festival and Sonar Barcelona.
In “WE”, Cem Yildiz, the renowned musician who distinctly re-interprets the Anatolian aşık (troubadour) tradition by introducing psychedelic and acid folk elements, joins and guides the djem (alevi-bektashi ritual) with his electro-acoustic musical universe.