Unpredictable festival
The European Dance Festival in Limassol over the next few weeks promises a mixed bag of performers from around the continent
Two months of dance performances by troupes from 11 European countries have kicked of in Limassol, host to the Ninth European Dance Festival.
Over the last few years, the size of the festival, which offers free performances, has grown considerably. Apart from the performances, most of the companies will offer workshops, the Dutch company will hold an open rehearsals and, for the first time, two lectures about dance will take place.
Last year’s French company staged a breathtaking performance – probably the best dance we have seen in Cyprus in many years. This makes expectations of this year’s company high. Herbe Robbe is a member of the National Choreographic Center and will present a work for two dancers with video. Robbe’s aims to offer new qualities of space, and expand choreographic possibilities by skillful use of video and sound, and the human body as the sole source of creativity.
The Spanish company, Larumbe Danza, will show their piece Mas o Menos un Dia. Choreographed by Juan De Torres and Daniela Merlo, the work promises beautiful classical contemporary dance.
Ioanna Parali’s Landscape Dance Company will represent Greece. Since its inception in 2002, all of the company’s work has centered on the relationship between man and the environment. The piece to be presented in Cyprus, Missing People, was inspired by the devastating tsunami but deals with natural disasters in general and how humans respond to them. Her work includes digital and video art.
The UK is this year represented by the Russell Maliphant Company, a hot favourite on the London scene. His work is characterised by elegant fluidity and seamless partnering. It is beautifully uncomplicated and tends to celebrate music through movement. They will show two pieces: an all-female ensemble work and a duet, which was originally choreographed on the stunning Sylvie Guiliem.
Rising out of the edgy contemporary dance tradition of Germany, Anna Huber will show the piece two, too. Two dancers, Kristyna Lhotakova and Anna, perform in a limited space, exploring human relations, ideas of independence, individuality and cohabitation. German works tend to be avant-garde and conceptual, stripped of glamour and glitz.
DanceWorks Rotterdam exemplifies the Dutch school of contemporary dance – abstract, minimalist, and stark. The bill contains three pieces, all packed with choreography that resembles architecture and sculptural bodies. Ton Simons’ work is about movement and dance, not grand conceptual ideas of dance theatre so you won’t be struggling to understand something more profound than powerful physicality of good modern dance.
Chris Haring describes his work Kind of Heroes as a “flexible structure of scenarios.” The Austrian choreographer has been described as a wizard of technology and multimedia. He employs both in his work. This particular piece aims to negate the myth of the hero figure by making each of the characters bashful. Haring presents awkward sci-fi heroes, antidotes to Playstation ones, whose bodies are distorted by movement and costumes.
Poland will present a ballet performance by the Grand Theatre-National Opera in Warsaw. The evening will consist of three works choreographed by Emil Wesolowski and Jacek Przybylowicz. All ballets are set to Polish composers, celebrating the folklore of the country.
The Italian group Sistami Dinamici Altamente Instabili will present a group work entitled Morsi. Although the group is run by two women, Antonella and Alessandra Sini, the work was created by all of the company members in order to reach new and unusual ways of choreographing. Prepare yourself for an evening of experimental dance devoid of rules.
Swiss Compagnie Drift will show their piece Unkaputtbar. Precisely choreographed, the piece comments on traditional ideas of masculinity with man perpetually building and falling, as if learning to fly. They build blocks using mattresses as bricks and fall onto them and under them, using their physicality to the extreme, somehow always landing on their feet.
After gracing the great stages of New York city, including the prestigious Joyce Theatre, Dance Theater Workshop, and the Kitchen, Maria Hassabi finally returns home as the Cyprus entry. Her new work, Still Smoking, which premiered in New York in April is set on six performers, a mixture of dancers and non-dancers including Hassabi herself. Like all her work, the piece is greatly stylised with emphasis on set design, costumes (designed by the edgy New York fashion collective ThreeAsFour), original music and idiosyncratic movement. Still Smoking was influenced by the grandeur and excess of Baroque and the beginning of opera, where many elements were fused simultaneously on stage. Like the city itself, her work is raw and emotional, abstract, and set in an over-stimulated environment.
Although the European Dance Festival is usually an unpredictable affair this year’s promises a few great performances. If you can’t make it all do not miss the British, Dutch, and Austrian companies and, of course, our very own Maria Hassabi.
WHAT’S ON WHEN
May 7: Spain
May 14: Greece
May 19: Great Britain
May 27: Germany
May 31: Netherlands
June 3: Austria
June 7: Poland
June 9: Italy
June 14: Switzerland
June 24: Cyprus
All performances to be held at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol. A bus for the Rialto will leave from the car park of the Hilton Hotel in Nicosia at 7pm on the night of each performance.
Lectures
May 14, 6pm Choreography to Express Identity by Georgette Gebara
May 11, 6pm The choreographer Mats Ek by Andromachi Lindahl
Workshops
May 6, 11am-1pm Spain
May 6, 1.30pm–3.30pm France
May 14, 11am-1pm Greece
May 21, 11am-1pm Great Britain
June 4, 11am-1pm Austria
June 10, 11am-1pm Italy
June 11, 11am-1pm Switzerland
All workshops will take place at Ilaria Larkou and Valeria Solea dance school in Limassol. For information call 99 517151
