Programme

STEPHEN PETRONIO

About the choreographer:

Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Stephen Petronio is widely regarded as one of the leading dance-makers  of  his generation. New music, visual art, and fashion collide in his dances, producing powerfully modern landscapes for the senses. For over 30 years, Stephen Petronio has honed a unique language of movement that speaks to the intuitive and complex possibilities of the body informed by its shifting cultural context.

Petronio was born in Newark, NJ, and received a BA from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he began his early training in improvisation and dance technique. He was greatly influenced by working with Steve Paxton and was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Dance Company (1979 to 1986).

Petronio has created over 35 works for his company and has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious modern and ballet companies, including William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt (1987), Deutsche Oper Berlin (1992), Lyon Opera Ballet (1994), Maggio Danza Florence (1996), Sydney Dance Company (2003, full evening), Norrdans (2006), the Washington Ballet (2007), The Scottish Ballet (2007), and two works for National Dance Company Wales (2010 and 2013).

He has gone on to build a unique career, receiving numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from  the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, and most recently a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Through the years Stephen Petronio has worked with a lot of talented and provocative artists from different fields such as the visual artist Janine Antoni in a number of discipline-blurring projects, Laurie, Son Lux, Serj Tankian (lead vocalist of System of a Down) Ross (Nine Inch Nails), Nick Cave, with the photographer Matthew Brandt, the lighting designer Ken Tabachnick and the fashion designers Narciso Rodriguez, John Bartlett, Jillian Lewis, Benjamin Cho, Tony Cohen, Rachel Roy, Manolo etc.

About the company:

Stephen Petronio Company has this year launched a campaign to establish a choreographic residency program in Pawling, New York. This new undertaking expands the Company’s mission, reaffirming its new approach to history, and laying the groundwork for a creative and secure future. The residency program will focus on research and the creative process, providing dedicated rehearsal space and resources to choreographers and their collaborators to explore ideas and develop new work away from the daily pressures of urban life.

Last season marked the first incarnation of Bloodlines, a project of Stephen Petronio Company to honor and curate a lineage of American postmodern dance masters. Over a period of five years, the Company plans to bring works by Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, and others into its repertory. These artists are distinguished for creating original languages that embody the highest level of artistic excellence displayed through extreme physical and conceptual rigor, and have had a profound impact on Petronio’s own artistic path.

For ONE DANCE WEEK 2016 the company will perform a repertoire of original pieces created by the choreographer Petronio and performances that are part of the project Bloodlines.

Glacial Decoy (1979)

Choreography: Trisha Brown

Set, costumes, and Visual Direction: Robert Rauschenberg

Lighting: Beverly Emmons

Staged by: Diane Madden and Lisa Kraus

RainForest (1968)

Choreography: Merce Cunningham

Music: David Tudor

Rainforest Décor: Andy Warhol

Lighting: Aaron Copp

Staged by: Andrea Weber, with Meg Harper and Rashaun Mitchell

Locomotor (2014)

Choreography: Stephen Petronio

Original score: Clams Casino

Lighting: Ken Tabachnick

Costumes: Narciso Rodriguez

Pictures © Yi-Chun Wu & Sarah Silver

The visit of Stephen Petronio Company has been made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from Rapid Response, a project of American Dance Abroad and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC?

About the performance:

“For this project, I wanted to work with existing pieces of music, in order to trigger our collective memory” –the choreographer Yuval Pick shares about the performance. “I therefore chose to explore Kraftwerk’s music and universe, continuing my research into the common space, defined for me as the dynamic relationships between the collective and the individual.”

Yuval Pick chooses the period between 1974-78 in Kraftwerk’s sound, during which time the albums Autobahn, Radioactivität, Trans-Europa Expressand and Die Mensch-Maschine were all released. They are characterized by their analog sound and rhythms which remind of heartbeats, the movements of breathing, walking, a musical gesture on the human scale.  The choreographer interprets this part of their journey as the invention of a new European romanticism which offers a different perspective of Man and his environment. The 19th century ideal of Man and nature was replaced here by Man’s will to survive in his urbanised and mechanized environment. By exploring the “black box” of Kraftwerk, Pick has found a number of rather intriguing elements which were integrated into his research.

There is a reference to Franz Schubert in Trans-Europa Express, which was an invitation for the choreographer to go peruse the Schubert lieder, an old-time romantic register. Pick found in both acoustic universes the notion of “travelling” as a through-line, which allowed him to create a way of sliding from one era to another.

The extremely rhythmical nature of Kraftwerk’s compositions inspired the choreographer to reveal the skeleton of these compositions, a sort of x-ray of the music, transposing its rhythms with the sound of a single metronome. The choreographic approach of Yuval Pick often uses movement as a sort of “human mechanical”, which he then deploys onstage in a ritual form. With the dancers he creates a material based on the idea of twisting, torsion, an organic shape which will drive the development of the movement, and which will be fed by the multiple musical rhythms.

The choreographer works in the studio with the spatial trajectories of traditional European dances such as the minuet, whose principal motivation is the drawing closer and then moving away from one’s partner. It is the very elasticity of the space created between the dancers which interests him. All these different ideas create a new dance for an ensemble, a hybrid form which will generate new spaces.

“With “Are friends electric?” the director of CCN de Rillieux-la-Pape, moves into an entirely new realm of dance, creating a powerful, unusual piece about the elasticity of space and the body, as well as the experience of living together.”

Sophie Lesort – Danser Canal Historique

“Mission accomplished: Kraftwerk’s music becomes tangible through these experts in the electricity of muscles. Our hearts beat with theirs. Bravo.”

Florence Roux – 491

About the company:

Yuval Pick

Appointed director of the Centre Chorégraphique de Rillieux-la-Pape in August 2011, Yuval Pick has had a long career as a choreographer, a dancer and a teacher. He first trained at the Bat-Dor Dance School in Tel Aviv, then joined the Batsheva Dance Company in 1991. Four years later he left to begin working as an international guest artist with, among others, Tero Saarinen, Carolyn Carlson and Russel Maliphant. In 1999 he joined the Opera Ballet of Lyon, and founded his own company, The Guests, in 2002. Since then he has created a strong repertory of works marked by their elaborated, layered movement vocabulary, accompanied by commissioned scores by ranking composers. In his work the relationships between individuals and group, between individual and community.

He created Popular Music (2005), Strand Behind (2006) for the Agora Festival (IRCAM) and the National Conservatory of music and dance (CNSMD) in Lyon, /Paon/ (2008) for the Junior Ballet in Genève and 17 drops. In 2010, he created Score and then The Him for the Junior Ballet of the National Conservatory music and dance (CNSMD) in Paris and the trio Play Bach at the invitation of Carolyn Carlson. In 2012, No play hero, with the music of David Lang and Folks for the Biennale of Danse in Lyon. Then, two creations in 2014, the duet loom with the music of Nico Muhly and Ply piece for five dancers with the american composer Ashley Fure. In 2015, he creates Apnée (corps vocal) in collaboration with Spirito – les Choeurs et solistes de Lyon – Bernard Tétu.

Duration: 60 min

Choreography: Yuval Pick

Music: Kraftwerk – News, Transistor, Ohm sweet ohm, Radioland, Numbers, Computer world.2, Trans Europa Express, Metal on metal, Abzug, Mitternacht, Franz Schubert, Olivier Renouf

Dancers: Julie Charbonnier, Madoka Kobayashi, Fernando Carrión Caballero, Jérémy Martinez,  Adrien Martins, Alexander Standard

Lights: Nicolas Boudier

Costumes: Frédérick Denis

Set design: Bénédicte Jolys

Sound: Olivier Renouf

Production: CCNR / Direction Yuval Pick

Pictures: © Sébastien Erôme

The visit of Centre Chorégraphique National de Rillieux-la-Pape is happening with the support of French Institute in Bulgaria, Embassy of the Republic of France and Societe Generale Expressbank.

SOUL PIERCING & SHYNESS

About the performances:

Playful chaos between the dead and the living presented over the wooden coffin board.

SOUL PIERCING is a piece that was selected and presented through the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company’s 2014 season program “History and Memory: Tradition Reinvented.” It also received an award for dancing and acting from the Korean Association of Dance Critics and Researchers. SOUL PIERCING is based on observations of traditional funeral rites and the bewilderment and the contradictory attitudes seen in such ceremonies. The piece tackles the chaos of the living and dead that floats about the boundaries of death, and interprets it with a grotesquely exaggerated playfulness and imagination. Even within the uncontrollable confusion of death and the inadequacy of existence, there is a touching and desperate explanation hidden in the piece, which aims to peer at death with a hyper-positive gaze.

SHYNESS

Who is he? Do I know him? Why is he greeting to me? People don’t usually figure out me when I wear the glasses. Is he my close acquaintance? I would change my glasses into horn rimmed one. Even though this pair of glasses has been useful to disguise myself, it doesn’t work anymore. But, I am relieved. He just leaves after greeting. If he holds me asking ‘How have you been?’, my liquid eyes would start wavering. My behaviour would be awkward. Out of awkwardness, my tongue would move vastly, making my mouth watery. It seems that every part of my body mocks at my effort to stop this conversation. The man standing in front of me would regard me as a man of failure. Striding through people in this field is still painful to me. Rather than expanding my perspective, it would be better to expand the size of my gut by indulging chinese food. Shit.

About the company:

Bewitch people with unusual strength and skills, play mischievous tricks, and show perverse behavior- Korean traditional monster, goblin, is the symbol of the company. Goblin Party is a group of artists who can both choreograph and dance. Therefore, one specific leader does not lead the company instead one choreographer leads each project and the company.

Since its foundation, Goblin Party actively created dance pieces and invited to many festivals and theaters including 92Y Harkness Dance Center in New York, Internationale Tanzmesse (Germany/Dusseldorf), Spring Awakening festival in Netherlands. The 5th Pays de Danses (Belgium), Saint Petersburg and Moscow as part of Korean dance week in Russia. And we have toured 7 cities in Europe as a part of a program called Korea Moves.

SOUL PIERCING

Directing: LIM Jin-ho

Choreography & Cast: LIM Jin-ho, JI Kyung-min, LEE Kyung-gu, KIM Pyoung-su

Duration: 40 Minutes

SHYNESS

Directing: LIM Jin-ho, LEE Kyung-gu, JI Kyung-min

Cast: LIM JI Kyung-min

Duration: 15 Minutes

The visit of Goblin Party is happening in partnership with Seoul International Choreography Festival.

COLLECTIVE LOSS OF MEMORY

About the performance:

COLLECTIVE LOSS OF MEMORY is an extraordinary performance, impressive with its aesthetic qualities, as well as the high level of technical realization. During the creation of their project, Jozef Fruček and Linda Kapetanea are often coming back to the archetypal themes such as forms and parables of the good and the evil. Together with original music and light design they are creating fascinating and impressive images.

The successful co-operation between the three choreographers – Lenka Ottova, artistic director of DOT504, Jozef Fruček and Linda Kapetanea known also as RootLessRoot continue their co-operation after a lot of former internationally successful projects.The emphasis on equal creative contribution of the choreographers and the dancers is one of the typical components in the creation of the DOT504 projects.The preparations of the new project have started by a big audition with around 500 applications from the dancers from the world. The concentration of excellent dancers from which the choreographers have chosen the best ones was stunning and extraordinary. Finally, Jozef and Linda have chosen for the new project 5 distinctive male dancers.

Jozef and Linda were both members of the prominent Ultima Vez and that´s why their choreographies are always build with lots of dynamics and are abounded with unprecedented high physical performance. The new project which its creators describe as „study of provocation“ will present five excellent performers from different parts of the world – Israel, Belgium, France, Sweden and Slovakia. What will bring this international encounter which opens the theme of violence in contemporary society?

“Together with five exceptional performers, we will dive into the powerful social phenomenon of the great pleasure human beings take in killing and participating in violence. We will examine this ‘run-of-the-mill’ topic through the history of art practices and especially its criticism appearing within the fine arts and cultural sector. It will be a study of provocation that does not touch the obvious, but rather examines subtle aspects of the human behavioral evolution. As such, we will ask ourselves what kind of evolutionary pressures we have passed and continue to pass through in today’s unprecedented lifestyle, which is oriented only towards selfish momentary pleasures.“ – Linda and Jozef said.

About the company:

The successful co-operation between the three choreographers – Lenka Ottova, artistic director of DOT504, Jozef Fruček and Linda Kapetanea known also as RootLessRoot Company, began with Holdin’ Fast (2008)a project that received the Total Theatre Award nomination for the Best Young Company at the Fringe Festival Edinburgh in 2008 and launched a series of international success and recognition; a year later a following project 100 Wounded Tears (2009) was awarded with The Herald Angels Award at the Fringe Festival Edinburgh. COLLECTIVE LOSS of MEMORY is being created in co-production with Tanec Praha.

DOT504 Dance Company – physical dance theatre company – is characterized by high technical level, creativity and distinctive personalities among creators and interprets of each project. Blurring of boundaries between theatre and dance is one of the main characteristics of the company together with an emphasis on the creative contribution of the dancers and their technical and interpretive level.

Jozef  Fruček

Jozef is a founding member of RootlessRoot. He graduated from the Academy of Music and Theater of Bratislava, completing his PhD Thesis in 2002. During 2002-2005 Frucek was a member of Wim Vandekeybus’ Ultima Vez, creating Blush (stage and film versions), Sonic Boom and etc. During 2005-2006 he collaborated with the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels (KVS) on his own work. Since 2012 Frucek is member of the teaching personnel of the University Ludwik Solski State Drama School of Krakow in Poland.

Linda Kapetanea

Graduated from the Greek State School of Dance in Athens. With a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation, she later studied at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Movement Research and Dance Space, New York. In 2002, she was awarded by a Greek Ministry of Culture as “the best performer” of the season 02/03. Between 2002- 2005 she performed with Flemish Ultima Vez Company/ Wim Vandekeybus (Blush, Blush Movie, Sonic Boom, Puur, Here After Movie). From 2006 – 2012 Linda was on the teaching faculty at the Athens State School for Dance.

RootlessRoot Dance Company

In 2006 Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek formed RootlessRoot as a vehicle for their own productions, research and teaching. Together they are developing the research program of Fighting Μonkey – an applied methodology of martial arts in the education of dancers, actors and movement practitioners. They regularly give workshops at international festivals and in vocational schools. From 2006 – 2011 both Frucek and Kapetanea were on the teaching faculty at the Athens State School for Dance.

Duration: 60 min

Concept and choreography: Jozef Frucek & Linda Kapetanea [RootLessRoot Company] SK/GR

Performing: Nathan Jardin (B), Joona Kaakinen (FIN), Knut Vikström Precht (S), Dano Raček (SK), Tom Weksler (IL)

Original music: Vassilis Mantzoukis (GR)

Stage design: Jozef Fruček

Light designer: David Prokopič

Costume designer: Lenka Kovaříková

Costume concept: Linda Kapetanea

World premiere: October 17-18, 2014 – Ponec Theatre Prague, Czech Republic

Artistic director of DOT504: Mgr. Lenka Ottová

Production: Claudia Nasliová

Co-producer: Tanec Praha

Residence: Duncan Centre Athens (special thanks to artistic director Ms. Penelope Iliaskou)

Photos Petr Otta © 2014

  Marilena Stafylidou © 2014

DOT504 Dance Company is coming with the support of Czech Center in Sofia and Ministry of Culture Czech Republic.

ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE, HONEY

About the performance:

In the performance ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE, HONEY Frédérick Gravel takes on the confusion of the contemporary American male, whether he hails from a bland suburb, a country road or a cowboy movie. He is accompanied by the musician Stéphane Boucher, a multi-instrumentalist who creates sound and music turmoil, Dave St-Pierre, the enfant terrible of trash choreography and Nicolas Cantin, an actor fascinated by clowning.

Gravel himself is also onstage for the festivities for he is a musician, set designer and, as he likes to say, a “bad dancer who hopes to become an interesting bad dancer”. The music is performed live – with scratching of dirty chords, the lighting is vibrant and the piece plays with irony and distancing. It is a tale of distraught men, the ordinary run-of-the-mill North American male –beer, T-shirts, baseball caps, cowboy boots, beer bellies and their hesitations, outbursts of violence, confusion, brusque changes of mood, right left, front and back, lurching in a drunken haze of beer and powerlessness.

About the choreographer:

Frédérick Gravel graduated in 2009 from UQAM’s (Université du Québec à Montréal) dance faculty with a thesis on “The role of the dance artist in a democratic society’’. The choreographer, dancer, musician and lighting designer Frédérick Gravel has been active on the Montreal scene for the past ten years. He turns the structures of choreography upside down, merging into his work various elements from rock and performance art.

His productions Gravel Works, Tout se pète la gueule, chérie , Cabaret Gravel Cabaret and his most recent performance Thus Spoke…,have received great national and international reviews. His works are created in close collaboration with all members of Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup/GAG, a shifting collective of dancers and musicians actively involved in the creation process.

Concept and direction: Frédérick Gravel / Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup

Dancers and musicians on stage: Nicolas Cantin, Dany Desjardins, Tomas Furey, Frédérick Gravel

Original musics: Stéphane Boucher

Light: Alexandre Pilon-Guay

Dramaturgy: Katya Montaignac

Rehearsal director: Anne Lebeau

Artistic advisors: Ivana Milicevic, Claude Poissant, Hugo Gravel

Executive producer: Daniel Léveillé danse

Coproducers: Festival TransAmériques in collaboration with Place des Arts;
Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis

Pictures: © Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup

Promotion and development: George Skalkogiannis for Memoranda Management

With the support of: Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec; Canada Arts Council

Frédérick Gravel receives administratrive and developement supports from Daniel Léveillé danse company (Montréal) as part of his touring sponsorship project.

SECOND BODY

About the performance:

360° full body – lenght and real – time video projection invite us to discover a new definition of the body.

In the beginning, there is nothing but darkness. Then, out of the dark emerges an electronic soundscape of footsteps, breathing  and subtle body movements. You can feel the presence of a body moving. Suddenly, a face appears with eyes closed. You realise  a  sculpture-like body standing in front of you. The  head  starts  moving  slowly, becoming aware of its own presence. Joint by joint, limb by limb, the body, standing upright in the middle of the stage, seems to (re)discover itself and to become aware of its own structure by acquiring knowledge  about its own nature. Later, a 360º full body-length projection of an artificial second body invades the scene creating an experience of motion distinct from the movements of the first body. How does the natural body get used to this second body? Also, how does the natural body realise its own  transformation  triggered by the artificial second  body? A new definition  of  the body is to be discovered!

“The concept of Second Body comes from the experience of driving cars” – said the artistic director of the company Jeff Chieh-hua Hsieh. “If I want to steer the wheel, to brake, to step on the gas, I don’t need to consciously think, yet the car can still go ahead, turn, and park at the correct spot according to my will. Moreover, when I am driving, I know how big my car is when I weave through narrow alleys, and I know where the four wheels are as the car proceeds in its tracks. Maneuvering a car is an experience done almost entirely out of reflex,  without  the  need  for  the  brain  to actively think. This reminds me of the way we move our hands and feet, which move naturally without the need for us to think. When we are infants, we learn how to use our own bodies: we learn to stand on our  feet, move, and  run, and  gradually learn to exercise our bodies as we will. We even learn how to use our bodies to the max in certain sports and exercises. In  sum,  the accumulation of  knowledge, concepts and training allows us to use our bodies without conscious thought, making the use of our bodies  an  extension  of  the  natural,  physical  body  itself.  The  same  happens  when learning to drive, so that driving becomes a process achieved without thinking, with the car becoming an extension of the body. The present work starts from establishing the presence of the body, while learning the structure of the natural body through setting up knowledge of the body itself. In addition, the knowledge of the structure of exercise is used to represent what we know of our own  first  bodies  in  the  moment. Afterwards, a fully functional body  starts to build up, then change the environment for itself. Gradually, the environment starts to change the body as well. The  following  section  is  a  360º  full body-length  projection enters the picture to create a non-natural second body, which creates an experience of movement distinct from the movements of the first  body. We are re-learning this  new body. Adaptation? Conflict? Do we, during the conversion between these two, produce new knowledge to define our bodies with the change in our viewing perspective? Furthermore, how does the second body replace the definition and existence of the first body in the process?”

“Create an immersive physical-digital environment that puts no boundaries between real and virtual space.” – Hyperallergic, New York.

“Two modern dancers battled for love in a changing interactive visual environment. The visuals connected and reacted perfectly to their every movement, making them even more intense and hypnotic.”- Dots Magazine, The Netherlands.

About the company:

Anarchy Dance Theatre

Founded  in  2010 by architect and choreographer Jeff  Chieh-hua  Hsieh with focus on contemporary dance theatre  style, Anarchy  Dance Theatre aims to build up a unique dance vocabulary, training  system and a platform that encompasses artist collaboration from all  fields.  “Anarchy” derived from series of dance pieces Hsieh created in discussion of authority structure in human society. Since motion-sensitive dance work, Seventh Sense, was created in 2011, the company has been toured in the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Hong Kong, UAE, China and New York and attracted local and international acclaims from performing arts, digital arts and visual arts communities. Seventh Sense IIpremiered in November 2012 as a significant work for the Digital Art Festival  in  Taipei. Following the second dance-digital-art  work  collaboration with Ultra Combos, Second Bodyreceived much praise and drew extraordinary reviews. In August  2015, it had its world-premiere in Taiwan and its european premiere at Ars Electronica Linz in September 2015.

www.AnarchyDanceTheatre.com

Jeff Chieh-hua HSIEH

Jeff  Chieh-hua  Hsieh, the artistic director of Anarchy Dance Theatre, a Taiwanese based independent choreographer, who received his BA degree in Architecture and MFA in Dance Choreography. A  unique texture and strong structural characteristic of his choreographic  works are derived from his architecture background, with focus on awareness of body and its relationship in between with time, space and society. In 2010, he was invited by Singapore’s Frontier Danceland to collaborate and present a new piece with Artistic Director Low Mei Yoke at Esplanade and to choreography at Western Australian Academy  of  Performing Arts  in  2012. His  recent work In Freedom (2015) was commissioned by National Theatre & Concert Hall Taiwan and his previous works, Seventh  Sense (2011) and Seventh  Sense  II (2012), were commissioned by Ministry of Culture Taiwan and presented at National Theatre’s blackbox. Other  choreography  credits  include, Anarchy’s  Dream (2009), Anarchy (2008), Gray Mass (2006) and Falling Kiss (2006). His first two works in 2006 have successfully won him prestigious awards of choreography in Taiwan.

Ultra Combos

Ultra Combos is an innovative and interactive new media design house founded  in 2010. The name “Ultra Combos” came from the  combination of legendary three divinatory tricks in ancient China.When looking for novel ideas for projects, they hope to have broad and  thorough thinking  just  like  the  “Ultra  Combos” divination. Since 2006, team members have been active in art events, including Ars  Electronica Linz, Digital Art Festival Taipei, SIGGRAPH US, Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival, International Festival of  Electronic Art  404,  FILE  Electronic  Language International  Festival in Brazil and TSONAMI Festival of Sound Buenos Aires in Argentina, TodaysArt Festival in Hollad and WSD World Stage Design in the UK.

www.ultracombos.com

Yannick Dauby

Based in Taiwan since 2007. Exploring the soundscapes of this island through field recording, audio documentaries and community projects. Composing electroacoustic music (aka “musique concrète”) and performing improvised music with found objects, analogue devices and digital processing. Creating soundtracks and sound environments for contemporary dance, public art and films. Involved in activities about ecology and local traditional cultures.

www.kalerne.net/yannickdauby

We Do Group

Wedo, was taken from Eastern Jin Dynasty’s literature Guo Pu’s  annotation of the earliest shapes of light fixtures or vessels. We Do Group is a team of creative talents from diverse disciplines. The team creates with lights and has long established stature in  the  performing  arts. Recent  years,  We Do Group has been involved extensively in contemporary art, architectural lighting, public art and interior lighting projects. The We Do concept seeks to infuse the professionalism of light design into creative lifestyles.

www.wedogroup.com.tw

River LIN

Born in 1984, River Lin is an independent curator and artist working across the fields of  performing and visual arts. Out of artistic  boundary as strategy,  River’s work includes site-specific performance, theatre, dance, and installation making. In River’s interdisciplinary  art  practice, he concerns culture differences between generations, the contemporary psychological state, and the performative body in ritual process.

www.riverperformance.com

Shao-ching Hung/ Dancer

Someone who goes without turning back once the mind is determined. This is Shao-ching, who cleverly finds her complete interpretation through out the concepts given by choreographers, and further more expresses her own personality with honesty. She keeps seeking  different possibilities in interpretation  during  her  work of masters without losing  her own value.  Graduated  from the department of  Dance of Taipei National University of Arts, worked as a full-time dancer from 2005-2010 in Dance Forum Taipei. Worked with Lin Hwai-min (Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theater), Rose Parkes,  Ming-Shen  KU  (Founder  of  Ku  &  Dancers),  and also interpreted  “set  &  reset” of  Trisha  Brown.  In  2011,  she  participated  in  “Seventh  Sense”  of  Anarchy  Dance Theatre and toured in Spain in October 2012.

The seats  for the show are without a specific number. All seats are located on the stage.

Duration: 45 min

Production: Anarchy Dance Theatre 

Concept & Choreography: Jeff Chieh-hua Hsieh 

Software Development, Visual & Sound Design: Ultra Combos 

Sound Design: Yannick Dauby 

Dramaturgy: River Lin 

Lighting Design: We Do Group 

Custom Design: Yu-teh Yang 

Technical Initiator & Operator: Grace Hsiang-ting Teng 

Soloist: Shao-ching Hung 

Tour Management: AxE Arts Management 

Project Support: QA Ring 

Project Mentor: Justine Beaujouan 

Project Consultant: Kevin Cunningham 

Commissioned by: Quanta Arts Foundation/QA Ring

Project Mentor: Justine Beaujouan

Project Consultant: Kevin Cunningham

Pictures: © Ching-Ju Cheng

Supported by Ministry of Culture Taiwan

JINX 103

About the performance:

“From the roots of rituals is born a dance for two men. A face-off, non-confrontational, but explorational quest for the possibility of simultaneous movement. The gesture of the ritual orbits in a way, even to allow for a drop of humor. ” – Zita Sándor

József Trefeli and Gábor Varga create a dance performance for a public space, exploring together the rhythms and rituals of life in a high energy, captivating performance. This meeting of two male dancers connected by being from the Hungarian Diaspora, one born in Australia and the other in the USSR, brings them shoulder to shoulder as they delve into their common heritage. They come together in dance, the art form they share, even though it was learnt on opposite sides of the globe.

Through their common vocabulary of vibrant body percussion where even the most basic rhythms are extremely complex, with clapping and slapping, clicking and stamping, they create a breathtakingly energetic dance of lightning fast footwork, leg twisting and weaving, high kicks and turning jumps.

Why JINX 103?

In many languages when two people accidentally say the same thing simultaneously, there is a word that must be quickly said to ward off bad luck: the French say “chips”, the English say “jinx” and the Hungarians say “103”.

About the performers:

József Trefeli is Australian of Hungarian origins, graduate of the VCA Melbourne University, József dances 3 years in Australia before beginning his travels to discover the world. Geneva, Switzerland has been József’s home since 1996.

On 6 continents, more than 40 countries, József has achieved critical acclaim for his many and varied dance performances and numerous choreographic works. The diverse range of styles in which József choreographs include contemporary dance, cabaret, theatre, musical comedy, and opera. József has proven his ability to create solo work as easily as directing and choreographing casts of up to 50. József Trefeli has also danced for the companies Skree Wolf, Greffe, Drift, Utilité Publique, Philippe Saire, and Da Motus, and has acted in two plays with the Company Korpüs Animüs.

The József Trefeli Company was founded in 2005 for a commission to choreograph for the Association for Contemporary Dance (ADC) in Geneva. His creations have toured in Australia, Central America, Africa, Europe and Switzerland. József teaches classes and workshops to amateurs, professional dancers, and dance companies.

Gyula Cserepes is a dancer, performer and choreographer, originating from Bečej, Vojvodina, Serbia. Ex-member of the companies: “Central-Europa Dance Theater” (HU) and “En-Knap Group” (SLO). He studied at the “High-school of Folk Arts” and the “Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy”, in Budapest. Among other teachers, dancers, directors and choreographers, he worked with David Zambrano, Anton Lachky, Milan Tomašik, Simone Sandroni. His work as a choreographer includes the interdisciplinary, site-specific performance “Revive the Castle”, and the performances “New Age Gypsies” and “The bridge”, which was premiered in Volksroom, Brussels in November 2013. Gyula is currently developing a new work “Chameleon”. Since 2013 Gyula collaborates with the Geneva based Compagnie József Trefeli. With the performances “JINX 103” and “UP”, they have toured extensively in Africa, America and Europe.

Concept & choreography: József Trefeli & Gábor Varga 

Dance: József Trefeli & Gyula Cserepes

Music:  Frédérique Jarabo

Pictures: © Gregory Batardon

JINX 103 is created with the support of: DC Département de la Culture de la ville de Genève, IP Département de l’Instruction Publique de l’état de Genève, La Loterie Romande, Pro helvetia, Corodis, RESO Switzerland & Fête de la Danse, Genève, La Ville de Carouge.

The performance of JINX 103 is part of „Dance connected – establishing capacity for strengthening and diversifying the Bulgarian contemporary dance scene“ is а project by One Foundation for Culture and Art that was approved for funding by the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme, under the Block Grant Scheme of the Partnership Fund-“Partnership and Expert Fund” (TF PF).

KOVA ¬ GEOGRAPHIC TOOLS

About the performance:

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Throughout its life, at both choreographic and composition levels, La Veronal has distinguished itself with a unique and personal language; a combination of several disciplines intersecting dancing which makes them richer, bigger and more meaningful. Marcos Morau started generating his catalogue guided by a wish to explore the nature of some specific geographic points on the planet. The modus operandi has been nothing but a concealed excuse to research the enigmatic territory which hides the geography of the human body and movements. In this work of choreographic composition from the last five years, Marcos Morau and his team of dancers have developed a specific movement code called KOVA, a manual, a map which includes a set of rules and coordinates used to guide the choreographic language.

At this juncture, after spending some time outlining this peculiar topography, the need of presenting and validating KOVA as a research tool becomes evident. Because of that, in this new work, KOVA – Geographic Tools, La Veronal gets rid of the more dramatised, textual, iconic and representative character of their creations, to focus on the pure dynamics of movement generated through KOVA. This way, they offer a portrait of composition in real time, a portrait of physical plasticity; they deprive their dance of this other layer which is the artifice of show given by text and image.

The stress generated by KOVA is given by a strict set of rules of the dancing action, which continually generates impediments and problems to the dancer’s body. In this context, the dancer, who continually fights to resolve the challenges which they themselves have self-imposed, is able to communicate an appealing sense of freedom and vast possibilities. Spectators find themselves in front of a complex and rich choreography panorama, a labyrinth of body-language, free from topics and preset recognizable forms inside a figurative frame.

GEOGRAPHIC TOOLS wants to raise the interpretative possibilities of dance to the forefront and chooses the dancers’ body as the only image talking to spectators and dance itself as the only possible text. This way, it explores the semiotic territory of abstraction in movement.
About the company:

Marcos Morau was born in Valencia. He forms in choreography at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, the Conservatorio Superior de Danza de Valencia, the Choreographic Centre of Teatres de la Generalitat Valenciana and Movement Research in New York, obtaining the highest score on the final project. In recent years he made his choreographic assistantship project in the Nederlands Dans Theater II and the company IT Dansa.

His artistic skills are not limited to dance but extended into disciplines such as photography and drama, studying the Master in Theory of drama, where makes an assist with choreographer Cesc Gelabert.

Its main trainers are Tomás Aragay, Hilde Koch from William Forsythe’s, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Roberto Fratini, Laura Marini from Rui Horta, Avelina Argüelles, Moreno Bernardi and others.

In 2005 he created La Veronal, company formed by artists from the dance, film and theater. The artistic team purpose lies directly on a constant search for new expressive media, for cultural references – cinema, literature, music and photography, mostly – to bet on a strong narrative language with the intention of forming global art spaces. La Veronal is creating a set of works where each piece’s background takes as a starting point a country or city in the world, creating an analogy between dance and geography. The pieces do not intend to become as documentary films that describe the country directly, but makes use of the elements that the name provides to carry out the development of an idea, an argument. This imagery has led the company to differentiate itself on the map of international contemporary creation as an own voice.

Marcos Morau has won many prizes at national and international choreographic contests. First prize at the choreographic contest of Madrid, Fira de Tàrrega prize, award at MasDanza; Maspalomas International Choreographic contest, prize at the International Choreographic Contest of Copenhagen and a special mention in Huesca’s International Dance Fair, special appearance at the International Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and shortly he is going to be the guest choreographer at the Cross Connection Ballet of Copenhagen, descendant company of the prestigious Royal Danish Theater.

Direction and costumes: Marcos Morau

Performers: Laia Duran, Lorena Nogal, Marina Rodríguez, Manuel Rodríguez, Sau Ching Wong

Assistant choreographer: Lorena Nogal

Dramaturgy: Pablo Gisbert

The performance of La Veronal  is happening with the support of Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Bulgaria, Instituto Cervantes Sofia and The National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM).

UP

About the performance:

UP is an enigmatic state inspiring immediate enthusiasm. In this new choreography six amazing men dance a dynamic lifting vocabulary with raw energy to exhilarating result. UP presents an intelligent approach to altitude combining quirky efficiency and nonchalant spectacle. A choreographically well built, physically challenging and demanding contemporary dance performance that awakens the audience to the theme of elevating the spirit. Using influences of male action and reaction, rhythm and risk and emphasising virtuosity and originality, UP promises a purely uplifting experience. The aesthetic challenge is designing lifts with an emphasis on evident male strength, effortlessness and grace, entrancing the audience with the power and skill required to achieve these feats. The virtuosity and originality of these lifts defies the preexisting hackneyed vocabulary of lifting in both classical and contemporary dance. UP consciously opts for an aesthetic approach to elevation combining quirky efficiency and nonchalant spectacle. UP is a deliberately loaded title choice. UP directly refers to the movement material which it incorporates, but also the potential for a positive state of mind; a promise for a purely uplifting experience. Our ambition with UP is to create an optimistic work stimulating the audience into appreciating what they have experienced. A choreographically well built, physically challenging and demanding contemporary dance performance that in its construction, theme and content, awakens them to interacting with the surrounding humanity and environment as they leave the theatre. Ideally, the audience walks out smiling skywards to the stars.

About the choreographers:

József Trefeli is Australian of Hungarian origins, graduate of the VCA Melbourne University, József dances 3 years in Australia before beginning his travels to discover the world. Geneva, Switzerland has been József’s home since 1996.

On 6 continents, more than 40 countries, József has achieved critical acclaim for his many and varied dance performances and numerous choreographic works. The diverse range of styles in which József choreographs include contemporary dance, cabaret, theatre, musical comedy, and opera. József has proven his ability to create solo work as easily as directing and choreographing casts of up to 50. József Trefeli has also danced for the companies Skree Wolf, Greffe, Drift, Utilité Publique, Philippe Saire, and Da Motus, and has acted in two plays with the Company Korpüs Animüs.

The József Trefeli Company was founded in 2005 for a commission to choreograph for the Association for Contemporary Dance (ADC) in Geneva. His creations have toured in Australia, Central America, Africa, Europe and Switzerland. József teaches classes and workshops to amateurs, professional dancers, and dance companies.

Compagnie József Trefeli is achieving critical acclaim with its latest production of JINX 103, which will be also performed on October 28th in Plovdiv.

Born in Cardiff, Wales, Mike Winter has an atypical path as a choreographer and dancer. After having followed a first career in the world of International Finance and I.T. Mike received a scholarship from the deceased Diana, Princess of Wales (the President of the English National Ballet from 1989 to 1997) and was thus able to develop his hidden talent.

Since graduating from Laban Trinity London with a BA and MA in Dance Theatre he has lived and worked internationally and has been based in Switzerland since 1997. Mike continues to work and travel extensively as an independent performer, choreographer and teacher in the domains of dance, theatre, opera and circus both for companies and his own solo work. He has collaborated in over 50 new works with artists including Wendy Houstoun, Omar Porras, Stuart Hopps, Philippe Saire, Nicole Seiler, Robert Bouvier, Guilherme Botelho, Kylie Walters, Vasco Wellenkamp, Carmen Werner, Ursula Meier, Rui Horta, Claude Brumachon, Yolande Snaith, Lea Anderson, Stephan Koplowitz.

Under the pseudonym of Mister Winter, he has been notably associated with Lloyd Newson, the late Pina Bausch, Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York.In 2016 , Mister Winter will annonce the launch of his much anticipated The Belief Series, an ambitiuos dance-theatre trilogy in collaboration with the Catholic Church / Vatican City. Mister Winter is currently touring Europe with the Israelian prima-ballerina Talia Paz in the acclaimed duo of the late Nigel Charnock, Haunted by the Future.

The seats are without a specific number. All seats are located on the stage.

Duration: 60 min

Concept & choreography: József Trefeli & Mike Winter 

Dance: Gyula Cserepes, Leif Firnhaber, Dávid Mikó, Amaury Reot, Carl Staaf, Mike Winter

Music: Charles Mugel

Lighting technician: Victor Hunziker

Costume: Toni Teixeira

Administration: Cie József Trefeli, Laure Chapel, Paquis Production 

Diffusion: Lilla Eredics

Co-production & residency: Association co-production & residency : Association pour la Danse Contemporaine – adc Geneva, Switzerland, Pôle Sud CDC Strasbourg, Théâtre du Marché aux Grains, Bouxwiller, France ; SüdPol Luzern, Switzerland

Residency : Théâtre Sevelin 36 Lausanne, Switzerland

Funding bodies: DC Département de la Culture of the City of Geneva, Loterie Romande, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Pour-cent culturel Migros, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Fonds des Intermittents, SSA 2014 sponsorship for choreography, with the support of the Swiss Dance Collection – video documentation prize.

A project in cooperation with: the adc-Genève, Dampfzentrale Bern, Teatro Dimitri Verscio, eviDanse, Südpol Luzern, Théâtre du Passage Neuchâtel, Performa Festival Losone, Tanz in Winterthur, Rote Fabrik Zürich, Théâtre Sévelin 36 Lausanne in the framework of fonds des programmateurs / Reso-Réseau Danse Suisse.

With the support of: Pro Helvetia, Ernst Göhner Stiftung.

Pictures: © Gregory Batardon

The performance of UP is part of „Dance connected – establishing capacity for strengthening and diversifying the Bulgarian contemporary dance scene“ is а project by One Foundation for Culture and Art that was approved for funding by the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme, under the Block Grant Scheme of the Partnership Fund-“Partnership and Expert Fund” (TF PF).