Derevo theatre, ONCE. Fot. LG Art Centre.
This year?s 6th Gdańsk Dance Festival is taking place at Club Żak from 4 to 16 June (4?8 June: Solo Dance Contest; 9?16 June: festival events) under the overriding theme of ?SoundSpaceS?. The programme will be a treat for everybody interested in music and dance and eager to look for new spaces in art. The event will be a showcase of the most interesting projects that combine movement, sound, and image in unconventional ways.
The festival will start on 9 June with a Gdańsk Dance Festival?s production titled Zrabowali mi składaka [They?ve Stolen My Bike], created as part of the ?residency ? premiere 2014? project and boasting input from the excellent musician Oleg Dziewanowski. Also on 9 June two books will be promoted: European Dance since 1989. Communitas and the Other edited by Joanna Szymajda and Pokolenie Solo [The Solo Generation] written by Anna Królica. Both paint a picture of Polish dance and locate Polish dance researchers and critics among the best in the world.
The audience will also have a chance to see the music and dance duo Edivaldo Ernesto & Hauschka in An encounter of improvised music & dance. The internationally renowned pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka will join forces with the Mozambique-born dancer Edivaldo Ernesto from the company Sasha Waltz & Guests, to give life to new qualities of sound and movement in the process of improvisation. Their performance will bridge Club Żak?s two flagship projects ? the New Music Days and the Gdańsk Dance Festival ? and will be a treat for enthusiasts of energetic dance and sophisticated music.
Another interesting item on the festival?s programme is Cargo, a performance by charismatic Congolese dancer Faustin Linyekula set to music by excellent guitarist and composer Flamme Kapaya, whose compositions combine Congolese pop music with a significant dose of punk created in reaction to ongoing crisis.
Equally expressive and interesting in from musical and choreographic point of view is There is a name for it performed by Cuban dancer Judith Sánchez Ruíz and Edivaldo Ernesto from Mozambique. Admirers of Japanese simplicity should necessarily see Black Swan by Misato Inoue, whose minimalist and emotional dance is an excellent interlocutor for Ludovico Einaudi and Thomasa C Gas. The programme features two Polish productions, both making an interesting reference to the festival?s theme. Soul Project/PL directed by David Zambrano and performed by ten Polish dancers is a series of masterly solo improvisations. Set to music hits as well as little-known pieces, the solos conjure up an interesting space where art, life, dance, and music meet and interact. New(Dis)Order choreographed by Ramona Nagabczyńska is a choreographic and musical discourse on art as a realm of freedom and a tool of rebellion. The performance is set to music by NEU!, Nisennenmondai, Ścianka, Chinawoman, or David Bowie, and was presented at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe, winning praise from international critics.
The festival will finish with The Intention, a choreography by Adrienne Hart, accompanied by a specially-created film by BAFTA-winner Terry Braun.
Fans of small music forms may be interested to attend presentations by the participants of the Solo Dance Contest for the best contemporary dance (or related) solo on 4?8 June. Year after year the contest attracts more and more dancers from across Europe. This year 71 submissions have been sent in from 21 countries (17 from Italy, 13 from Poland, and 5 from the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, and Spain, each). Thirty-five dancers have qualified to take part in the final stage of the contest, including one Gdańsk-based artist. This year?s jury gathers: Laurie Uprichard (France/USA) ? curator, producer, critic, Quaternaire; Ruby Edelmann (Israel) ? choreographer, artistic director of the Machol Shalem Dance House in Jerusalem; Anna Królica (Poland) ? dance critic, dance curator, author of the book Pokolenie solo [The Solo Generation]; Włodzimierz Kaczkowski (Poland) ? director of the theatre Scena Współczesna, organiser of the Zawirowania Dance Theatre Festival; Eryk Makohon (Poland) ? director of the Kraków Choreographic Centre, founder of the Cracow Dance Theatre.
Traditionally, the festival will be a chance to debut new productions of the Gdańsk Dance Corporation created in association with Club Żak. Among the premieres there are works by Aurora Lubos, Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz, Teatr W Twojej Głowie (formerly: LipZezRew), and Larysa Grabińska.
The performances will be complemented with an exhibition of photography by Paweł Wyszomirski, who has been documenting events held by Club Żak for many years now, titled Zatańcz to miasto [Dance This City], featuring winners of the ?residency ? premiere 2014? competition and dancers of the Gdańsk Dance Corporation. The exhibition will be on show at Club Żak, opening together with the festival part of the event.
PROGRAMME OF THE 2014 GDAŃSK DANCE FESTIVAL
The Gdańsk Dance Festival is held by Club Żak thanks to the support of the City of Gdańsk and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.
Club ŻAK / 80-266 Gdańsk / ul. Grunwaldzka 195/197
Municipal Culture Institution
tel. / fax: (+48) 58 344 05 73, 58 345 15 90
biuro@klubzak.com.pl ; www.klubzak.com.pl
More:
www.facebook.com/GdanskiFestiwalTanca
