24th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival, 7 - 29 June 2023
Switzerland opens and closes this year's festival with performances by two renowned groups, Cie Philippe Saire performing "Hocus Pocus" for children & "Vacuum" and Tabea Martin performing Forever.
Wednesday, 7 June 2023
* 17h / Cie Philippe Saire "Hocus Pocus" (45 mins / age 7+)
Cie Phlippe Saire returns to Cyprus after 15 years!
Hocus Pocus is one of the few contemporary dance works intended for a young audience. It seeks to challenge the imagination of its audience, while weaving a narrative that is open enough for each child to build his or her own story.
This dance piece is mainly based on the power of images, their magic and the sensations they provoke. The very unique set design allows for a playful and magical exploration into a game of appearances and disappearances of both bodies and accessories.
The brotherly relationship that develops between the two dancers constitutes the show’s guiding thread, both through the hardships they create for themselves to toughen themselves up, as well as through the fantastic voyage that subsequently awaits them.
Concept and choreography: Philippe Saire
Choreography in collaboration with dancers: Philippe Chosson, Mickaël Henrotay-Delaunay
Dancers on tour: Philippe Chosson, Pep Garrigues
Stage device realization: Léo Piccirelli
Props and accessories: Julie Chapallaz, Hervé Jabveneau
Sound design: Stéphane Vecchione
Technical direction: Vincent Scalbert
Construction: Cédric Berthoud
Music: Peer Gynt, by Edvard Grieg
* 20.30h / Cie Philippe Saire "Vacuum" (25 mins)
Vacuum generates impossible images and fantastic paintings, an interplay of bodies appearing and disappearing between black holes and dazzling lights. This duo is the third part in a series of performances called Dispositifs, in convergence with visual arts. After Black Out (2011) and NEONS Never Ever, Oh! Noisy Shadows (2014), Vacuum explores a new aspect of our sensory perception through an optical illusion created with two neon tubes.
In Black Out, the movements of the dancers drew shapes in some black substance on stage while the audience watched from above. NEONS then staged a couple dancing in a world of lights and shadows. Now, with this third piece, Saire further explores the visual perception of movement. The result is lyrical and inspiring, as it moves forward through the history of art, from Renaissance paintings to photographic development.
This performance features a stage device that is easily transportable. Furthermore, it includes the same cast as NEONS, meaning both can be programmed together.
Concept & choreography: Philippe Saire
Choreography in collaboration with dancers: Philippe Chosson and Pep Garrigues
Stage device realization: Léo Piccirelli
Sound design: Stéphane Vecchione
Technical director: Vincent Scalbert
Construction coordinator: Antoine Friderici
Construction: Cédric Berthoud
Stage management: Mickaël Henrotay Delaunay
Production assistant: Constance von Braun
Video recording & teaser: Pierre-Yves Borgeaud
Photography & graphic design: Philippe Weissbrodt
******
Thursday, 29 June 2023
* 20.30h / Tabea Martin "Forever" (60 mins)
What if we all lived forever? The dream of a life after death has always inspired humans. Numerous fairy tales and legends deal with death, resurrection or eternal life. Greek mythology created immortal gods, animals, monsters and giants with supernatural powers. What do children think about life and death, about dying and immortality? To what extent may and can children be confronted with this topic?
There are many ways to make yourself immortal: starting a family, creating artistic works, leaving a political legacy. Limited by our own death, we try in various ways to create a continuity that remains once our own life ends.
Children have a gift of dealing with topics in a playful manner. Through interviews, games and workshops, the ideas and fantasies of children between the ages of 8 and 12 about life and death, about dying and immortality were awakened. The resulting material was then translated by five professional dancers. Forever creates a world of immortality in which creatures are brought to life by children’s fantasies. A visual, joyful, sensitive and moving journey through a visual language about what would be if we all lived forever.
Forever is part of a trilogy of productions by Tabea Martin on the topic of transience. This Is My Last Dance (premiere February 2018) deals with the transience of one’s own body, with the experience of the final state. Forever playfully looks at our ideas of a life after death, the desire for an infinite life. In 2020, the project Nothing Left will follow, in which the death of others is to be illuminated and investigated.
Choreography: Tabea Martin
Choreographic assistance: Laetitia Kohler
Dance: Tamara Gvozdenovic, Emeric Rabot, Benjamin Lindh, Daniel Staaf, Miguel do Vale
Stage design: Veronika Mutalova
Costumes: Mirjam Egli
Lighting design: Simon Lichtenberger
Musical accompaniment: Donath Weyeneth
Dramaturgy: Irina Müller, Moos van den Broek
Dramaturgy assistance: Nadja Rothenburger
Outside eye: Sébastian Nübling
Mediation: Dominique Cardito
Video documentation: Heta Multanen
Photo documentation: Nelly Rodriguez/ Heta Multanen
Production management: Franziska Ruoss
