Dublin Dance Festival announces the Summer 2021 Edition

PIONEERING DANCE PERFORMANCES

Among the highlights of the DDF’s Summer 2021 Edition will be opportunities to view extraordinary new works by ground-breaking Irish and international artists.

DĒMOS - Films of separation and togetherness (2021) from Liz Roche Company / Crash Ensemble (Ireland) brings together superb dancers and musicians to pose urgent questions of how to feel together in a time when togetherness feels fractured. This suite of interconnected shorts, filmed on the Abbey Stage in collaboration with filmmaker José Miguel Jiménez, is part of a new collaborative project between choreographer Liz Roche and composer David Coonan, commissioned by Dublin Dance Festival and the Abbey Theatre in partnership with Crash Ensemble and New Music Dublin, which culminates in a live performance later this year. Used to denote a ‘district’ or ‘land’ as well as ‘the people’ within, the Ancient Greek term dēmos connotes a complex sense of connection between bodies in a shared space, a fluid state of harmony and disharmony. 

Revisor (2019/20) is the latest critically acclaimed dance-theatre production from Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young / Kidd Pivot (Canada), the creators of the Olivier Award-winning Betroffenheit, which stunned audiences at its European premiere at the 2016 Dublin Dance Festival. For this exhilarating hybrid of theatre and dance, Pite and Young take as their inspiration the archetypal comic plot of Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector, with ten astounding dancers embodying the recorded dialogue of some of Canada's finest actors in an exploration of conflict, comedy and corruption.

Ballet National de Marseille / Direction (LA)HORDE (France) presents a programme of dazzling short pieces from 4 stunning choreographers Childs | Carvalho | Lasseindra | Doherty (2021) showcasing the precision and clarity of Lucinda Childs and Tânia Carvalho, the dynamism of queer icon of Voguing in France Lasseindra Ninja, and the trailblazing force of Oona Doherty, who transmits her visceral, urban solo work Lazarus to 22 dancers.

Lyon Opera Ballet (France) presents the outstanding Triple Bill: Martens | Ioannis Mandafounis | Sciarroni (2020/21), with recent choreographies which offer a window into the mastery, versatility and daring that are so intrinsically part of Lyon Opera Ballet’s work. Choreographers Jan Martens and Ioannis Mandafounis present new solo works custom-made for dancers of the company, while Alessandro Sciarroni presents a mesmerising ensemble piece, inspired by Tyrolean folk dance and testing the physical endurance of the dancers to create a series of breathtaking choreographic patterns.

dyad (2021) is a new duet created by Justine Doswell (Ireland), framed in the magnificent surroundings of Dublin’s Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. This evocative work reflects on the qualities of a woman whose faith and body served as a connection between the human and the divine: Mary / Maryam, a woman chosen among all women, revered in both Christianity and Islam.

DDF commission The Love Behind My Eyes (2021) by Ali Chahrour (Lebanon), depicts the story of Mohamed Bin Daoud and his love for Mohamed Bin Jamea; a love that could not be condoned within their religiously complex environment.  This new work from Chahrour whose production Leila’s Death was a huge hit at DDF 2018, explores the connections across diverse societies found in stories of forbidden love – many of which remain untold.

In DDF commission Form(s) of Life (2021) from Eric Minh Cuong Castaing / Shonen, dancers and people with mobility loss come together to create an intimate and collective choreography in three short films. Featuring a former dancer, a former boxer and the dancers from Shonen, this exploration of mobility loss and the necessity of gestures to connect and communicate challenges our contemporary notion of disabled or virtuosic bodies.

DDF commission Farmer Train Swirl – Étude (club version) (2021) from Cassiel Gaube (Belgium) is a video of solo work based on Gaube’s study of House dance, a style born in the clubs of Chicago and New York in the early eighties - a synthesis of hip hop, salsa, Rasta and tap dance. Gaube has immersed himself in House dance, learning and practicing in the lively club scenes of Paris and New York. The results of his research can be sampled in this unique and playful filmed experience.

DDF Commission Silver Veiled (2021) from Ginevra Panzetti / Enrico Ticconi (Italy / Germany) is a new video work by this up-and-coming artistic duo, exploring the symbolic power of the flag and its use in the folk tradition of flag waving. The work evokes the close and ancient brotherhood between two textile objects; flag and shroud. Cleaned of all symbols, the silver-grey drapes become a blank canvas, where anything can emerge, begin or disappear. 

Breathing (2018) from contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto and Artistic Director of the Paris Opera Ballet Aurélie Dupont (Japan / France) is a mesmerising short film. With the glass roof of Sugimoto’s Odawara Art Foundation as the stage, Dupont performs the solo Ekstasis, a work choreographed by Martha Graham in 1933, dancing at daybreak, from a vantage point high above the busy world below, as if floating between sky and sea.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

The Summer 2021 Edition will offer the chance to explore the inner worlds and exceptional artistry of celebrated artists and works, with films and documentaries that offer behind-the-scenes insights into the creative process.

In Dancing at Dusk - A moment with Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring (2020, Germany / Senegal / England), Pina Bausch’s iconic 1975 choreography The Rite of Spring is danced in an extraordinary setting, on the beach in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. Filmed as the world descended into lockdown, it captures the last rehearsal of a specially assembled company of 38 dancers from 14 African countries.

Impulso – A film about Rocío Molina by Emilio Belmonte (2017, Spain) is an intimate portrait of revolutionary flamenco star Rocío Molina as she prepares for the biggest challenge of her career: the creation of a new collaborative live art performance at the Chaillot – National Theatre of Dance in Paris. Molina’s avant-garde, extravagant and powerfully raw choreographies fuse traditional flamenco with modern dance styles and impulsos – improvisations that characterise her unique style.

The short film Working On - Gods and Dogs & 14"20' by Jiří Kylián (2020) from Lyon Opera Ballet (France) is a chance to go behind the scenes for rehearsals and an interview with living legend and master choreographer Kylián, as he works with the charismatic dancers of Lyon Opera Ballet. Kylián’s works, which have inspired new generations of dancers, combine modernity, technique, and beauty in equal parts.

A favourite from DDF2016 (Relic), Euripides Laskaridis returns to the Festival with short film documentary Here Not Here / ELENIT (2021). This contemporary Greek exponent of the theatre of the absurd shares the story of his latest and most ambitious work, currently suspended as lockdowns interrupted all original plans.

EVERYBODY DANCING

Everyone is invited to get moving during the Summer Edition’s final weekend 28th-30th May with workshops for children, an online club experience for adults with intellectual disabilities, a sofa dance-off and lots more.

Created by award-winning Galway-based charity That’s Life, Bounce is a club experience for adults with intellectual disabilities and their friends. Following the success of Bounce Club Night at DDF2019, Dublin Dance Festival is delighted to host a special online edition: Bounce – Live Stream with music from pop and rock to R&B and timeless classics. Presented with the support of the ESB Energy for Generations Fund and Northern Trust.

In the joyful short film The Sofa Dance from Mimbre (2020, UK), 30 performers share their experiences of lockdown from their sofas, physically expressing the exhaustion, frustration, and complications of living within drastically limited space, and in doing so creating joy, absurdity and beauty. In addition to the film’s screening, Mimbre’s acrobats will be presenting fun The Sofa Dance Family Workshops, for all ages and levels – a chance for us all to turn our sofa slouching into an art form – while using it as a crashmat to explore some fun movement and adventurous shapes!

For ages 4 – 7, Grass Films: Sunny Days & Insect Hands from Second Hand Dance (2021, UK) celebrate the magic of the natural world - rolling in long grass, finding spiders in the park and the warm feeling of the sun on your face. Second Hand Dance are running a related fun dance workshop for children, with a chance to learn some of the moves from Sunny Days and Insect Hands, and create your own dance. These events are presented by Dublin Dance Festival and The Ark.

Choreographers Laura Murphy and Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín will be hosting The Dawn Shake, an opportunity to shake up and connect before the day begins. Featuring a carefully selected soundtrack, workshop participants will be guided on a journey that starts with a gentle sway and builds to a good old-fashioned boogie before coming back down with a soft landing.

On-going project As If Trying Not To Own The Earth finds Cloughjordan-based dancer/choreographer Rita Marcalo (Instant Dissidence) skill-swapping with a food grower and a food preparer, highlighting a need to reconnect with our bodies and with the Earth in a sustainable way. The first phase of this joyful, year-long project, which sees all partners venturing out of their usual comfort zones, will culminate in the creation of two livestreamed films presented as part of DDF’s Summer Edition and Age & Opportunity’s Bealtaine Festival.

ACTIVITIES & CONNECTIONS FOR THE DANCE COMMUNITY & FRIENDS

The festival will offer a programme of activity, events and connection for the dance and wider artistic community with discussions, performances and workshops.

Events will include the Modes of Capture Symposium (presented by The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (UL), Liz Roche Company and Dublin Dance Festival), which this year is focusing on Decolonising Structures, Thinking and Embodiment. Located in Ireland, where bodies have only in recent years unravelled processes of colonisation by church and state, the conference invites investigations from an Irish and international perspective. This year’s theme resonates with current international calls to decolonise dance studies and to allow the expression of multiple narratives and minoritised positions on creative dancemaking processes.

Fascinating choreographer, performer, and poet Carolyn Carlson (US/France) will be giving an exclusive recorded master class and interview, suitable for professional dancers and advanced dance students. Ioannis Mandafounis (Switzerland), will be giving a master class also for professional dancers and advanced dance students, drawing on the captivating new solo he created in collaboration with dancer Yan Leiva which forms part of the Triple Bill performed by Lyon Opera Ballet. Belgian choreographer and dancer Cassiel Gaube will be leading a master class on his work Farmer Train Swirl - Étude, giving those with some dance experience and curious bodies a chance to explore the electric world of House dance.

DDF Artistic Director Benjamin Perchet says, “We hope the online Summer 2021 Edition will bring pleasure and encourage reflection on the times we live in. We look forward to creating and sharing one-of-a-kind dance experiences again this year, with a broad audience at home in Ireland and around the globe. With fewer limitations of time and space, the online world offers new opportunities for people to engage with dance, although we cannot wait to be able to gather together again in Dublin’s theatres and streets to celebrate dance in person.”

Dublin Dance Festival would like to thank: 
Principal Funder: The Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon 
Grant Aided by: Dublin City Council 
Media partners: RTÉ Supporting the Arts, The Irish Times
Cultural partners:  Big Pulse Dance Alliance, Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Embassy of France in Ireland, Goethe-Institut Irland, Onassis Stegi
Programme partners: Abbey Theatre, Bealtaine, Liz Roche Company,
The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (UL), The Ark 
Supporters: ESB Energy for Generations Fund, Northern Trust

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