Dublin Dance Festival in partnership with the Abbey Theatre announce highlights for 2020

Following a hugely successful 15th Edition this year, the 2020 Edition of the Festival will bring artists and audiences together to share beautiful, thought-provoking and unifying dance. 

In 2020 audiences will have the chance to experience the work of artists from Greece, India, France and Belgium on the Abbey Stage:

• ΑΝΩΝΥΜΟ from Greek choreographer Tzeni Argyriou, a hymn to the body, human connection, and the collective power of dance
• aSH, an exquisite work from visionary French director, Aurélien Bory created in collaboration with its subject, the extraordinary Indian dancer, Shantala Shivalingappa
• Following the huge success of Rosas danst Rosas at DDF2019, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will return with A Love Supreme, a collaboration with fellow choreographer Salva Sanchis based on the album by American jazz giant, John Coltrane

Opening DDF2020, ΑΝΩΝΥΜΟ from Tzeni Argyriou looks back to a time when dances did not belong to anybody; they belonged to everybody. Since the earliest rituals of initiation and participation, dance has brought people together. From one body to the next, dances moved through the centuries, accompanying every human ceremony: weddings, death, war, peace. In a work that hinges on human contact, seven dancers invite spectators on a journey that takes traditional dance forms as a source of inspiration. Transcending the formal movements, patterns and rhythms of Greek folk dances, they draw the audience into a celebration of community and share a contemporary language of movement, stripped to the bone.

aSH is the final opus in a trilogy of portraits of women by Aurélien Bory. In this exquisite piece, Bory collaborates with the charismatic Indian dancer, Shantala Shivalingappa; a woman with a story whose life unfolds through dance. In a solo infused with poetry and spirituality, Shivalingappa embodies the majestic figure of Shiva, the god of creation and destruction. She dances on a blanket of ash, a symbol of the cycle of life. The percussive soundscape by Loïc Schild reverberates against an ocean of paper that acts as Shivalingappa’s canvas. With pure and sensual movements, she forms symbolic patterns of mandalas in the ash beneath her feet. Harnessing her rhythmic and vital energy, aSH explores the dancer’s mixed identity, tracing her journey from the ancestral Indian dance, Kuchipudi, to the contemporary dance of Pina Bausch, Peter Brook and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui that has earned her international acclaim. This is a remarkable fusion of Western and Asian cultures, a miracle of poetry in motion.

Following the sold-out performances of Rosas danst Rosas at DDF2019, iconic Belgian artist Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will make a welcome return to Dublin with A Love Supreme (2005), an invigorating collaboration with fellow choreographer Salva Sanchis based on the revered album by John Coltrane. In A Love Supreme (1964), which marked Coltrane’s spiritual and physical renaissance after overcoming his addictions, the saxophonist pushes the boundaries of every musical register to allow for complete freedom of improvisation. Translating his music into dance, Sanchis and De Keersmaeker expertly blend free improvisation and formal composition into a seamless and fluid choreography. This newly re-imagined version transforms A Love Supreme into a quartet for young male dancers where each embodies one of the four instruments in the music – the saxophone, the piano, the double bass, the drums. Breathing new life into the work, the dancers bring a distinctly vibrant and energetic quality to the piece that mirrors the vitality of Coltrane’s music.

DDF Festival Director Benjamin Perchet says, “Over 2 weeks from May 19 – 31 in 2020, we will be offering a vibrant and eclectic programme of works from Ireland and around the world. In partnership with the Abbey Theatre, with whom we’ve presented outstanding dance since the very first festival in 2002 - we will bring 3 distinguished productions that explore and question the relationship between folk and traditional dances, anonymous practices and authored works. This Edition also marks the beginning of a new decade to come from 2020, with all the excitement involved, and concerns. We are proud to be continuing our work of creating space for both spectacle and discussion and look forward to introducing this distinctive line-up of works at the Abbey Theatre to Irish audiences.”

---