Recognized as the premier contemporary dance event in Cyprus, the Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival returns with a rich program featuring seven unique performances at the Rialto Theatre, with two of these also being staged at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre. The Festival participates in the EU20 Initiative, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Cyprus's accession to the European Union.
The works to be performed in both Limassol and Nicosia are as follows:
Carcass (75’) [18+] Andreas Constantinou, Himherandit Productions (Denmark)
10/6, 20:30 | Rialto Theatre, Limassol
12/6, 20:30 | Nicosia Municipal Theatre
Dare we face the inevitable? That sooner or later we have to leave this place, like all our loved ones? With Carcass, HIMHERANDIT Productions deals with the end of life in a gripping, brutal, and fragile performance, which also has space for quirky humour. In front of a massive mirror, six performers and their bodies find a life-affirming answer to what cannot be put into words.
Carcass is not about what might await us after death. Or about faith or religion. In our Western culture, we tend to hold death at arm’s length. Carcass wants to shed light on how we accept that some day it must end. On how we let go of our fears and remember to live life while we are here.
Despite this gloomy and deeply moving subject, HIMHERANDIT Productions manages to create an experience full of life.
HIMHERANDIT'S artistry fluctuates between genres of performance art, physical theatre, immersive theatre, dance, and large-scale video installations. The company develops projects that push, provoke, and engage audiences into the discourse around social subjects that are often difficult to approach. Over the course of the last ten years, the company has supported the development of queer art in Denmark with professional productions, community engagement projects, The GENDER HOUSE Queer Art Festivals and, most recently, the opening of Q&A Studios - Queer Art Studios Aarhus, which is both home to the company and a residency centre that supports local, national and international queer art makers.
Choreography & artistic direction: Andreas Constantinou
Performers: Aris Papadopoulos, Theo Marion-Wuillemin, Elise Ludinard, Paola Drera, Heli Pippingsköld, William Cardoso
Set design: Jeppe Cohrt, Andreas Constantinou Video design: Christoffer BrekneTechnical manager: Jeppe Cohrt
Sound design: Andreas ConstantinouDramaturg: Siri KnutsenLight design: Christoffer BrekneProduced by: Art & About, Sigrid Aakvik and Signe Sandvej
Co-Producers: Bora Bora - dans og visuelt teater
Funded and supported by: Statens Kunstfond, Aarhus Kommune, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden
Silence (60’) Rootlessroot, Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Fruček (Greece)
14/6, 20:30 | Rialto Theatre, Limassol
15/6, 20:30 | Nicoais Municipal Theatre
If something has been brutally banished from our current age of technology and information, that is silence. The ever-present barrage of human activity causes endless noise. In addition to silence, the capacity to listen also seems to be fading away. However, what is silence? What dimensions can it assume?
In their latest piece, the RootlessRoot duo create a world dedicated to silence and its power. They explore an unknown universe where silence communicates with all those listening carefully to it, with all those conversing with it and utilising what it has to offer to them. Silence is treated as an absolute condition, confronting those who participate in it with the mystery of their own selves and the world at large. Sometimes as a place of reflection, critical thinking, and memory, other times as a place of faith, prayer, and encounter with the divine, silence becomes the space for movement before the actual movement or action. Drawing material from philosophy, theology, poetry, literature, and painting, the duo investigates the condition of silence as a medium of self-knowledge and experiencing of the world. Via improvisations and exercises, the movement research will dictate the choreographic material and theatrical elements of this production.
RootlessRoot was founded by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Fruček in Athens in 2006. Τhey have created 27 performances (solos, moving installations, medium and large-scale performances), which they have presented in more than 30 countries and in various theatres and festivals. They have collaborated with Akram Khan for his solo DESH, with the Staadsteater Kassel Dance Company, DOT504, the Helsinki Dance Company, and other companies and creators. In Greece, they have collaborated with the Onassis Stegi, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, and the Greek National Opera Ballet. They are widely known for the Fighting Money Practice, which focuses on human motion/development and healthy aging, and which they teach worldwide.
Linda Kapetanea, Artistic Director of the Kalamata Dance Festival, is a dancer, choreographer, and contemporary dance teacher, who has performed and taught worldwide. She graduated from the Greek National School of Dance and continued her training as a postgraduate student in New York, with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. In 2002, she received the best performance award from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Between 2002 and 2006, she collaborated with the Ultima Vez dance company and Wim Vandekeybus on the performances Blush, Sonic Boom, and Puur and the films Blush and Here After. From 2006 to 2012, she taught at the Greek National School of Dance. In 2007, Kapetanea and Jozef Fruček founded the RootlessRoot dance company as a vehicle for their own artistic productions and research on human movement. They have since presented 26 works in more than 30 countries (in Europe, Asia, and North America) to international acclaim. Together with Fruček, Kapetanea developed the Fighting Μonkey Practice, which they teach in prestigious educational institutions in Greece and abroad.
Jozef Fruček has a background in professional sports, martial arts, and theatre, and has dedicated his professional life to the research of movement, which promotes personal development along with healthy aging. He studied at the Academy of Music and Drama Arts in Bratislava and later received a PhD in Voice and Movement. He has explored the aspects of effective communication, voice, and breathing for public speaking, performing arts, and psycho-hygiene. In 2006, together with Linda Kapetanea, he founded the RootlessRoot company and started implementing their research, Fighting Monkey Practice, which reflects their unique approach to human movement based on cross-motion analysis. He teaches and gives lectures at universities and various athletic and arts centres across Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia.
Concept & choreography: Linda Kapetanea, Jozef Fruček
Music composition: Vassilis Mantzoukis
Set and costume design: Paris Mexis
Assistant to the set and costume designer: Alegia Papageorgiou
Lighting design: Perikles Mathiellis
Sound design & sound engineer: Christos Parapagidis
Scientific associate: Kostas Vrachnos
Texts edited by: Ioanna Nasiopoulou
Props construction: Ilianna Skoulaki
Photographs: Elina Giounanli
Performers: Maria Bregianni, George Dereskos, Linda Kapetanea, Anastasis Karachanidis, Christos Strinopoulos, Alexandros Vardaxoglou
Executive production: POLYPLANITY Productions / Yolanda Markopoulou, Vicky Strataki
Executive production assistant: Nikos Charalampidis
Co-production: Athens Epidaurus Festival, RootlessRoot
Funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports
Strobe lighting effects are used during this performance for 4 minutes.
Organisers: DEPUTY MINISTER OF CULTURE, RIALTO THEATRE and EU20 CYPRUS
In Collaboration with: Municipality of Limassol
Media Sponsors: PHILELEFTHEROS, RIK
Technical Partner: Event Pro
Supported by: Municipal Theatre of Nicosia, Cyprus New Movement of Dance, EFIMERIDA LEMESOS, LIMASSOL TODAY, RUSSIAN WAVE RADIO, LIMASSOL TOURISM BOARD, VESTNIK KIPRA, SOCIAL et al..
Tickets Price: €8 (€30 for all performances)
E-ticket: www.rialto.com.cy
Box Office: 77 77 77 45 (Monday – Friday 10:00 - 15:00)
Free Admission: Students, university students, soldiers, pensioners, and professional dancers.
Free transportation from Nicosia to Limassol and back (only for performances not presented at the Municipal Theatre of Nicosia). For more information, call 99 618225.
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