bipod 2009

beirut international platform of dance

Muta Imago (IT)
LEV

Wednesday 15th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

Lev is the re-elaboration of the true story of a Russian soldier who, wounded in the head, does not remember his past anymore and can’t grasp his present. Alone he struggles to put the pieces back, fighting a battle with himself that lasted thirty years. Space and time here lose their predictable paths and through Lev’s voyage we perceive how fragile our world really is.

Mancopy (DA)
Running Structure and Iconic /Ironic

Thursday 16th of April
8:30 pm | Al- Madina Theatre

Nothing stands alone and everything can be reflected Iconic/Ironic is a consistent, abstract choreographic game that circles around POP ART and the use of clichés - not less my own ones! Modern art offen comes to live by promoting the classics - the icons og put them into new connections - new images of the world.  Iconic/Ironic moves this game into the world of dance and will be a distorted and humoristic performance. The piece consists choreographic fragments, that among its own interaction poses the performance. Seperate fragments har references to former productions while others are new material.

Giulia Mureddu (NL)
Escaping Grey and Mighty Mat Pogo (double program)

Friday 17th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

Escaping Grey is a choreography inspired by different aspects of ambition.
Fleshy duets and trio’s melt with moments of sheer dance and disarming human expressions. Within an original scenography involving masks, fiction and reality blend.
Gilles Jobin (SZ)
Black Swan

Tuesday 28th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

Avoid what is predictable in the dance vocabulary as well as in the compositional structures : this aesthetic postulate by Gilles Jobin is confirmed by each of his creations by distinguishing itself from the previous and by encouraging the audience “to break their habits”. One could say that this in itself is the subject of Black Swan; at any given moment, his new piece astonishes, surprises, branches off into an unexpected direction; and, paradoxically, it could also be that it initiates with this creator who is forever on the lookout, a renewed interest in pure choreography. Even if Gilles Jobin is a child of his times and does not duck any of the issues that dance has had to deal with in the course of the last years; he does not shut himself away in anything (not even his own “systems”) and moves forward, pushing the questioning into his material every time a bit further: the body, and its practice; but also the real world that does not cease to fluctuate, to have run-ins with itself, to make and break itself before our very eyes. […] 
Sylviane Dupuis (written during the rehearsals on the 28th of february 2009) 

Maud Liardon (SZ)
Arnica 9CH (my life as a dancer)

Wednesday 29th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

Arnica 9CH offers a satirical endoscopy of the dancer’s trade. Filmed fragments of private life are associated with live performance in order to reveal the hidden part of a body that we imagine as perfect. Cigarettes, alcohol, cramps, painful joints…some of the realities of a dancer’s life revealed behind the scenes. This choreographic self-fiction destroys a few fantasies and many received ideas with a good dose of humor and self-mockery” (Eva Cousido) 

Societat Doctor Alonso (SP)
Santa Sofia

Thursday 30th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

Santa Sofia talks about the sacrifice.There is no sacrifice without a body. Our body is arrogant and it needs to be beaten to lose mental control and get access to a new body. This solo talks about a different way to enjoy our own body, free from the stifling and rational presence of our mind. The character inhabiting the solo, Sofía Asencio-myself-, is someone so ignorant who still believes in mysteries.  

Workshops

Dance Workshops

1. Layering the dancing body and the everyday body- Lead by Giulia Merredu
Thursday 16th April- 3pm -7pm
At Maqamat Dance Studio

2. MOVING TOGETHER workshop and OriginalZ solos- Lead by Jens Bjerregaard
 Friday 17th April- 4pm
At Maqamat Dance Studio

3. The physical presence of light in dance performances and its dramaturgy- Lead by Roland Van Ulden
Saturday 18th April- 10am-2pm
At LAU

4. DANCE – CONTACT – Improvisation Workshop- Lead by Emmanuel GRIVET
Thursday 23rd-Friday 24th- 4pm-6pm
Saturday 25th - 9am-11am
At Maqamat Dance Studio


5. DANCER- Lead by Marlon Barrios
Saturday 25th of April - 4pm- 6 pm
At Maqamat Dance Studio

leymoun - Arab Dance Platform 2009

Guy Nader & Maria Campos Arroyo (LE/SP)
Btwin Barcelona Beirut

Thursday 23rd of April
6:45 pm | Monnot Theatre

Two cities in the same body. Two bodies in the same city. An eternal forth and back.  How the space conditions the architecture of the body and how the body adapts to changes. Immigration, a natural event, a characteristic of human tendency, a force that moves and impulses living beings. 
Ahmad Khemise (TS)
Voyage of dust

Thursday 23rd of April
8:45 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

In this first personal creation, Ahmed Khemis decided to put the bare space of the stage and its silence in service of this free body exploring territories which seem be known only to him. With a natural ease that could almost be mistaken for nonchalance, his piece is built around the movement of a pendulum, between an élan hurrying us towards someplace new, and a turning inwards, which is not immobility but rather internal vibration. “Voyage of dust” affirms an aerial presence, as light and quivering as a shower of particles, refreshing the spirit and taking us to a very faraway place.  
Muhanad Rasheed (IZ)
Crying of my mother

Thursday 23rd of April
10:00 pm | Babel Theatre

"Three men, living together in the same house start, with time, to disagree and resist each other. Greed and malignance, violence and killing become their only language. ‘Crying of my mother’, is a dance performance looking at the source of violence that is growing in these three characters, that are from different religious groups, in order to express it through dance, gestures, and stylized emotions.” 

Leyya Tawil (SY/USA)
Grace on a Friday Night

Friday 24th of April
7:30 pm | Monnot Theatre

“Grace on a Friday Night” chronicles the story of a “fallen angel”, 
choreographed and performed by Leyya Tawil. The angel here is a raucous and defiant character that reverberates with movement symbolism and emotional force.  Tawil’s performance is precise and fiercely irreverent, while also tapping into the statuesque gracefulness of the Fallen Angel archetype.
Radhouane El Meddeb (FR/TS)
Quelqu'un va danser...

Friday 24th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

Alone on a bare stage, Radhouane El Meddeb conjures the presence of loved-ones and summons a world woven from the materials, images, ghosts and texts that it is made of. Through a huge effort of concentration, the body becomes a core that distills memories and gives form to gestures and memories. At the end of this confrontation with oneself - with truth and illusion – there may be the momentum to come back to what remains: just somebody who is going to dance.
Mithkal Alzghair (SY)
Critical Relationships

Friday 24th of April
10:00 pm | Babel Theatre

It is a work on the text “critical relationships” by the French writer Christophe Pellet. The work developed and progressed into focusing on the inner self of a human soul. “Critical relationships” is a way to get closer and deeper into the human being in order to be able to reconstruct his/her connections with him/herself, the others and the environment. 
Salah El Brogy (EG)
Adrenaline

Friday 24th of April
10:00 pm | Babel Theatre

When incidents crowd my mind with thoughts… I question them… unheard. The blood rushes to my head and sweat runs down my face…I get thirsty …so I drink. However, the desire to express my thoughts and demand my rights remains…unheard.   So I fall silent.   And my rage mounts and the words surge to my mouth ... speech fails me, and I stutter. I deviate, and the night turns to day, marked by the crow of the rooster, arousing my spirit, whose presence bursts unto my limbs, which on my behalf.. Speaks. 

Cie 2k_far - Khalid Benghrib & Loren Palmer (MO)
Trip-Tik

Saturday 25th of April
6:45 pm | Monnot Theatre

“Trip-Tik” is a generic title for three distinct short pieces: Obscure Windows/So-Lo/Visit.  Loren Palmer & Khalid Bin Ghreib enter cyclically in the production around the body’s organs and its semantics. The Union of both is fact in TRIP-TIK. Cie 2k_far proposes to assist to a sequence of indistinct causes, unforeseeable, in an organic space, plastic, or absent by moment. Trip -Tik explores the specific relationship to scenery, the investment of space and its geometry, the relation to projected image with dialectical cinematography. 
Tanween Dance- Mey Sefan (SY)
Contract

Saturday 25th of April
8:30 pm | Babel Theatre

“Contract” is a duet performance with poems written and recited by Adonis (one of the founders of modern Arab poetry)  The performance discusses the conflicts that come out of the cultural and social environments shaping a woman's world (both the traditional and the contemporary lifestyles). It is also dealing conflicts and problems questioning if these problems are within me or within the outside society?  
Is that all I can be? Is it really what I want? Am I the same person? 

Omar Rajeh | Maqamat Dance Theatre (LE)
The Assassination of Omar Rajeh ( Work in Progress)

Saturday 25th of April
10:00 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

This new international co-production of Maqamat, centers on the idea of ‘Refusal and Elimination’; assassinations of journalists in Lebanon as a starting point for the work. The creation focuses on the importance of the written word and the dangers of expressing dissenting opinions.   Parallel to this, the topic will be dealt with from a very personal perspective. Omar as a choreographer and dancer working and living in Beirut questions the use of dance and its worth in front of such drastic incidents. What do we do with our bodies? Where do we go with our bodies? …… Can I do anything? Do I have to do something?   “The act of assassination targeting journalists fighting for freedom of expression, human rights, and a democratic civil society is an act of elimination against words, voices and bodies of “Refusal”. It is an act that aims to terrorize free thought and kill hope of change. It is an act against ‘me’ … my body… my presence”
Taoufiq Izeddiou (MO)
Äataba

Sunday 26th of April
6:45 pm | Babel Theatre

The story of these bodies, hidden by day and searching for freedom by night, will be told by women: dancers who can carry those beings through all their transformations, their joys and sufferings, their violence, their fear and their desires, and expose them to the spectator -- at the threshold of a new vision.
Next tour. From. 23rd August to 7th october 2009 : Tour in East Africa ( La Réunion, Mozambique, Madagascar, Djibouti, South Africa…)

Nacera Belaza (AG)
Le Cri

Sunday 26th of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

« It’s curious feeling that this piece should have been the first one…A kind of movement that goes from the intimate to the surface, until it disappears. A path that constantly uses each one of my pieces, but maybe this one will not go further, it stands there, it contains the scream and ends with it… It is a simple idea, and endless and vital one…»

L’A./ Rachid Ouramdane (AG/FR)
Loin…(Far…)

Sunday 26th of April
10:00 pm | Monnot Theatre

“During a recent journey to Vietnam and to Cambodgia, I discovered a new way to explore the feeling of being a foreigner. In a discussion about the violence of the conflicts that have torn these countries apart, I remembered the pages of my father’s military papers; my father, who was made to crush this Indochina of earlier times. As the discussion progressed, because of my French nationality, I realized that I was considered the son of a colonialist, even though what linked my father to Indochina was the legacy of another colonisation, that to his country, Algeria. Once again during this conversation, it struck me that the upheavals and the devastation caused by the violence of armed conflict should lead us to reflect upon the image of the foreigner in many areas of the world. “ Rachid Ouramdane

Mia Habis | Maqamat Dance Theatre ( LE )
Item

Saturday 23rd of April
8:30 pm | Al-Madina Theatre

She struggles between the different facets of her femininity.
Zei Khauli | Maqamat Dance Theatre (LE)
No Honest Men

Sunday 24th of April
6:45 pm | Monnot Theatre

“No Honest Men” is an exploration of people and their very individual "identities". It deals with the differences of "straight" people as opposed to that of "gay" people, and if there are any at all. After all, who is who? Who is what? And what's the difference???

Video Dance Screening

Marlon Barrios
As The World Turns

Wednesday 27th of April
1:00 am | www.dance-tech.net

Dances from places across the world will be broadcast LIVE via Dance-Tech.tv (www.dance-Tech.net) and projected for viewing in the Harry De Jur Playhouse at Henry Street Settlement.  Launching from BIPOD-Beirut International
Platform of Dance, and traveling around the world, this event will be a global game of telephone as each city’s choreographer adds to the dance conversation.  As The World Turns culminates in NYC where the public can participate in David Neumann’s open performance score, which will be broadcast back to our distant neighbors.  Countries include: Brazil, England, France, Lebanon and Switzerland.

Exhibition

Movement Frozen in Time
An exhibition of Dance images

From15th and 16th April 2009

 

Partners


BIPOD Organizers
Maqamat Dance Theatre

Partners and supporters
Ministry of Culture | Korean Foundation  | Italian cultural center | DCCD | danish arts council | Spanish Cultural Center | Goethe Institut  | Deutsh Embassy | Pro Helvetia | Swiss Embassy | CCF | Culture France
Norwegian Embassy | Qattan Foundation | Archauz | Amsterdams fonds voor de kunst | DWA | SICA | Theater Instituut Nederland | Podiumkunsten | British Council | Francophonie

Leymoun Organizers
Maqamat Dance Theatre
Leymoun- Arab Dance Platform

Collaborators
Leoparts | Ness el Fen | Sareyyet Ramallah

Supporters

CCF| Culture France | Norwegian Embassy | Doen Foundation | Theatre Institute Netherlands (TIN) | Yatf-young arab theatre fund

Food and Beverage
Frankies | Bardo| Chopsticks| Wardeh

Points of Sale
Virgin Megastore