bipod 2014

«Words shape our understanding of the world around us.» The words, which are available to us, influence our thoughts. We see and experience life with the words, which we use to think and speak. But what happens when words collide with bodies? The energy which is released by the collision of bodies and words is the starting point and the driving force behind «HIBR» a dance production titled after the Arabic word for ink. «HIBR» is the first creative collaboration between the two choreographers Omar Rajeh (artistic director of Maqamat Dance Theatre, Beirut) and Marcel Leemann (artistic director of Marcel Leemann Physical Dance Theater, Bern). «HIBR» continues telling the story after mere words have given up, and describes things which language fails to capture.
Duration: 50 minutes

About the choreographers

Maqamat is a Lebanese contemporary dance company that was founded by Omar Rajeh in Beirut in 2002. In a short period of time, the company has been able to emerge as a central organization in the creation and development of contemporary dance in Lebanon and the Arab region. It is considered today as “the founder of a Lebanese Contemporary Dance Scene.” Since 2002 the company has been touring locally and internationally (throughout the Arab World and Europe, in addition to Canada and Korea). It has also supported, produced, and presented works of local emerging artists. 

Marcel Leemann was born in 1969 in Zurich, Switzerland. He is freelance choreographer, dancer and teacher, based in Bern, Switzerland. As an independent choreographer, since 2003 Marcel is regularly invited to dance and theater festivals throughout Europe with his own company, Marcel Leemann Physical Dance Theater. MLPDT produces emotional, physical challenging dance theater, which confronts audiences with humour, passion and an unexpected rawness. Leemann’s works are based on structured improvisations using his distinct movement language. Collaborations with DJ’s, VJ’s, composers and writers contribute to a rich creative process. Leemann works with a core group of excellent dancers, and invited guests.

About the music composers

Pablo Palacio is an independent composer currently living in Madrid. His work has been focused on the transformation an perceptual connections of sonic images. He directs with Muriel Romero a project focused on the analysis and development of the interaction between body gesture and sonic gesture, in which the dancer’s activity evolve in a three dimensional sound space interacting with sonic objects that are successively transformed according to their trajectory and dynamic morphology. These works integrate in a performative context abstractions taken from other disciplines such as artificial intelligence, biology, 

mathematics or experimental psychology.

Mahmoud Turkmani The innovative guitarist, composer and oud player Mahmoud Turkmani is considered as a renovator and bridge-builder between contemporary Western-classical and Arabic-traditional music. He studied classical guitar and composition at the Moscow Academy for Music. He continued his studies at Oscar Ghiglia (1989/90, Conservatory of Basel, Switzerland), Juan Carmona (1991/92, Flamenco Programme, Andalucia) and Stephan Schmidt (1994-97, Conservatory of Berne, Switzerland). At present, Mahmoud Turkmani teaches classical guitar and oud at the Conservatory of Berne. He is the founder of the guitar quartet “Ludus” which has issued a compact disc (“Nuqta”) with ENJA Records, Munich/Germany (www.enjarecords.com) in December 1999. Further discs were released by ENJA Records in 2002 /“Fayka”, 2004 /“Zakira” and 2008 /“Ya Sharr Mout”. 

Cast & Credits

Director & Choreographer Shaun Parker Co-Composers Nick Wales & Bree van Reyk Designer Adam Gardnir Lighting Designer Luiz Pampolha Dramaturgy  Veronica Neave Executive Producer Olivia Ansell Production Manager Guy Harding Rehearsal Director Craig Kevin Stuart Bary Stage & Tour Manager Natacha Marianne Poledica Dancers Jana Castillo, Toby Derrick, Luke Hanna, Libby Zyrel Montilla, Josh Mu, Sophia Ndaba, Marnie Palomares, Lewis Rankin, Joshua Thomson  Agent Ecotopia Dance Productions  Artistic Director Shaun Parker Executive Producer Olivia Ansell Associate Producer Geraldine Timmins  Finance Manager Rhanda Mansour 

Support

Australia Council for the Arts - Shaun Parker & Company  - Arts NSW Trade & Investment 

- Seymour Centre - Council of Arab and Australian Relations- Australia Council for the Arts 

Shaun Parker & Company - Arts NSW Trade & Investment - Seymour Centre - Council of Arab and Australian Relations  - This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals Initiative, managed by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government Arts and Advisory Body, in association 

Website

PERFORMANCE IN BEIRUT IS SUPPORTED BY The Goethe Institute in Beirut

About the choreographer

Richard Siegal is the founder and artistic director of The Bakery. He has been awarded the New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award, the German theatre prize DER FAUST, the S.A.C.D. prize (Beaumarchais), the Mouson Award and in 2013 the Dance Award of the City of Munich. Richard Siegal’s pieces are characterized by his interdisciplinary work methods and his predilection for collaborations with architects such as Didier Faustino, designers such as Konstantin Grcic and composers such as Arto Lindsay or Lorenzo Bianchi. Siegal is a MacDowell Fellow and an honorary member of the Bolshoi Ballet’s Benoit de la Danse.

co-production compagnie dernière minute / TNT – Théâtre National de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées 

with the support of DRAC Midi-Pyrénées, the Conseil Régional Midi-Pyrénées, the Conseil Général de la Haute-Garonne, City of Toulouse and the CDC Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées

Compagnie dernière minute is supported by Ministry of Culture and Communication / Préfecture of Region Midi-Pyrénées, Region Midi-Pyrénées, City of Toulouse and Fondation BNP Paribas for its project development with the support of the Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Direction générale de la Culture – Service de la Danse, Wallonie-Bruxelles International and Wallonie-Bruxelles Théâtre/Danse

Website

Contemplative and light-footed, playful and gripping, humorous and poetic – From B to B is a physical, musical and linguistic dialogue between Brussels-based Thomas Hauert and Barcelona-based Àngels Margarit. It is a journey of discovery as each artist explores the other’s world. The language that simultaneously connects and separates them plays a key role in the piece. Starting with the names Thomas and Àngels, Catalan author Marius Serra created a word game with which the two freely experiment with childlike pleasure.
Duration: 55 minutes


Cast & Credits
Created and performed by Thomas Hauert and Àngels Margarit Music Barbra Streisand, Lucio Dalla, Jordi Savall, J.M. Serrat, Toti Soler and Ester Formosa, sœur Marie Keyrouz, Mayte Martin, Miguel Poveda, Jolie Holland Musical creation Joan Saura Doublets and double acrostics Màrius Serra Other texts Thomas Hauert and Àngels Margarit Light design Jan Van Gijsel Costumes Rosa Codina Props Pere Milán Sound Marc Ases Technical direction Bert Van Dijck Video Núria Font

Support

Production ZOO/Thomas Hauert, Àngels Margarit/Cia. Mudances co-production Festival GREC 2011 Barcelona - La Batie Festival, Geneva With the help of: CAET-Terrassa ZOO/Thomas Hauert is supported by Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles - Service de la Danse, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, Wallonie-Bruxelles International. ZOO/Thomas Hauert is in residence et Charleroi Danses and associated artist at Kaaitheater (Brussels).  Àngels Margarit/cia Mudances is supported by Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya, INAEM - Ministerio de Cultura, ICUB - Ajuntament de Barcelona, IRL - Institut Ramón Llull.  Premiered July 22, 2011 at the Festival GREC in Barcelona

Website www.zoo-thomashauert.be

After a series of pieces marked by theatricality, Black Out goes back to the plenitude of movement and reveals a very old attachment of Philippe Saire to drawing. Materiality is at the centre of the performance in the form of a black granulated floor, composed with thousands of fragments in which the dancers’ movements leave traces, thus composing a choreographic piece that becomes a work of fine art. Although a dramaturgical framework is clearly visible, the choreographer clearly intends to give an important place to these graphic preoccupations in the construction of a narrative base. Here, dance touches the intimate sphere and offers a vision from on high to the audience, who is watching a work in its process. At the frontier of dance and performing art, the piece includes the spectator - gripped by the intensity of movement on this black surface - within the performing space. These images of going back to the source, of regression, of the shadowy part in each of us put the audience in a sensual relationship, almost physical and tactile, turning the performance itself into a real experience.

About the company

Heine Avdal studied dance, choreography and video at the Oslo National College of the Arts in Norway and at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels.

Yukiko Shinozaki studied classical ballet in Tokyo, and studied contemporary dance and psychology at Portland State University.

Avdal and Shinozaki’s work focuses on the distribution of space, questioning how spatial conventions affect the way we experience and move through private/public spaces. Through slight shifts, or manipulations they search for unexpected intersections between different components of a space.