Dublin Dance Festival are back with a Summer Edition of fresh, daring and courageous dance online 18th-30th May, with new and pioneering dance performances from trailblazing artists from Ireland and around the world; glimpses behind the scenes; and moments for families, friends, artists and communities to connect, move and play.
Explore the full 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.
Filmed on the Abbey Stage, Dēmos – Films of separation and togetherness from Liz Roche Company / Crash Ensemble brings together superb dancers and musicians to pose urgent questions of how to feel together in a time when togetherness feels fractured.
Revisor is the latest critically acclaimed dance-theatre production from Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young / Kidd Pivot, the creators of the Olivier Award-winning Betroffenheit, which stunned audiences at its European premiere at the 2016 Dublin Dance Festival.
Ballet national de Marseille / Direction (LA)HORDE presents a programme of dazzling short pieces from 4 stunning choreographers, 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, DDF Artist in Residence.
Lyon Opera Ballet presents the outstanding Triple Bill: Jan Martens, Ioannis Mandafounis, Alessandro Sciarroni, with recent choreographies which offer a window into the mastery, versality and daring that are so intrinsically part of Lyon Opera Ballet’s work.
dyad is a new duet created by Justine Doswell, 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.
The Summer 2021 Edition also includes new works by familiar DDF artists, Ali Chahrour (DDF2018 – Leila’s Death) and Eric Minh Cuong Castaing (DDF2019 – Phoenix; DDF Digital Capsule – L’Âge d’or), as well as Belgian choreographer Cassiel Gaube, up-and-coming duo Ginevra Panzetti & Enrico Ticconi, and contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.
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, 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, by Emilio Belmonte, is an intimate portrait of revolutionary flamenco star Rocío Molina as she prepares for a new collaborative live art performance at the Chaillot – National Theatre of Dance in Paris.
DDF audiences get the chance to see master choreographer Jiří Kylián in action in the short film Working On – Gods and Dogs & 14″20′ as he rehearses with the charismatic dancers of Lyon Opera Ballet; and a favourite from DDF2016, Euripides Laskaridis returns to the Festival with short film documentary Here Not Here / ELENIT in which he 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. Supported by the ESB Energy for Generations Fund and Northern Trust.
In the joyful short film The Sofa Dance from Mimbre, 30 performers physically express their experiences of lockdown from their sofas and invite audiences to take part in a fun Sofa Dance Workshop and to share their own sofa dances online.
For ages 4 – 7, Grass Films: Sunny Days & Insect Hands along with related workshops from Second Hand Dance 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.
Choreographers Laura Murphy and Siobhán Ní Dhuinnín hosts The Dawn Shake, guiding workshop participants 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.
The 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.
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 3-day Modes of Capture Symposium as well as a number of master classes from Festival artists.
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.”
For more information and to book tickets, visit www.dublindancefestival.ie
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