Benjamin Perchet, Director of the Dublin Dance Festival, previews this year's event, which kicks off on May 18th.
How to programme a dance festival?
Simply put, offer a broad audience the opportunity to enjoy an inspiring journey, full of aesthetic pleasure as well as intellectual stimulus.
In Dublin, as well as in Lyon where I was the artistic adviser for both a venue and a festival exclusively dedicated to dance for 20 years, I’ve always been kind of following the same logbook, which may be summed up as follows: to combine new works with repertory works, to give its chance to spontaneity and hold on to the essentials. This is the only way to offer a broad audience the opportunity to enjoy an inspiring journey, full of aesthetic pleasure as well as intellectual stimulus.
The 2017 Dublin Dance Festival programme brings together artists from diverse horizons and generations - it plays with new work and repertory; memory and transmission.
Amongst others, the programme presents the newest works from Philip Connaughton and Liz Roche, and it also presents for the first time in Ireland recent pieces from Colin Dunne and Maria Nilsson Waller. These artists are Irish or Ireland-based. In this, the DDF is supporting local contemporary dance, which is a very important aspect of its fundamental mission.
In addition to those awaited new or recent pieces, we are initiating a three-year long collaboration with Liz Roche Company (2017-2019), alongside Civic Theatre in Tallaght, to strengthen the relevance of contemporary dance in Ireland all year long, both during and beyond the festival dates.
With this selection of Irish artists, I’m also happy to showcase their diversity in terms of technique, influence and aspiration. While Colin Dunne is forging ahead the infinite possibilities of traditional dance, Liz Roche and Maria Nilsson Waller are exploring and sharpening their distinct abstract and poetic choreographic language, while Philip Connaughton offers a strong theatrical, even operatic vision.
On the other hand, the programme presents repertory pieces from French choreographer Maguy Marin, and multi-faceted Austrian artist Chris Haring. Singspiele from Maguy Marin was created in 2014 and will have been soon presented about 100 times around the globe. It is an undeniable masterpiece which has struck and marked its viewers everywhere, and will do so for a long time ahead. Deep Dish from Chris Haring, in collaboration with renowned visual artist Michel Blazy, was created in 2013. Even though Chris Haring, since then, has never stopped delivering other great and acclaimed works, Deep Dish remains his 'Greatest Hit', as a perfectly staged mixture of dance and live film.
Last but not least, there's Sunny from choreographer Emanuel Gat, created in June in 2016 as part of the Montpellier Danse Festival in France, is scheduled to tour until 2019 in some emblematic venues and festivals around the world. A work of art is alive until it has the chance to be seen, and the sharing of choreographic pieces nationally and internationally is a big issue. Newness in dance is not always the point for me, as the Director of a festival. When some pieces strike a chord, they deserve to be seen by a large audience, for a long period of time.
The rhythm of a festival, its identity, its mood and its pulse welcome artistic and human experiences within an intense and defined period. It also includes post-show talks, conversations, after-parties and free family outdoor events - some unexpected, immediate and joyful snapshots. For the first time, the Festival is hosting a European hip-hop dance battle. This epic battle will follow a day of workshops and competitive heats. The dancers who wow the judges and the crowd will be chosen as this year’s winners.
Finally, there is another source of pleasure for festival-goers: participation! From January till June, more than 200 amateurs in Ireland and Northern Ireland will have joined in one of most famous and essential dance sequences ever created by iconic choreographer Pina Bausch: the « Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter » line from her 1982 piece NELKEN. We cannot wait to organise the longest NELKEN-Line in Ireland, in Merrion Square Park on Sunday 21 May. It’s open to everyone - no dance experience required!
For more information, go to the Dublin Dance Festival programme.
