Aerowaves & Spotlight USA 2018 (Bulgaria)

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March 2018 saw the Dance Bridges team represented by Pierre Palluet and Vanessa Maria Mirza at two international dance platforms in Bulgaria. It was a great honour to be the only Indian Festival participating in both these prestigious international events.

Aerowaves’s annual festival Spring Forward festival was held in Sofia from 23rd-25th March, 2018 in collaboration with Derida Dance Centre. Aerowaves is an international forum representing emerging and exciting new talent in Europe with a partner network of 33 countries and promoting dance artists through cross-border performances. It was an exciting time as our team members met with performing arts professionals from different parts of Europe and interacted with several artists performing at the festival. Amongst these many meetings it was a great pleasure for our team to re-connect with artist Alfredo Miralles ,a part of the Springback Academy for writers. Alfredo was one of the artists who performed at Dance Bridges Festival 2017 in Kolkata.

Dance Bridges is grateful to Aerowaves for this invitation and hopes the connections made can develop into bring more work from Europe to India while building valuable artistic exchanges.

To read more about the event have a look at their website here: http://aerowaves.org/

Spring Forward was followed by 3 days of American dance showcases for Spotlight USA in Plovdiv from 26th-28th March 2018 in collaboration with One Dance Week. The programme had artists performing a wide range of pieces with panel disccussions and feedback sessions weaved into the schedule as well. As a second invitation from American Dance Abroad our team was delighted to meet with so many new artists as well as international programmers. We once again had a reunion with friends and connections from the dance world and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Plovdiv. Indeed we hope to continue to grow and expand our associations with American artists with even greater participation in Dance Bridges events through the years to come.

To read more about American Dance Abroad and their upcoming events, you can visit their website: https://americandanceabroad.org/

Lucas Viallefond of Paris Opera School decodes Modern Dance

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We were delighted to present a modern dance workshop with French artist, Lucas Viallefond, a modern dancer and a teacher at the Paris Opera School. http://lucasviallefond.com/en/ The two-hour class was based on the Jooss-Leeder technique, developed by Hans Züllig and Jean Cébron, with contemporary barre work. We had a wonderful response with dancers from different parts of the Calcutta, Howrah and Murshidabad joining us. It was an excellent and inspiring learning experience.

We are grateful to the support by Sparsh Studio for Performing Arts, Alliance Francaise du Bengale and Buoyant Performing Arts in partnering with us for this event.

 

 

Read an artist interview and coverage of the workshop in The Telegraph t2 here.

Lucas Viallefond, a French modern dancer and teacher at the prestigious Paris Opera School, made a quick stop in the city on January 27 to teach a workshop as part of the Dance Bridges Festival. A dancer trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and Folkwang University of the Arts, Lucas has travelled to about 16 countries, teaching and dancing. t2 caught up with Lucas, who specialises in the Jooss-Leeder method, developed by Hans Zullig and Jean Cebron, at Sparsh Studio for Performing Arts…

What is the basic difference between contemporary dance and modern dance?

According to dance timelines, modern dance was created after ballet in the 1990s, as a response against ballet. In ballet, you have to have a perfect body and the perfect lines. People who didn’t have that but wanted to be dancers could not. If ballet dancers sported tight buns, modern dancers went with their hair flowing free and wild. If ballet dancers wore shoes, modern dancers went barefoot. If ballet dancers were in tutus, modern dancers chose to go almost naked. This was the beginning of modern dance. Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham in the US and Mary Wigman in Germany began to create a technique and this is modern dance, as it was really modern for the times. I can speak of contemporary dance in the French context. French people were tired of modern dance and created their version of contemporary dance. The basis of contemporary dance is idea —when you have ideas, you put it to form. It can be anything. It’s impossible to describe French contemporary dance. Each choreographer has a very specific way of moving. It can be someone rolling on the floor for hours or someone just performing striptease with eggs on their head. It’s much more of ideas than the body moving. Modern dance is almost set — when you see a piece by Martha Graham, you know it’s her work. I am more into body than the head, so it’s that kind of a difference for me.

What made you take up dance?

I live in a very small street in Brittany in the west of France where there is nothing. In France, we have a musical day that is celebrated on June 21 every year, the first day of summer for us. There are people going out to make music everywhere. I once drove with my mother to another village where I saw a dance performance by a dance teacher and I saw two guys from my college take part in it. I was 13 and I knew I could do better. But I really took up dance because I needed to express myself as I wasn’t very good at speaking to people. So first, I practised a lot of gymnastics and then I learnt a lot of music. But that wasn’t enough for my body. I had to express more and then I began dancing. My dance teacher forced me to learn ballet; she sent me to Paris and I got into the Conservatoire de Paris, where I learnt for five years. In my third year, I met Pina Bausch and got invited to Germany. I quit the school three years later and started teaching a lot. I came back to France and began dancing for a lot of companies and teaching at the same time. Then I was invited to Taiwan, from where I taught all over Asia. I think you can’t be a very good dancer without teaching. While teaching people, I corrected myself too.

What is the Jooss-Leeder method?
Based on Rudolf Laban’s principle of movement, the precise consciousness of one’s body in space and its dynamics form the basis of this approach. It’s not a technique, but a method. It’s based on the point of view of dance that is based on the science of quality and the science of space. You can divide the space into different points and then you have millions of ways of going about it. I can do direct and indirect movements or put a lot of strength or use light and quick movements, coming from or outside the body. My teaching is based on all these different qualities in specific points of the space. And it’s not a style but a method. I give keys to students on how to use their body and then they do what they want to do with that. So when I teach, I don’t like to choreograph because I don’t want them to dance like me because the point of view of a dancer is in him/her being unique.

What do you think about the future of modern dance?
I think modern dance is always evolving, so it’s nice to see that some people are trying to make it more creative. For me, the most interesting dancers are the ones who dance with feelings. I don’t like to see high legs and many turns. The one who dances with an intention makes the difference between the dancer and the artiste.

Modern dance is fairly less known. How can that be changed?
In order to make people more interested in modern dance, there should be more workshops with good teachers who give a lot in the class and try to help the dancers to be better.

Check out a video interview with the artist here.

Dance Improvisation Jam

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We hosted our first Dance Improvisation Jam with young dancers gathering in The Doodle Room and guests artists Devarshi Kar(Percussionist) and Abhishek Banerjee (Visual Artist) adding to the flavour of the evening. It was a special night as creative energy flowed through the room, and sparked new ideas for dance collaborations and projects. Thanks once again to everyone who joined us for this.

Read about the event in the Telegraph t2 here.

Do have a look at some of the event videos on our Facebook page.

Stay tuned for more information on jam sessions in the future.

American Dance Recon (ADR) 2017

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Director Vanessa Maria Mirza was invited to attend American Dance Recon (ADR) organised by American Dance Abroad in July 2017. Vanessa wrote for the ADR blog about her experience this summer. ( Read the original article here )

“It was very exciting for our International Artistic & Programming Committee that a representative of Dance Bridges Festival, Kolkata, India was invited to attend American Dance Recon (ADR) 2017. We are a young and edgy festival of international dance focusing on building artistic and cultural exchanges between local and international artists, and have only just completed our second edition.

The conference and week-long event of ADR was only days before Dance Bridges Festival 2017 opened, but the opportunity to watch American dance performances, meet artists and explore new performance venues and arts spaces was too tempting to resist. As the Director of Dance Bridges Festival, I have received a few invitations to global dance platforms in recent years, but this was my first occasion to explore American dance more deeply with a range of different artists and genres within Philadelphia, New York City, the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and other artist residency spaces, studios and venues throughout the Berkshires.

My impressions of American Dance Recon now come as a rush of many different images and moments that deeply impacted me. It was a special experience to be guided through this variety of dance impulses along with a very eclectic group of international artists and programmers from Panama City, Shanghai, Tokyo, Lublin, Budapest, and Vancouver, as well our lovely American Dance Abroad hosts: Andrea Snyder from New York, NY and Carolelinda Dickey and Bonnie Gloris from Pittsburgh, PA.

I really didn’t expect such a wide programming spectrum, and I was grateful for the knowledge I gained through this multi-city exposure to art, culture and dance in America. We saw dance theatre, experimental, musical, contemporary hip hop/break dance, cabaret – some pieces that were pure dance-based choreography, others more theatrical, using text, song, many different props, contemporary ballet, and more.

I was struck by the individuality of artists from different cities and regions of America. I had a certain preconception about what present-day dance performance and choreography might be like in the U.S., and that was definitely expanded and changed. It left me feeling invigorated, and I found it thought-provoking, even if sometimes slightly offended. There are definitely artists and works that, as a programmer, I know would suit my region and Festival more than others. I very much appreciated that American Dance Abroad was not just providing a marketplace for Festivals and venues, but, in fact, something much deeper and richer.

The cultural and artistic appreciation of our journey feels absolutely invaluable, from learning about artist roots and dance company structures in Philadelphia from Joan Myers Brown and Lois Welk, to watching San Francisco-based choreographer Amy Seiwert present her first full-length ballet at the Joyce Theatre, to visiting Stephen Petronio’s beautiful new Crow’s Nest residency space, and seeing Adam Weinert’s interpretation of Ted Shawn’s solos in an abandoned high school in Hudson. Also, looking at blueprints and construction of The Lumberyard – a production-based residency program and space, watching some fabulous dance performances by choreographers like Doug Varone at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, looking through the archives and library with Norton Owen, and seeing young dancers perform on the beautiful open air stage, with the perfect frame of the Bershires all round. Finally, a visit to the MassMoCA museum and an American picnic and fireworks at Tanglewood.

I must thank our hosts once again for a wonderful time with artists of ranging maturity. Each performance was also at a different level of production, with some very young artists coupled with mature and inter-generational artists. I am left excited to build on my connections from this experience, and I certainly hope to strengthen ties with the American artists I have interacted with. Dance Bridges looks forward to developing relationships and being a channel to support liaisons with India.”

–VANESSA MARIA MIRZA, Founder-Director, DANCE BRIDGES FESTIVAL, Kolkata, India

 

Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign: Support our 2017 edition!

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“A truly contemporary festival of dance… one of its stature in India! An extremely valuable effort – for opening exchanges of ideas, aesthetic experience, and creative journeys!”

– Dr. Urmimala Sarkar (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

” I have heard of Dance Bridges Festival and its impact on the dance community from my friends in Kolkata. I got to meet Vanessa, the director, last year and I was so impressed by her determination. The passion she shares and her enthusiasm to keep the festival going despite all the hurdles she faces is what sets her apart. It is a great initiative and it needs all the support”

-Meera Krishnan (Prakriti Foundation)

We have recently launched a  crowdfunding campaign  to raise additional funds to help cover technical costs, artist accommodation charges and production expenses. Watch our campaign video here .It would be wonderful to have your support in this endeavour.

We believe in the power of community and the collective creativity of artists working together. We believe that Dance Bridges Festival 2017 will impact many different lives in powerful ways by:

  • Bringing a new platform for international performance to the city of Kolkata
  • Making participation inclusive and accessible to new audiences and people of all socio-economic backgrounds by running events on a non-profit basis
  • Encouraging and empowering young dancers in their pursuit of a professional career
  • Nurturing local and international talent through the residency project, internship training, workshops and opportunities of collaboration
  • Imparting educative and fun experiences for everyone to encounter dance through various mediums and from different perspectives
  • Building long term relationships across cultures to enable ambitious artistic exchanges
  • Enabling the international community to experience the history, culture and creative atmosphere of a city like Kolkata and other places in India

We look forward to your support in making this exciting second edition of the Festival a grand success. We hope you can join us in Kolkata for the event, but even if you can’t, do stay connected with Dance Bridges. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. Email your queries to info@dancebridges.in. Thank you!

 

 

TPAM Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama 2017

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Dance Bridges Festival was at TPAM 2017 hosted in Yokohama from 11th-19th February through the support of  Japan Foundation Asia Centre (New Delhi).

This is an excellent platform for networking professionals in the arts community with over 500 delegates including artists, festival directors, representatives from performing arts venues and cultural houses, producers, managers and government officials based in Japan as well as across the international arts community.

TPAM runs under the format of several different programmes, TPAM Direction, TPAM Exchange and TPAM Fringe. Each of these incorporate different areas of performance showcases by mature and upcoming artists, symposiums, artist talks, group meetings and speed networking.

A few highlights & insights from the trip:

  • There is a new focus on developing Asia as an epicentre for performing arts internationally and hence a growing emphasis on commissioning and producing more collaborative projects among Asian and other international artists.
  • Some of the performances presented across genres included ‘Fever Room’, ‘Performance Encyclopedia’, ‘Samut Thai:Unfinished Histories’, ‘Zero One’, ‘Ngoc Dai/Senyawa’,’Taipei Notes’,’Road to Evil Spirit’, ‘Be Careful’, ”Tower'(theatre), Layer/Angle/Composition’ and ‘Balabala’.
  • A symposium was hosted by European Dancehouse Networks (EDN), which focusses on connecting performance venues and production houses (expanding now to festivals) and there was a discussion on the possibility an Asian network for the same.
  • Dance Bridges Festival co-lead a group meeting session on Meets Asia:Dance & Outreach, where Director Vanessa Maria Mirza was a panelist alongwith Beijing based Festival Director Zi Xhao and Vientienne(Laos) based We Dance Company dance artist Phanthamith (Lucky) Phommachanh. The discussion was very well received with a number of questions about the future plans of the Festival. Several artists and producers showed a keen interest in developing projects with Dance Bridges Festival and visiting Kolkata/India for this purpose.
  • Japan hosts a large variety of very good artist residencies and we connected with some directors hosting programmes in Tokyo and Kyoto that are wonderful opportunities for both professional and emerging artists to apply for. There is a wonderful creative atmosphere conducive to artistic research and some of the best facilities to help support these endeavours.
  • The Artists’ Salon hosted by a team of eleven music, theatre, digital arts and dance artists from Europe was a very interesting session with a broad range of artistic expertise, talent and productions being showcased. Again it was lovely to view some of their collaborative projects with Asian artists.
  • Speed Networking or just networking was absolutely fantastic at TPAM and was not limited to only the official sessions. TPAM created such a warm and friendly environment to connect that whether it was at the ticket line, coffee shop, street crossing, breakfast buffet or late night meeting point at Amazon Club, making introductions and swapping business cards was the most natural thing!

We were so glad to have been at TPAM 2017, and look forward to building  and developing this new association with Japanese artists, producers and collaborators through the TPAM arts network and support of Japan Foundation Asia Centre for some exciting new projects through the months ahead.