The dance festival titled ‘Europe meets Asia in Contemporary Dance’ will take place for the third time in Hanoi from September 26-29.
The event has recently become one of the major cultural activities in the capital since 2011 and has received enthusiasm and applause from both media and the public. The festival has contributed to promoting contemporary dance in Hanoi.
‘Europe meets Asia in Contemporary Dance’ is an initiative of EUNIC, the Network of European Cultural Institutes and Embassies in Hanoi, in cooperation with Vietnam National Opera and Ballet.
This year’s dance festival will present to audiences dance performances by art troupes from five countries, including Belgium (Wallonie-Bruxelles), France, Great Britain, Israel and Japan. In addition, there will be two co-productions between Germany-Vietnam and France-Vietnam.
The audience will have a chance to enjoy a broad spectrum of contemporary dance on the sound of hip-hop, electronic to classical music.
Accordingly, a French-Vietnamese group will present the piece ‘Underground’ at the French Cultural Center-L’Espace. Based on the historical reality of the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, choreographers John Bateman and Nguyen Anh Duc have offered a tribute to the resilience of human life.
At the invitation of the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation, Compagnied’Ici P. introduces the solo piece ‘Sillon’ of FréWerbrouck, performed by Sara Sampelayo Fernandez.
For the first time, Japanese dancer Mikiko Kawamura, making a clean sweep of New Artist Prizes in Japan, will show a delicate yet powerful solo piece named ‘Alphard’.
The festival also welcomes artists of Israel who will perform the dance piece called ‘Mushroom Z’ featuring an urban society, where life is full of temptations, climaxes, ecstasy, routine and downfall, pleasures, hallucinations and more. Choreographer Nadav Zelner has enjoyed national and international success.
‘Lighting’ is the title and also the theme of the German-Vietnamese co-production. German choreographer Anna Konjetzky, at the invitation of the Goethe Institute, co-founder of the festival, has developed this piece for five European and five Vietnamese dancers. The four-week rehearsal and the premiere of this unusual piece take place in Munich, thus providing the young dancers of Vietnam National Opera and Ballet an extraordinary opportunity to present themselves internationally.
The British Candoco Dance Company will present ‘In Translation’ accompanied by a piano piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. CandoCo has become internationally known as a professional dance company that integrates disabled and non-disabled dancers.
French production titled ‘petiteshistoires.com’ will end the festival. The choreographer Kader Attou and his Compagnie Accrorap play on hip-hop. With humor and acrobatics they build a bridge between the French street art of multicultural French cities and the stage of the dance theater.
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