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In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our final guest is Lisbeth Gruwez. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of dance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary dance today?  I think of my work, and maybe dance in general, as a vibration that reaches out to an audience in order to move them — physically as well as emotionally. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?  I do not like to think of art in terms of 'force' or 'power', but I'm sure it can be a candlelight in the dark or even an explosion that blows up falsehood and make-believe. When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?  ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our eighth guest is Marco Martins. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today? In a way, my way of looking at the theatre has changed a lot over the last few years I have worked with ARENA (my company). What I want to draw from a process and a show is radically different today. I started by doing Repertoire Theater, which is something that would hardly interest me today as an author. I do not want to say that I do not admire many authors working from a single text but my processes are rather extremely open research processes, without an a priori defined body of text and theref...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our seventh guest is Begüm Erciyas. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] Begüm Erciyas (Photo: Bea Borgers) What is the spirit of dance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary dance today?  I'm confused about this like everybody else. Many of us now create works beyond disciplinary traditions. Stage works that are not based on text or textual narrative as in theatre but structured by alternative compositional choices and based on a dramaturgy of affect might be called dance or music theater in Europe even if they do not contain dance or music in the sense we are used to. I personally oscillate between calling my work dance and not. I've studied co...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our sixth guest is Delphine Ciavaldini. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] Delphine Ciavaldini (Photo: Zoé Forget) What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today?  I would say the spirit of theatre comes from the necessity of catharsis. The unlimited number of issues devouring human condition counts as so many topics theatre can embrace. The translation of these issues into stage language allows for symbols, images and metaphors to occur. With these figures, the spectator’s imagination co-creates an additional mental and emotional space in which previous certitudes can be questioned. Theatre’s live perfor...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our fifth guest is Prodromos Tsinikoris. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] Prodromos Tsinikoris  What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today? I see theatre as a publically staged political act to which everyone should feel free and invited to participate. It should ask the important and right questions for our time and open a new place of discourse for daring and provocative approaches in order to create a proposal for a future as we imagine it. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?   By presenting different stories and creating alternative narratives against a mainstream ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our fourth guest is  Peter Lee. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today? Traditionally, theatre represents a space of wonder. In other words, theatre is a space where you can experience non-dailiness. Even in this digital era, in which the cinema wields a stronger influence, the theatre still maintains its own unique characteristics as a dramatic and thematic space. I believe that is the spirit of the theatre. Its very own identity. Regarding the contemporary theatre, the value in itself remains. However, the theatre is challenged by its limited accessibility. Various media...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our third guest is Victor Ryzhakov. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today?     I do not have an answer, never even thought about it. But ... if a human being has a soul, then the Man is the spirit and the greatest value of the theatre. If we take Theatre as a model of the World, then Man in this world is the host of warmth and spirituality that he receives from Nature and the Universe. And his purpose then is to preserve this as the only quality that gives him a privilege over other living beings. The Theatre – all the more, contemporary theatre, despite the dive...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our second guest is Karine Ponties. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of dance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary dance today?   I strongly believe that the body can't lie! So, for me, to dance requires a complete commitment and a constant questioning of how we translate the world. I have the feeling that choreographic writing always comes from the body, hence the necessity to forge ties and work with individuals, each of whom contains their ‘writing’. Individual animal-like scoring processes which try to translate, and thus rewrite existing languages: sounds, words, gestures, colors and the excesses of the world that ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the directors/choreographers who will be the international guests at the 23rd Istanbul Theatre Festival in November 2019. Our first guest is Wim Vandekeybus / Ultima Vez. Ayse Draz & Mehmet Kerem Ozel Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on art.unlimited ] Wim Vandekeybus (Photo: Danny Willems) What is the spirit of dance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary dance today?    All what can be seen as dance is a bodily expression, a communication medium to externalise inner feelings, strategies, wishes and emotions. Contemporary dance opened the field for less technically defined dance techniques. Digital accessibility to all dance forms on earth influenced the contemporary dance as an eclectic medium where authenticity is not to be respected but could be copied and pasted as original. In the 80s dance became theatr...

Photo: Julian Mommert   Organized in Catanzaro, the capital of Calabria for 19 years, the Armonie d'Arte Festival has expanded its range for several years thanks to its dedicated and passionate creator and artistic director Chiara Giordano. So in the last years the festival began to include not only music but also theater and dance performances. The most important performance of this year's program was “Since She”(Seit sie) performed by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch on 13-15 September 2019. The festival not only invited Bausch's company, but also prepared a comprehensive one-week program to commemorate Bausch on the tenth anniversary of her death.   Bausch had close relations with Italy when she was alive. She created “Viktor” inspired by Rome in 1986, the first of the series “Cities and People” in which Istanbul-inspired piece “Nefes” (2003) was also a part. Bausch created also another piece for Rome in 2000: “O Dido”. In addition to regular tours with her com...