danzon_eng

before the end of 2019, i met a new name in performing arts: euripides laskaridis. besides following the artists i know and love, i enjoy discovering new artists i haven’t known before. however, only a few of the shows, which i watched with hope and anticipation by artists whom i did not know before, affects me. i watched works of many artists that i had not known before at the festivals i attended in 2019 but i did not come across a name that appealed to my heart and aroused the desire to follow until my last trip to athens.  when i went to athens to watch the last performances of dimitris papaioannou's the great tamer at the end of november 2019, one of my evenings was free and there was the world premiere of  elenit,  the new piece by euripides laskaridis, one of the former performers of papaioannou. i can say that on my trip to athens i witnessed the death of one work and the birth of another as inspired by papaioannou's description of these last performances of ...

  What is the spirit of theatre/performance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre/performance?    It’s live art. It creates unique moments between people. But I prefer to make it instead of defining it!  Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? It has the ritualistic strength for us to connect offline to our very direct surroundings. It establishes utopian relation-ships. This is certainly powerful but also quite unmeasurable in it’s effects. Which is great - finally something that doesnt need to be efficient! How do you think that this pandemic which humanity is facing at a global scale today will transform performing arts in the future? It has certainly slowed us down a bit in an overproducing world (also in an overproducing art world). Some of this new perspective may be good to keep. The toughest impact this certainly had for the generation that is just about to start their carreers now - they have spent more than a year of their...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists of İstanbul Theatre Festival 2020. Our fourth and last guests are Guy Weizman & Roni Haver.  Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer  [The Turkish translation of this interview is published on art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of dance/theatre/performance in your opinion? How do you define contemporary dance/theatre/performance today?   Urgency is the spirit. Relating to content, not to form or aesthetics. Contemporary art for me is interdisciplinary, it’s about pushing the boundaries of the disciplines. For a performance to be urgent, the performers should always be fully informed of what they’re doing. We don’t use dance aesthetics as the leading element in a creation. We are questioning every discipline every time we create, according to the subject we want to tell. Reinventing the languages of dance, theatre and music language according to the content. Do yo...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists of İstanbul Theatre Festival 2020. Our third guest is Pippo Delbono.  Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer  [The Turkish translation of this interview is published on art.unlimited ]  Photo: Tiziano Ghidorsi What is the spirit of theatre in your opinion? How do you define contemporary theatre today? A Theatre glancing at the present and trying to give different points of view on it. A Nowadays-Theatre. A Theatre of conflicts but a theatre of light, too. Two opposite tensions of our time. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? Art can change the the toughness of life. Art can bring love where war reigns. Art can bring joy where there is sadness, light where there is darkness. It can transform society. How do you think that this pandemic which humanity is facing at a global scale today will transform performing arts in the future? This pandemic is actua...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists of İstanbul Theatre Festival 2020. Our second guest is Dimo Milev.  Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer [The Turkish translation of this interview is published on art.unlimited ]  photo: Javier Garceche NDT, the world-famous dancetheatre ensemble of the Netherlands, which we had the opportunity to watch many times in Istanbul thanks to different events in the past years and continued on its way under the new artistic director of Emily Molnar in August 2020, after the nine-year period of Paul Lightfoot, started with the opening shows of the 2020-21 season, reaching out to audiences both on the screen with online livestreaming and in the auditorum whose capacity was reduced according to pandemic conditions. NDT decided to livestream online, this time without spectators, as the Dutch government closed the theaters completely again in November due to the increasing pandemic ...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists of İstanbul Theatre Festival 2020. Our first guest is Fabrice Guillot from Retouramont. Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer  [The Turkish translation of this interview is published on  art.unlimited ] What is the spirit of dance/ in your opinion? How do you define contemporary dance today?   Dance is a no words art, each choreography is a question for the spectator. What does it mean ?  Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?   Yes this langage of dance can be a symbol of a situation in our society. This no word langage can open new pespectives. My discipline is performing in public space, we create a new use in the city. The frontier of the wall becomes an opening.  How do you think that this pandemic which humanity is facing at a global scale today will transform performing arts in the future?    We have to imagine for a mome...

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists of İstanbul Fringe Festival 2020 - Online. Our final guest is Simona Deaconescu from Tangaj Collective. Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer  [The Turkish translation of this interview is published on  art.unlimited ] Simona Deaconescu, excerpt from a picture of the production "Ciprian Ciuclea",  copyright: tangajdance.com What is the essence of theatre/dance in your opinion? How would you define contemporary theatre/dance today?    This is a big question that requires a lot of debate. For me, contemporary dance, in all its forms and formats of presentation, is the art that questions aspects related to our reality and how we surf through it, how we mediate it with our bodies. Because is centered on the body, it’s easier to relate to, for audiences in general, while it allows its creators to explore abstract thinking. This way of thinking enables contemp...