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Performance in Budapest

Rákóczi tér, Budapest, Hungary 

As a part of the 2018 PLACCC festival, the SHAPERS performance was presented in front of the Rákóczi tér marketplace.

The beautiful and powerful performance by 8 dancers from Arab and European countries represents the openness towards other people, and I wanted to bring this openness and acceptance to the toxic atmosphere that the government propaganda creates in Hungary … Rákóczi square is situated on the border of a poorer and ambivalent district of Budapest, but it has been under development and gentrification in the past years.

-Fanni Nánay, Director of the PLACCC Festival

 

For a review of the performance by Zsuzsanna Komjathy, click here.

The performance was followed by a discussion led by curator Gábor Pinter, from the Parallel Art Foundation with speakers: Anne Le Batard, choreographer and co-director of the Ex Nihilo company, Elvi Balboa & Ahmed Shamel, participating dancers in the SHAPERS project, Martin BOROSS from the Stereo Akt company, and Réka SZABÓ from The Symptoms company.

In 2018 the PLACCC festival continued its work of the past 10 years, once again hosting site-specific artistic events in public spaces and at unique venues. The keywords of the festival for this year were body and technology, with a programme mainly consisting of dance productions and projects based on new technologies.

SHAPERS, a piece for public and singular spaces for 8 dancers 45 minutes

Conception: Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, with assistance from Rolando Rocha and Corinne Pontana

Dancers: Lucia Bocanegra, Mourad Koula, Natacha Kierbel, Shady Abdelahman, Elvira Balboa, Ayoub Kerkal, Aurore Allo, Ahmed Shamel, and Emma Riba.

Music: Pascal Ferrari and Jean-Antoine Bigot

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T-Talk II at the Tanzmesse

SHAPERS: Challenging perception. Dance in public places in the Euro-Mediterranean – PART II

Partners of the SHAPERS project presented at a ‘T-Talk’ for the second time at the internationale tanzmesse nrw, a biennial gathering of contemporary dance professionals in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The partner organisations of the EU project SHAPERS shared and discussed the experience they gathered over the past 2 years: How do cities and public spaces challenge dance and bodies and how do artists renegotiate the perception and role of the body in the Euro-Mediterranean? Together with eight dancers from France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco, Spain and Egypt, they shared experiences of training, creation and cooperation across the Euro-Mediterranean for contemporary dance in public spaces and unusual locations.

Speakers

Anne Le Batard and Jean Antoine Bigot (choreographers and Ex Nihilo’s co-artistic directors), Anne Rossignol (in8circle’s director), Meryem Jazouli (choreographer and Espace Darja’s artistic director), Emilie Petit (artist and Momkin espaces de possibles & Nassim el Raqs’ artistic director), Maria Gonzales (artistic director of Mes de Danza), Lucien Arino (artistic director of Centre Rézodanse Egypte), Jasmina Prolic (choreographer and ZVRK artistic director)

Internationale tanzmesse nrw gathers artists from more than 50 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia providing an equal opportunity to present their work to a professional audience. The Tanzmesse is an event dedicated to contemporary dance without any specific geographical focus.

More on the internationale tanzmesse nrw

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Performance in Newbury

Invited by the 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space and Corn Exchange Newbury, SHAPERS was performed in the UK in Newbury, at the central market place on August 27th. 

101 Outdoor Arts creation space is a space dedicated to large-scale outdoor artistic projects, run by Corn Exchange Newbury in addition to their main theater and cinema.

A piece for public and singular spaces for 8 dancers, 45 minutes

Conception: Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, with assistance from Rolando Rocha and Corinne Pontana, from the Ex Nihilo company

Dancers: Lucia Bocanegra, Mourad Koula, Natacha Kierbel, Shady Abdelahman, Elvira Balboa, Aurore Allo, Ahmed Shamel, and Emma Riba.

Music: Pascal Ferrari and Jean-Antoine Bigot

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Performance in Tarragona

Tarragona, Spain

On July 14th, the performance SHAPERS was presented on the Plaça Corsini, in Tarragona as part of the JOCS MEDITERRANIS – TARRAGONA 2018 cultural program, organized by Produccion Trans-Forma and its artistic director Maria Gonzales.

SHAPERS – a performance in adaptation, reinvention, questioned, constantly renewed. Questions for dance, cities, spaces, but especially for others, the group, the community.

 

A piece for public and singular spaces for 8 dancers 45 minutes

Conception: Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, with assistance from Rolando Rocha and Corinne Pontana – Ex Nihilo dance company

Dancers: Lucia Bocanegra, Mourad Koula, Natacha Kierbel, Shady Abdelahman, Elvira Balboa, Ayoub Kerkal, Aurore Allo, Ahmed Shamel, and Emma Riba.

Music: Pascal Ferrari and Jean-Antoine Bigot

Mes de Danza [Seville, Spain]. Since its first edition in 1994, the main objective of Mes de Danza Festival is to explore dance in its widest and most varied approaches and trends and to link audiences -both familiar and unfamiliar with dance- to the performances. Beyond its role as a festival, Mes de Danza has contributed to shape and strengthen the local dance scene in Andalusia and Spain. www.mesdedanza.es

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Conference at the Festival de Marseilles II

at the Théâtre des Bernardines

Within the programme FESTIVAL OF IDEAS, MAKING THE CITY TOGETHER #2 of the Festival de Marseille: Co-creation of the city between artists, inhabitants, spaces and institutions

Reflections and discussion

For this session we are rephrasing the larger question of “creating the city together”: what is the position of the arts (of cultural politics, institutions, programming and artists) in a polycentric, multi-scale and multi-identity urban society? Within this framework, what are the co-productions (partnerships, methods, themes, etc.) needed in that effect?

With La Biennale des Écritures du Réel and the artists in residence Vooruit (Gand). Debate and reflections with Eric Corijn (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Fanny Robles (Professor and researcher at LERMA, Aix-Marseille Université) and local researchers.

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Masterclass with Ali Salmi

Marseilles, France

At the Cité des arts de la rue, June 29th & 30th & the Ballet National de Marseille, July 1st 2018

 

Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the young dancers participating in the SHAPERS project have had the opportunity to meet various choreographers to discover new aesthetics and deepen their choreographic vocabulary. Open to all other dancers (either professional or in the midst of becoming professional), these masterclasses were also an opportunity for the project participants to meet other dancers from the region.

Within this context, for the last of the project’s series of four masterclasses, Ex Nihilo invited Ali Salmi, dancer, choreographer, and artistic director of the Osmosis Company, to share his approach and relationship to public space.

 

This masterclass was organized within the MP2018 SUMMERSCHOOL programme, a project initiated by the Ballet National de Marseille, marseille objectif DansE, Le Pôle 164, l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de danse de Marseille, Le Ballet Preljocaj, Le Groupe Grenade, and KLAP Maison pour la Danse.

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Performance in Marseilles

In front of the Centre Bourse, in the Belsunce neighborhood

This performance of SHAPERS was within the project’s ‘Focus in Marseilles’, organized by the company Ex Nihilo, from June 23rd to July 1st, including two conferences, the performance, and a masterclass.

Presented as a part of the Dimanches de la Canebière, in partnership with Lieux Publics – a national center for creation in public space, and the Festival de Marseille, SHAPERS was performed in Marseilles on June 24th.

The Dimanches de la Canebière are a cultural event organized by the Mairie of the 1st & 7th arrondissements.

Focus in Marseilles

Parallel to this performance, two conferences were organized within the ‘FESTIVAL OF IDEAS : MAKING THE CITY TOGETHER #2’ in the 23rd edition of the Festival de Marseille : Artistic practices in public space in the Mediterranean on June 23rd, and Artistic practices co-created with urban stakeholders on July 1st, at the Théâtre des Bernardines. The masterclass with the choreographer Ali Salmi took place at the Cité des Arts de la rue and at the Ballet National de Marseille from June 29th to July 1st.

 

A piece for public and singular spaces for 9 dancers 45 minutes

Conception: Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, with assistance from Rolando Rocha and Corinne Pontana

Dancers: Lucia Bocanegra, Mourad Koula, Natacha Kierbel, Shady Abdelahman, Elvira Balboa, Ayoub Kerkal, Aurore Allo, Ahmed Shamel, and Emma Riba.

Music: Pascal Ferrari and Jean-Antoine Bigot

Ex Nihilo [Marseille, France] is a contemporary dance company, directed by Anne Le Batard and Jean-Antoine Bigot, founded on a common aim: to make public space a favoured space for creation and performance, placing encounters with a particular context and the people using an environment, such as inhabitants, an audience, and passers-by, at the centre of their artistic approach. www.exnihilodanse.fr

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Conference at the Festival de Marseilles I

Théâtre des Bernardines

within the programme FESTIVAL OF IDEAS, MAKING THE CITY TOGETHER #2 of the Festival de Marseille: Art, public space, the Mediterranean

Reflections and discussion

Our starting point is “public space”: a space that in theory is shared and open, but in reality is communitarised – meaning it is characterized by the context, by particular social practices and by specific populations. What is the function given to art in such spaces? If it is to let those places and districts speak, to whom belongs the narrative?

Could we say that art in public places brings a contextual narrative that creates meaning for those who practice these places?

Does this type of art express the individuality and our differences or else does it participate in the notion of citizenship ?

These questions inevitably resonate differently when viewed from Alexandria, Tunis or Marseille.

With the participation of: Julien Marchaissau (Rara Woulib), Guy-André Lagesse (Les Pas Perdus), Julie De Muer (Hôtel du Nord), Selma Ouissi (L’Art Rue / Dream City), Anne Le Batard (Ex Nihilo), Emilie Petit (Momkin espaces de possibles). Discussions led by Eric Corijn (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and the philosopher Joëlle Zask in the presence of the co-organisers of the euro-méditerranean projet SHAPERS.

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Partners meeting in Marseilles II

This partners meeting took place at the Cité des arts de la rue, in Marseilles, May 26th and 27th, 2018

All of the project partners were present at this meeting with the objective to assess the project as a whole and prepare the last steps – Ex Nihilo (Marseilles), Nassim el Raqs (Alexandria)/Momkin-espaces de possibles (Marseilles), the Centre Rézodanse – Egypte (Alexandria), l’Espace Darja (Casablanca), Mes de Danza (Sevilla), ZVRK (Sarajevo), in8 circle – maison de production (Marseilles).

We took these two days to understand what our goals were and how we carried them out, discussing both the positive and negative points, difficulties, and moments of great satisfaction. We highlighted the skills gained that supported our other personal projects or collaborative projects. Another objective was to share our difficulties and the solutions we put in place to carry out the project to value our experience.

Each day began with a commun physical warm-up, led by the Ex Nihilo dancers Corinne Pontana and Rolando Rocha.

To develop a shared analysis of the commun project, each partner prepared a presentation, starting from their positions and their individual skills used in order to carry out the project. The commun questions we asked ourselves were:

-What skills and knowledge did you use in this commun project?

-What did SHAPERS bring to your cultural project/structure?

-What are the new skills you developed within the SHAPERS project through this shared experience?

-What traces of SHAPERS to leave behind?

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Performance in Cairo

SHAPERS was performed during the seventh edition of D-CAF (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival) in Cairo, Egypt, at the Goethe Institute on March 23rd, 2018.

This performance was organized by the project partner Momkin-espaces de possibles.

 

Momkin – espaces de possibles [Marseille, France] aims at initiating and accompanying artistic and cultural projects within cities and territories across the Mediterranean region, by creating, producing, and performing artistic works, as well as through the development of cultural and intercultural projects, of training programmes and awareness building campaigns. Since 2011, Momkin has carried out the Nassim el Raqs festival, featuring artistic initiatives linked to the city of Alexandria. www.momkin.co