UK dance companies performing at Tanzmesse 2016
This year’s edition of the Internationale Tanzmesse fair will be taking place in Düsseldorf, Krefeld and Leverkusen from 31 August until 3 September 2016. The event connects the most important international network gathering for dance makers with a big dance festival, which offers its professional visitors to see more than 90 companies within four days. The productions are open to the public.
Trace Elements - Janine Fletcher
Thursday 1 September, 16:00 – 18:00
A woman struggles to hold herself together; she goes over it again and again, trying to figure it out and leave it behind but old habits die hard. Punctuated by bold stark gestures, the choreography resists and submits to the tension between movement and stillness. Trace Elements asks the audience to witness the discomfort and experience the patience needed to hold one’s nerve in an internal battle. It is a silent plea for the past not to be repeated.
Venue: Fabrik Heeder, Big Stage & Small Stage, Virchowstraße 130, 47805 Krefeld
FOLK - NATIONAL DANCE COMPANY WALES
Thursday 1 September, 19:00 – 20:30
Folk by National Dance Company Wales’ Artistic Director, Caroline Finn features darkly comic expressions of life and people, using her quirky and highly engaging choreographic style. Exploring themes of social dynamics, surreal scenes and characters come alive to an eclectic and enchanting landscape.
Venue: Forum Leverkusen, Am Büchelter Hof 9, 51373 Leverkusen
BROCADE - MYSTERYSKIN / ROBERTA JEAN
Friday 2 September, 15:30 – 17:00
Sound and movement is propelled along a catwalk and sewn together by a rhythmic cadence of beats and jumps. Each performers brio and state of play is both consecrated and unwound. Brocade is at once inspired by the women it frames, their practice and the wider, historical and contemporary notions of craft and physical work.
Venue: UK Focus Forum, tanzhaus nrw, Studio 6, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf
Plan B For Utopia - Joan Clevillé Dance
Friday 2 September, 16:00 – 17:00
Tipping between humour and pathos, Plan B for Utopia explores the role that imagination and creativity can play as a catalyst for change in our personal and collective lives. Bringing together elements from dance, theatre and storytelling, Scotland-based company Joan Clevillé Dance create a space for reflection where audience and performers can come together to re-imagine the world.
Venue: FFT Kammerspiele, Jahnstr. 3, 40215 Düsseldorf
MK Ultra - Rosie Kay Dance Company
Friday 2 September 15:30 – 17:00
Exploring popular culture hasnever been so odd - a world filled with satanic images, occult messages, hidden symbols and hyper-sexualisation, this stuff is packaged as mainstream and sold across the globe. Kay, with a typically fearless eye, delves deeply into this world and conjures up something entirely new, subverting the subversive.
Venue: UK Focus Forum, tanzhaus nrw, Studio 6, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf
Getting Dressed - Second Hand Dance
Friday 2 September, 17:45 – 18:15
Made for 4 – 7 year olds and their families Getting Dressed subtly challenges the conventions, peer pressures and popular culture influences children encounter when starting school. Second Hand Dance collaborates with dancers, artists and the public to make thought-provoking, joyful and highly visual dance performances for all ages. The work is often socially-engaged and presented in a range of spaces, from theatres to gardens, creating unique experiences for audiences. In 2016 Artistic Director Rosie Heafford received one of two shortlist awards at the Arts Foundation Children’s Theatre Awards.
Venue: UK Focus Forum, tanzhaus nrw, Studio 4, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf
Of Land & Tongue - Theo Clinkard
Saturday 3 September, 21:00 – 22:00
Through eloquent dance, conversation, vivid imagery and song, an exceptional cast of six performers engage their audience in an intimate celebration of language and experience. OF LAND & TONGUE draws upon a collection of words from numerous cultures which elude direct translations into English. The unnoticed is articulated, and the deeply familiar is illuminated, inviting the audience to consider the shifting relations between what can be said with words and what is experienced with the body.
Venue: UK Focus Forum, tanzhaus nrw, Studio 6, Erkrather Str. 30, 40233 Düsseldorf
Managed by Dance4 on behalf of National Dance Network, the partners UKTI, Arts Council England, the British Council, Wales Arts International and Creative Scotland are supporting a series of UK performances, events and showcases at Tanzmesse 2016.