Navigation
- Home
- European Capitals of Culture
- Institution of European Capitals of Culture
- Europe under construction
- EU Commission
- Candidate cities
- Imprint
Dance
Dance – Dance is an area where figures move through space. They strive to overcome the law of gravity. And modern dance differs from the highly disciplined ballet which Stalin liked so much. Even if only one figure is on stage, he or she may interact with the own shadow. Other choreographies imitate the dancing feet to the rhythm of clapping hands. Faster, faster, a spin around and a leap through the air can become like an outcry of freedom. One dance symbolically demonstrated the before and after the Cuban revolution. While the muscular man moved like a powerful locomotive across the stage, the woman was trapped inside a ring. After the revolution she was freed from this encirclement while his movements had become less mechanical, much softer. Together they found the rhythm till the dance became an imitation of making love. Other dance performances underline the repetitiveness of life so that everyone is caught in a vicious cycle. It means growing up, going to school, finding work after graduation, marrying, having children who go to school etc. It was Paul Tillich who said culture should free people from this symbolic chain of life by being lifted up to plane where other experiences become possible. Arthur Koestler distinguished here the trivial from from the tragic level, as always mankind falls back to where he or she came from. It makes dance the intimate companion of the soul. The dance as performed by Zorbas, the Greek, in the film of Costa Gravas has become so popular because it is like Jesus coming off the cross and dancing by looking down at his feet where the shadow is cast. Important is also what memories dance entail. During German occupation in Easter Europe the playing of music was forbidden so the people just danced without music. Once the Germans left, the music was revived because the dance had kept memories thereof alive. But when the writer George Crane stated that what makes human beings who they really are by telling stories, I had to contradict him likewise softly. For I reminded him of the dance of the bees after they have found a new source of nectar. When they return to the bee hive, they dance first clockwise with the number of turns counting for the direction i.e. South or North, while counter clockwise are indicated the bee miles.
Hatto Fischer
Athens July 2014
Madrid 1992
Dem Flamenco wird von Januar an jeweils dienstags ein Tanzabend im Teatro Alfil gewidmet. „Madrid tanzt“ ist eine Veranstaltungsreihe, bei der im April und im Mai spanische und ausländische Tanzgruppen auftreten; der „Internationale Tag des Tanzes“ wird am 28. April im Teatro Albeniz begangen.
Flamenco was performed every Tuesday at the theatre Alfil. A series of dance performances under the title "Madrid dances" showed Spanish and foreign dance companies between April and May. The International Day of Dance on 28th of April as observed at the theatre Albeniz.
Luxembourg 2007
There was organized a kind of bottom-up dance performance with the Youth. Performed in Rotunda 2, it involved 63 participants and 100 musicians. The choreography was done by Royston Maldoom who explained it as follows:
"Community dance in the UK has now thrown up so many extraordinary artists, wonderful dancers, recognized internationally, who started just in this way, like these kids on the stage today. Community dance means that these children can go on and develop and bring their experiences back to us later. It's a two way process. We, as artists and lovers of art should better to this, otherwise there are no new voices heard."
If a motto can be given to this, it was to dance your life onto the stage. At the same time, the aim was to bring together young people from different nationalities to work together on a dance piece.
« Architecture | Literature »