The 15th Dance Days Chania Festival proved that it is always seeking to strengthen relationships with host cities and residents, interact with them, discover new unknown locations for the event, and propose something fresh and different to those who have decided to attend.
It is a contemporary dance festival that invests in performances with strong social and political dimensions, highlighting the importance of collectivity and participation.
In addition, the great assets that distinguish this festival are decisively contributing to the final outcome apart from the great love of the dance and Chania organizers.
The Euroneus were in the city of Crete for three days, following a rich programme of performances and parallel events.
“Our big bet this year was to get even more original to look further to the invisible aspects of the city we hadn’t reached,” says Sofia Fariere, artistic director of Dance Days Chania.
“I’m interested in creating another kind of image of the city during the summer to further expand the audience of the festival and create a safe gathering place for artists to meet people and their visitors during the summer. This year, to be even more human and warm.
“Trilogy: For the Old Times,” by Swiss Group Pit Co. Explore the complex relationships between time, aging and memory loss.
It connects fragments of memory and reveals the emotions associated with them and the impact they have on us.
The show travels through three temporally interconnected moments, each reflecting the other moments, creating a layered, deep human story.
Along the way, we meet an older man, his younger self and lover. Each represents a different layer of memory and identity.
Inspired by choreographer Phoebe Jewette’s personal experience with dementia, the work reflects the role of memory in shaping who we are and what happens when we begin to forget. The show premiered in Rome in 2022.
“It’s a very difficult subject. At age 30, I don’t know what it means to have dementia, of course, but I know what it’s like to be on the other side,” Jewett said.
“This is a disease that affects many people around the world. I think the number of people suffering from dementia is currently around 50 million, but in the next few years it will reach 150 million in a very short time. That’s what I felt was necessary to talk strongly about dementia through my work.
“So there was a typical moment with my grandfather. We sat down and talked about things. He told me: ‘When we went on vacation to France, do you remember that wonderful time?’ I looked at him and said it was a grandmother who wasn’t with him. She explains.
Helene Weinzierl’s dance company Cie Laroque I’ve been to a dance festival several times.
With current “run away”, Austrian groups invite us on a special journey where we feel exaggerated and collapsed. In an age where we seem to have everything, dancers reveal the world of suffocation on stage. There, everyone is looking for freedom, peace, and a peaceful inner exit.
The audience sits in circles around them, watching this struggle of fatigue. The play had its world premiere in Salzburg just before the coronavirus in 2019, and it appears to be prophetic.
“I ran away a long time ago, in front of the coronavirus. I felt really in a quagmire. Imagine I feel like those little animals, running on the wheels in a cage. Or what can I do to get out of this system?” says Helene Weinzierl, Austrian choreographer and artistic director of Cie Laroque Dance Company.
“I think you need to find a place or period of time to stop to do something like meditation, yoga, or anything, and you don’t know what.
“On this occasion, we took the project again. It’s something new again. We’ve worked it out again. I think we’re in a really strange situation in relation to democracy, in Europe, around the world, and in the world. We have to fight again,” she says.
A dancer, a projection screen, a live camera, a set of silicon abs, and a question that floats in the air for an hour: How does the body create masculinity?
Quindell Orton’s “Make a man” is an extraordinary lecture performance that humorously and heart-scathingly presents various aspects of masculinity, the archetypes imposed on modern times, and the patriarchal attitudes and norms of our society.
It combines video predictions with personal interviews with choreographers with personal interviews with people who highlight different aspects of the issue. References and quotations from symbolic personalities and current numbers create a multi-layered mix that utilizes elements from politics, pop culture and gender issues.
The show premiered in Munich last May.
“My inspiration for this play was my strange feminist approach. I have been working from this perspective for several years and have felt a desire to understand more masculinity in order to understand gender and patriarchy dynamics.
“I hope my performance challenges this dynamic and hierarchy. This is because things have to be, for example, because they were born on the XY chromosome, to challenge many biological claims and gender determinism.