BETWEEN THE SEAS FESTIVAL
OF MEDITERRANEAN
PERFORMING ARTS
Aug 20-26, 2012
Aktina Stathaki, creator and artistic director of the BETWEEN THE SEAS FESTIVAL of Mediterranean performing arts has put together a terrific program for 2012, the second year of this new, annual project.
For a view of Aktina in 3D (or 2D) talking about putting the festival together, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inD2bcusJ3c&feature=plcp
For complete information, see:
http://betweentheseas.org/home/
Here is this year's program:
PROGRAM
Dance
Rachel Erdos / Ido Tadmor: And Mr (the choreographer's cut) (Israel)
The international premiere of the work And Mr (the choreographer's cut) is an extended version of the solo 'and Mr' commissioned and performed by Israeli dancer and choreographer Ido Tadmor which was originally premiered in August 2011. Since then the piece has been performed in New York, Israel, Korea and Cyprus with upcoming performances in Brazil, Budapest and Hong Kong. This extended version had its Israeli premiere as part of Intima Dance Festival and Summer Dance Festival, Tel Aviv. www.rachelerdos.com.Presented with the generous support of the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate of Israel in NYC. Additional support by Between the Seas Festival
(Monday August 20th at 7pm ; Tuesday August 21st at 6.30pm - USA premiere)
Vanessa Tamburi / Flusso Dance: Lost Rights (Italy/USA)
Lost Rights was created by FLUSSO dance project in collaboration with Visa2dance Festival and premiered at the Visa2dance Festival, Dar es Salaam in October 2010. The piece is specifically designed for four young dancers as a combination of movements taking roots in different cultures. The choreography articulates nine vignettes of the life of children in Africa: stories of lost rights and dignity. The piece is inspired by The sky of the last ones, a book that collects articles written by Maria G. Cutuli, an Italian reporter killed in Afghanistan in 2001. Her reporting brought her to Africa, the continent that she loved the most, then to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East. Her articles cover stories of life, and interviews with witnesses. Tales of women, children and war: "those that we forget because we do not belong to it. www.flussodanceproject.com(Monday August 20th at 7pm ; Tuesday August 21st at 6.30pm - USA premiere)
Celli Contemporary Ballet: Irritante (Vexatious) (Italy)
What is vexatious? Sometimes the ignorance is vexatious, the stupidity is vexatious, the arrogance is vexatious. The soul is vexed when is tied to routine. The soul is vexed when is destroyed, when it is abandoned. The man is vexed when he doesn’t know how to express himself, when he’s repressed. Vexatious is the repressed necessity to make art, the only way for hope in a better society. Vexatious deals with the story of an Italian artist who crossed the ocean in search of fame and fortune. The new world gave him a warm welcome and everything he wanted. But soon the success he gained became greed and he forgot what counts most in a man’s life: the capacity to love. After losing everything he had, even his talent, he learned that only love can make you build a bridge across the ocean. www.cellicontemporaryballet.com(Thursday August 23rd at 7pm ; Friday August 24th at 7pm )
Noa Dar: Arnica (Israel)
Arnica is an observation of the fluctuating connection between the world of the mind and the reality outside of it in what becomes an intensely personal and intimate work. In its original form Arnica is a collage of 17 solos, each between one and five minutes long performed by three women. For its international premiere at Between the Seas Noa Dar will perform 4 solos set to music by Tom Waits. “In Arnica Dar turns inwards to create a retrospective of ten years worth of choreography, in which she is the centerpiece...The physicality of her movement vocabulary, combined with an incredible sense of composition and balance, marked her as an important force in the dance community.” (Ori J. Lenkinski , The Jerusalem Post). www.noadar.comPresented with the generous support of the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate of Israel in NYC.
(Thursday August 23rd at 7pm ; Friday August 24th at 7pm - USA premiere)
Sublime Dance Company: [+=1] (Albania/USA)
A new dance work that revolves around a broad investigation of Life's richness and abundance with respect to Relationships. Relationships here understood and investigated within an abstract level of consciousness. The work tries to explore its multifaceted realm and possibilities of consciousness by multiplication of perspectives.Finding 'Life' in the beginnings of relationships by exploring our drives, needs and capacities to maintain ourselves and survive within the constant fight for establishing a connection with the 'Other'. Finding 'Life' in the endless transitional moments wherein two persons start to recognize each other and decide to share grounds. Finding 'Life' at the end of a relationship's journey where emotions, passions, drives, and thoughts manifest themselves differently , and the need for a higher, richer, and more a meaningful experience is at the heart of Life. www.sublimedancecompany.com(Thursday August 23rd at 9pm ; Friday August 24th at 9pm - USA premiere)
Mancopy Dance Company: EVERY last BREATH (Denmark/Egypt/Lebanon/Palestine)
Four dancers from the Arab world seek out freedom and identity whenever possible. Through their stirred up history, constantly shaken by social and political instabilities, each one of them reveals a personal physical and artistic reality. EVERY last BREATH is a reflection on living in a place where every breath risks to be the last. “The piece [...] combines contemporary European choreography with the aspirations of those emerging from unending revolutions, wars and crises” (Sawsan Al Abtah - The Middle East Newspaper). Created in 2005 by Danish choreographer Jens Bjerregaard and open to cross-cultural research and collaboration, Mancopy's repertoire is built on Bjerregaard's choreography as well as that of acclaimed choreographers from around the world, including choreographers from Singapore, France, Hungary, and Italy and presenting both stage and site-specific productions. www.mancopy.dk(Thursday August 23rd at 9pm ; Friday August 24th at 9pm - USA premiere)
Korhan Basaran and Artists: RAu (Turkey/USA)
RAu: a work created to open a new door to the unknown and undefined. In this experimental work, acclaimed Turkish choreographer and dancer Korhan Basaran focuses on challenging and questioning the aesthetic idea of the day and uses revision to explore and invent a new vocabulary in a new language which is aimed to be accessible to all.(Sunday August 26th at 8.30pm )
Rebeca Tomás / A Palo Seco: Tradiciones Nuevas (USA/Spain)
The phrase a palo seco refers to the "a cappella" style of flamenco music, typically consisting of singing or percussion alone. That stripped-down aesthetic characterizes some of the company's biggest departures from tradition, featured in this production of Tradiciones Nuevas. While implementing typical Flamenco props, such as the bata de cola (long-train dress) and abanico (Spanish fan), the repertoire in this production will feature the company’s penchant for unconventional fare with an innovative and edgy New York feel. www.rebecaflamenca.com(Saturday August 25th at 7pm )
Theater
Olga Pozeli / Noiti Grammi: When the red Toyota went off the road and sank in black water (Greece)
A prominent politician meets, at a party, a young woman who works for his party’s campaign. After several drinks and a solitary walk on the beach, the politician expresses his interest in the woman. Towards the end of the evening they leave the party together. While driving his car, the politician loses control and the car falls into a dark swamp and immediately sinks into black water. He manages to escape the sinking vehicle, leaving the woman to drown. We follow the story through her eyes -an impressionistic jumble of memories and voices from the past intersected by images from the day of her death. These images, stretched in time and constantly repeated, try to give an explanation for the tragic accident that leads to her slow and agonizing death. A performance on the corruption of power, as well as on our attitude towards the absurdity of a violent and unjust death. Olga Pozeli is the founder of critically acclaimed Noiti Grammi theater company in Athens, Greece, and has directed original devised works as well as plays by Berkoff, Bennett, Mamet, Ives and more. This show is supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture. www.noitigrammi.gr(Tuesday August 21st at 9pm , and Wednesday August 22nd at 9pm - USA premiere)
Lina Abiad / Amahl Kouri: I.D. (Lebanon)
4 transgender people from around the Mediterranean set sail and dock in their own new bodies. I.D. is their voyage. With this new work that is having its USA premiere at Between the Seas Festival, director Lina Abiad and performer Amahl Kouri continue their mission of expanding the boundaries of Lebanese theater, bringing new works to communities outside of the mainstream. Presented with the generous support of the Lebanese American University.(Saturday August 25th at 9pm ; Sunday August 26th at 2pm - USA premiere)
Sabine Choucair / Chantal Mailhac: Whispered Tales, from door to door (Lebanon)
A road trip from village to village, looking for Lebanese tales, ordinary people's extraordinary stories. Stories of love, hatred, neighborhood, life and death. Although they capture details of people's survival during tough times of the wars in Lebanon, the stories also reflect on the humane and humorous aspects of life. Whispered Tales is a 40min performance, with traditional music and songs, some thyme and oil and Lebanese coffee...(Saturday August 25th at 9pm ; Sunday August 26th at 2pm - USA premiere)
Special Events
Screening: The Glass Wall
Between the Seas will host a free screening of The Glass Wall, a documentary by Iranian-American filmmaker, theatre artist, educator, and scholar, Mahmood Karimi-Hakak. In 2009 Mr. Hakak spent a year in Israel and Palestine, on a mission to create a theatrical collaboration with participants on both sides of the decades-old conflict in that region. What he discovered was a 760 km (472 mi) concrete Wall that currently makes any such artistic collaboration meaningless, if not impossible. Karimi-Hakak had theatre artists from each side, Palestine and Israel, express their thoughts and feelings towards The Wall, its effect on their creative work and their day-to-day life. They are also asked to imagine The Wall as transparent, hence The Glass Wall, and comment on what they see on the other side. With candid interviews of theatre artists,enhanced by footage of their theatre productions, this film takes us to the heart of one of the most impassioned cultural divides in our time. theglasswallfilm.weebly.com(Wednesday August 22nd at 6.30pm )
Family: A Visit from Victoria
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum presents: A Visit from Victoria Based on the Life of Victoria (Confino) Cohen who grew up at 97 Orchard Street, currently home to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Meet Victoria Confino, a 14 year old Greek Sephardic immigrant who will take you through her immigration story and life on the Lower East Side in 1916. Written by Elly Berke.(Saturday August 25th at 11)
Staged readings
Benedictus
An ambitious international collaboration, Benedictus, brings together acclaimed artists from Iran, Israel and the United States: Motti Lerner, one of Israel's most provocative contemporary playwrights, Torange Yeghiazarian, Artistic Director of Golden Thread, Iranian-American director Mahmood Karimi-Hakak of Siena College and American designer Daniel Michaelson of Bennington College, and dramaturg Roberta Levitow, founder of Theatre Without Borders.(Sunday August 26th at 12 pm)
This Time
This Time is a new play written by Sevan Kaloustian Greene and directed by Kareem Fahmy. It was developed through a series of exploratory workshops beginning in the fall of 2011 as part of director Kareem Fahmy’s “Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship” at New York Theatre Workshop. The key source material was the memoir Not So Long Ago, by Zeinab Allam which tells the story of Zeinab’s departure from Egypt in the 1960s because of an affair she was having with an American professor.(Sunday August 26th at 4pm)
