During the four days of the opening of the Kaleidoscope of Culture, from 1 to 4 September, eight contemporary dance performances await us on three theatre stages in the District, with top performers from Spain, Japan, Sweden, Greece, Brazil, the Ivory Coast, but also from Serbia and other countries.
In addition to the leading regional dance ensembles, such as the National Ballet of North Macedonia, BITEF Theatre, Zagreb Dance Center and others, the celebrated choreographer of Japanese origin, Satoshi Kudo, as well as the Grammy winner, singer and dancer from Africa, Dobet Gnahoré, will perform at the Kaleidoscope of Culture.
Dobet Gnahoré, together with Novi Sad artists and volunteers, will participate in the performance ‘Windward – An Answer to Slet’, which represents an artistic and critical response to the famous Yugoslav rally.
Slet is a public event, out in the open, that combines gymnastics, dance, music, and other artistic elements, and in which a large number of young performers participate in a performance that emphasises group dynamics. Slet can be understood as a specific and controversial European and Balkan cultural heritage associated with totalitarian regimes. Slet is part of the Yugoslav cultural heritage and was common in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The intention of this project is to explore and critically review historical narratives and create new interpretations and forms of slet.
The creation of this performance lasted for six months, and it included 580 young men and women from Novi Sad in total, as well as four directors and four choreographers. The final performance will be given out by 110 young performers with the help of the Youth Theatre’s acting ensemble.
The performance is divided into four parts. A special artistic team composed of artists from the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Serbia with a guest musical ensemble from Africa was appointed for each part. With this plural approach, we wanted to create an international and intercultural dialogue within the work itself.
REPERTOIRE
Theatre Stage 1
1 September / 7 p.m. / ‘Windward – An Answer to Slet’
3 September / 7 p.m. i 9. p.m. / ‘Windward – An Answer to Slet’
Fabrika, location 1
1 September/ 8 p.m. / Unreliable Narrator
A performance where the audience is confronted with Japanese choreographer and performer Kudo’s pure presence, reaching the horizon and inviting self-reflection of hidden depth and beauty. The performance lays bare the shamanism within the body and the confrontation with another essence and another side of oneself. The body moves back and forth in the landscape of sound, being the sensation of an accelerated recording of the passage of time expressed through the art of dance.
2 September / 8 p.m. / Unlonely Recluse Solo on the Line
When it comes to the form, this is a solo dance performance, but in a nutshell, it is an attempt at meditation. It was created from ‘materials’ that accumulated during the pandemic in contact with friends and colleagues as products of a mutual relationship of care and care.
3 September / 8 p.m. / Vanishing Point
Fragmented and incomplete at the edges of life, the body seems to be both an attainable goal and an unattainable destination. The Greek choreographers Dafin Antoniadou and Alexandros Vardaxoglou have transformed the stage into a reflection through which the deepest fears are distorted.
4 September / 8 p.m. / Things Move but They Do Not Say Anything
The full-length choreographed piece is radically rooted in the live presence of the women themselves, who, at the same time produce the sounds that make up the sound core of the work. It focuses on their bodies – resilient and persistent bodies, subject to unpredictable, diverse, intense forces. These are women’s bodies that draw on a shared legacy of resistance and presence in this turbulent world.
Theatre Stage 2
1 September / 9 p.m. / Sofia
The play questions the human mind and its seemingly diminished capacity to recognise the fact that it is sabotaging its own future. Felix Landerer, an awarded German choreographer, plays with the ideas of what we can adapt to, what belongs to us, what does not, and in what ways are we connected to our surroundings.
2 September / 9 p.m. / Parte Parte
Parte Parte is a dance duet that was created and choreographed by Petra Chelfi and Petra Valentić. The performance looks at the space that dissolves and establishes itself between two worlds, the one we experience here and the one that has shaped us and our bodies beyond our caution and awareness.
3 September / 9 p.m. / Metronomy
The dance performance produced by the Belgrade Dance Institute, and choreographer Tamara Gvozdenović, which developed between Switzerland, France and Belgium, invites us to build a common future by considering contrasts – construction versus deconstruction, crowd versus loneliness, negative space, change of perspective, parallels.
4 September / 9 p.m. / La La La
The ballet performance by choreographer Saša Evtimova, produced by the National Ballet of North Macedonia, takes us on a nostalgic journey through memories, invites us to embrace them and allows the music to revive old sentiments.
In addition to the theatre programme, we can also expect rich music and film programmes, many exhibitions, installations, conferences with workshops and panel programmes, etc., at the opening of the Kaleidoscope of Culture.
In the European Capital of Culture title year, the Kaleidoscope of Culture will be held for the fifth time, from 1 September to 7 October. Throughout Novi Sad, almost 1,000 artists and experts in the fields of architecture, literature, visual, performing and applied arts from 67 countries will implement more than 250 events.
Partners of the Kaleidoscope of Culture 2022 are Erste Bank, IDEA, DDOR, A1 Srbija, and Heineken Srbija.
Photo: Nemanja Maraš, Álvaro Gomez Pidal, Promo
