AUG 17 | From Europe & Japan
Battery Dance cherishes the tradition of introducing Festival audiences to wonderful dancers and dance companies from around the world. Going virtual this year deprives us of the live experience but gives us access to performances and even audiences that we would never have witnessed nor reached before.
Introductions by Dutch Consul General Dolph Hogewoning of the Netherlands Consulate-General in New York, and Mr. Dorian Branea, Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute.
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Program
ANA MARIA LUCACIU & RAZVAN STOIAN | ROMANIA
Almost | World Premiere
Almost traces the story of two echoing universes that aim to align: where the air between and around two bodies resonates with what could have been.
Produced by the Romanian Cultural Institute. https://www.rciusa.info/
About the Artist
Born in Bucharest, Ana Maria Lucaciu graduated from the National Ballet School of Canada, moving on to dance with the parent company, Royal Danish Ballet, Augsburg Ballet, Portuguese Contemporary Dance Company, and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Her choreography has been presented by the Norwegian National Ballet, New Dialect and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, among others. Holder of a BFA in dance from Empire State College, Ana Maria teaches dance across the US, Europe and Asia. Razvan Stoian hails from Constanta, Romania and graduated from the Caragiale Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography winning the “Best Choreography” and “Best Interpretation” awards. He has danced internationally for Tangaj Dance Company and Gigi Caciuleanu Romania Dance Company including appearances at the Battery Dance Festival in New York in 2014 and Sandler’s Wells Theatre in London. He presented his own choreography at the 2016 Battery Dance Festival and subsequently joined the company. He is a champion ballroom dancer, winning competitions in Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Turkey, and elsewhere. He has performed with Battery Dance in Sri Lanka and South Korea, Germany and USA.
http://www.anamarialucaciu.com/ https://batterydance.org/dancers/razvan-stoian/
EMIKO AGATSUMA | JAPAN
Future Temple | World Broadcast Premiere
“After you die, your soul will be…?” Agatsuma asks this question in researching how people think about the soul. Each culture has their own idea, but all seem to be fading in an age of globalization when we can search anything on the internet, rendering our lifestyle and customs become unstable. Agatsuma investigates the things that have not changed in our minds. How will we pray for the gods, ancestors, souls in 1000 years…? After a serious calamity, the survivors will try to recall the traditional way and find out new ways to pray for souls. For the artist, the stage becomes an altar, and dance the way to contact the invisible.
About the Artist
Japan’s Emiko Agatsuma is recognized as a Butoh dancer, instructor, choreographer, and director. In 1999, she joined the Butoh company Dairakudakan founded by Akaji Maro in 1972. In 2014, she premiered Niku-no-uta at Dairakudakan studio. In 2015, she performed at the Japan Culture Center in Paris, France and was awarded Best Young Artist from the Japan Dance Critics Association. Selected as a residency artist of the Taipei Artist Village for 2020, she created and premiered Future Temple.
EMMA EVELEIN | NETHERLANDS
Sisters | North America Broadcast Premiere
3 sisters are growing up in a broken family in this short film. Through movement, we experience their inner world and their unbreakable relationship. Directed by Daphne Lucker.
Sponsored by the Dutch Consulate in New York.
About the Choreographer
Emma Evelein graduated from the School of Arts Amsterdam with a focus on Urban/Contemporary and Music Theater. She danced with companies in Europe and Israel and trained with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and Batsheva Dance Company. Now she has her own company and makes dance for theatre, film and music video. She won Amsterdam University’s AHK graduation prize in 2018 and the Kurt Jooss choreographic Prize in Germany in 2019.
LUDIVINE LARGE-BESSETTE | FRANCE
Drop Out Bodies
A monotonous silence envelops a group of men and women who are each standing still in front of their houses in a residential area. As the camera moves among them, they fall, one by one, in a random pattern. Their collapses are clearly irrevocable. The movement of the performers from immobility to choreographed descents is a contemporary reinterpretation of the Dance Macabre from the Middle Ages. The film questions the fatality of the human body and our individual and collective responsibilities in our complex time.
About the Artist
French Visual Artist Ludivine Large-Bessette‘s work engages photography, video, digital art, and contemporary dance. The body becomes a mirror capable of unsettling, questioning and ultimately moving the audience. Her films have been awarded at Filmwinter Festival for Expended Media, Stuttgart; Les Instants Video Marseille, FIPA Biarritz and International TanzFilmPlattform Berlin, among others.
ODOS PRODUCTIONS | GREECE / SWITZERLAND / FRANCE
ANASA | U.S. PREMIERE
Bodies. Connected. Dry flowers pushing out from the sand. Dissolving.
About the Company
Formed in 2018, Odos Productions gathers professional dancers, acrobatics, and musicians to blend their artistic visions with the art of the moving image. Led by Swiss dancer and choreographer Maja Zimmerlin and French scenographer and filmmaker Thomas Delord, the company connects their art to the natural cycles of our environment. Their first creation ANASA (2018) won the Audience Award at Athens Video Dance Project 2019 and the PEARLS prize at POOL International TanzFilm-Plattform Berlin.
TRANZDANZ / CIE. GERZSON PETER KOVACS | HUNGARY
Trans-tánc Budapest | U.S. Premiere
Bathed in the early Summer light of Budapest, young dancers repeat a sequence inspired by Hungarian folkdances, radiate joy and happiness, traverse the emblematic sites of the city and arrive at their common target, where their dance changes to the “Seasons March” Pina Bausch’s “Nelken line.” Representing the inspiration of the project, they say in the language of dance together: Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring-Summer- Autumn-Winter-… Life.
Provided Courtesy of TrazDanz Budapest.
About the Artist
Gerzson Péter Kovács founded TranzDanz in 1987, drawing on the legacy of the Hungarian folk dance movement while performing around the world. Live music accompanies many TranzDanz performances and Kovács has collaborated with acclaimed composers and musicians. Kovács has taught at the University of Film and Drama and the University of Dance in Budapest, serves as curator at the National Cultural Fund and acts as co-director and lighting/visual designer for the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble.