Dance in August, Berlin, 2024
Tanz im August, International Festival
By: Angelika Jansen - Sep 02, 2024
Dance in August, 2024, International Festival, Berlin
The 36th Tanz im August took place from August 15th – 31st in Berlin. It is the most important European dance festival showcasing contemporary dance tendencies around the globe. This year's eighteen shows included one world premiere and five German premieres and took place in ten venues throughout Berlin. Ricardo Carmona, the artistic director of the festival, uses the differing traditions and cultures to, as he says: "as a compass guiding us towards the world as it could be".
Consequently, this year's festival included an inordinate amount of talk or non dance gestures, used as explanations by the artists in what they wanted to say.There is Marco D'Gostin with Best Regards a talkative interpretation of a letter to a deceased friend and mentor, where he only includes wild movements as his interpretation of feelings towards the second half of the performance. Or Rita Mazza with The Voice that has her sparse movements interrupted with inaudible sounds, along with blowing air into a liquid filled bottle and some written explanations projected on the background. It was directed to the hearing impaired.
The companies using groupings were more interesting. Jerome Bel`s and Estell Yhong Mengual's Non Human Dances projects different aspects of life in their non human patterns. Especially the vignette portraying lions on the prowl is impressive as the dancers are crawling naked across the stage. In stark contrast at the same program is the veil dance of a mystical figure in white, like a swan gracefully spreading its wings, an Isadora Duncan inspired act. A total contrast can be found in Amala Dianor's DUB very fast paced dance extravaganza having eleven dancers use break dance like movements, reflecting the dangers of an underworld existence.
Two company performances received, rightfully, rousing applause. It was the Ballet de l'Opera de Lyon dance of nineteen dancers in gray, called Mycelium and created by Christos Papadopoulos. It was danced almost militantly in your face, an impressive eye catcher when these dancers moved in unison, sometimes ondulating, sometimes separating into different groups but always powerfully regrouping. The other one, the final performance of the festival, Mattia Rosso's and Antoniode Rosa's Kor'Sia retold a story, a hike to Mount Ventoux by Petrarch. Nine dancers set out behind and sometime in front of a glass wall, to recreate the world as they encountered numerous obstacles. The story is not clear though if one does not read beforehand. But what is amazing is the stunning and strong virtuosity of the dancers in their encounter towards transformation.
All in all this 36th edition of Tanz im August surprised by a shift in focus away from pure dancing towards using dance movements besides speech to express cultural tendencies, to convey a desire to reach out from one cultural concept to another. It was almost palpable how the wish to reach others over and beyond worldly boundaries was at the core of this 36th Tanz im August. Sometimes this eagerness culminated in too much talk at the account of dancing. But what it reflected was the sense of interconnectedness by all means of physical expressions to keep the globe sane.