Dance Guide by Edinburgh International Festival

2010

Dance guide eif.co.uk/dance

Photo: Lemi Ponifasio / MAU

Tempest: Without a Body Lemi Ponifasio MAU ‘An impressive choreographic tour de force.’ Le Soir ‘Clear. Beautiful. Masterful’ Lumiere An angel with a broken body, wings crumpled and too small for flight, wanders on the landscape of blood and destruction. MAU, in their dance style of ceremonial ecstasy, emerge from the shadows to pray on the ruins of history. Tempest is a powerful, visually ravishing exploration of timeless themes of political freedom and personal liberty.

Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio is a fearless creative force. His choreography is a visceral kaleidoscope of ideas and influences which tackle the tensions and politics of culture and power.

Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 August 8.00pm The Edinburgh Playhouse Tickets from £8 Visit eif.co.uk/mau1 for video clips and online booking

Supported by

Photo: Lemi Ponifasio / MAU

Birds with Skymirrors Lemi Ponifasio MAU Flying high above islands in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, frigate birds trail beautiful sky mirrors back to their nests. Shiny, glittering fragments of plastic video tape they are a deadly, dreadful reminder of the fragile beauty of environmentally degraded, remote islands throughout the Pacific.

Tuesday 17 August 8.00pm Wednesday 18 August 2.30pm The Edinburgh Playhouse Tickets from £8 Visit eif.co.uk/mau2 for video clips and online booking

Birds with Skymirrors is a reflection, through beauty and stillness, on humankind’s relationship with the earth. A co-production between Théâtre de la Ville, Theater der Welt 2010, spielzeit’europa I Berliner Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, KVS Brussels, New Zealand International Arts Festival, Holland Festival, Mercat de les Flors and deSingel.

Supported by

Photo: JosĂŠ Luiz Pederneiras

Grupo Corpo

Rodrigo Pederneiras Choreographer Flair, fire and flamboyance in a fabulous double bill! Grupo Corpo exudes Brazilian brio as this high-octane ensemble of dancers combines the sensual elements of Brazilian popular dance with cutting-edge contemporary style. Carnival comes to the Festival with Parabelo! In sleek, brightly coloured costumes dancers stamp their feet and sway their hips with snake-like fluidity – straight off the white sandy beaches of Rio de Janiero. Onqotô’s soundtrack of driving Latin funk provides the musical backdrop to a curious competition. Did the cosmos start with a great primordial explosion or was it conceived as a weird form of rivalry between Rio’s two main football teams?

‘non-stop eye candy… a fusion of ballet, modern, jazz samba and sex.’ The Globe and Mail ‘Grupo Corpo is fun’ The New York Times Friday 20 – Monday 23 August 8.00pm Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Tickets from £10 Visit eif.co.uk/grupo for video clips and online booking

Sponsored by

Grupo Corpo 20-23 August Sponsored by Baillie Gifford & Co, Investment Managers

‘brought the audience to its feet.’ The Miami Herald

Photo: José Luiz Pederneiras

‘exuberant, ecstatic, fierce’ This Week in New York

Photo: Marty Sohl

Lloyds TSB Scotland Inspiring Performances

Alonzo King Lines Ballet Furious abandon and exhilarating freedom contrast with vulnerability and tenderness in Alonzo King’s contemporary classical choreography. Dust and Light is set to beautiful baroque music by Corelli and ethereal choral works by Poulenc as intimate duets and trios grow to more elaborate ensemble arrangements. Rasa draws on the diverse cultural roots of American contemporary dance and traditional Indian classical music in a remarkable collaboration with virtuoso tabla player Zakir Hussain, to bring this evening to a startling, mesmerising conclusion. Sponsored by

Supported by

Léan Scully EIF Fund

‘Hyperkinetic… exceptional’ The New Yorker ‘Lines Ballet is a vision that remains inscribed in memory’ Le Monde Thursday 26 – Sunday 29 August 8.00pm Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Tickets from £10 Visit eif.co.uk/alonzo for video clips and online booking

Photo: Iko Freese

Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal Água Brazil is the inspiration for Água, a joyous homage to a paradise of swaying palm trees, sultry jungles and stalking leopards from one of the greatest artists of the 21st century. During a long and distinguished career, Pina Bausch, who died in June 2009, redefined contemporary dance with a unique and highly idiosyncratic brew of classical movement, burlesque humour and overt theatricality. She was quite simply an extraordinary force of creative energy. Complete with kissing competitions, dancers illuminated by fairy lights and men and women splashing each other with water bottles like kids on the beach, Água is both profound and playful dance theatre.

‘most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years’ The Daily Telegraph ‘basically reinvented dance.’ William Forsythe

Friday 27 – Sunday 29 August 7.30pm Audio described performance Sunday 29 August 7.30pm The Edinburgh Playhouse Tickets from £8 Visit eif.co.uk/agua for video clips and online booking

Photo: Levent Yyldyz

Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company World Premiere Quimeras (Chimeras) Directed by Jude Kelly Is there a better world out there, waiting to be discovered? A place of wonder and promise in which a better life is possible? Or are our dreams merely a chimera, an imagined reality that turns out to be a disappointment or – worse – false? Paco Peña creates a new work for Festival 2010 through the powerful storytelling of flamenco music and dance. Quimeras brings to life the journeys of migrants and refugees, their plight and their fate. Co-production between the Edinburgh International Festival and Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company.

‘The electricity was almost tangible… the audience, unable to resist, leapt up with a roar.’ The Independent Thursday 2 – Saturday 4 September 8.00pm The Edinburgh Playhouse Tickets from £8 Visit eif.co.uk/paco for video clips and online booking