Ind-E-Focus

The dance community have something to look forward, with the announcement of the 19th edition of the Julidans International Dance Festival this summer, according to their official website;

Julidans will be taking place from Wednesday 1 to Saturday 11 July inclusive. We now know the first names and we won’t leave you in the dark any longer.

The highlight of Julidans 2009 is obviously going to be Sutra by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and de Shaolin Monks. This performance has only been seen Groningen so far, and played to more than full houses there. Julidans is now offering the public the chance to see this very special production in the brand-new auditorium, Rabozaal, of the Stadsschouwburg. Sutra is a mixture of the ancient kung-fu martial art, Cherkaoui’s theatrical vision, and the modern language of movement. The British Turner Prize-winner Antony Gormley did the stage design, using enormous crates that the monks handle in a variety of ways.

In Groningen, both the audience and the press were highly enthusiastic as a headline in the daily newspaper NRC shows: “Splendid kung-fu martial art in a kaleidoscopic decor” and “The play with the crates is pure magic. Every time you think that all the possibilities of piling and tipping over have been exhausted, Cherkaoui conjures up yet another kaleidoscopic decor”.

A new star in Julidans is the Frenchman Olivier Dubois, who previously danced with Saporta, Preljocaj and Fabre. He brings us his performance Faune(s) based on the scandal of Nijinsky's  L’apres midi d’un faune of 1912. Dubois did not attempt a reconstruction but a re-interpretation with the assistance of film maker Christophe Honoré, director Sophie Perez and composer Xavier Boussiron. Faune(s) is an artistic reflection on the dance-historical heritage and the transformation of the dancer who internalizes the part, disappears in it and rediscovers it.

Ann van den Broek, whose successful production Co(te)lette was shown last year in Julidans NEXT, brings in this edition a world premiere. The working title of her new production is We Solo Men and it has a link with the women's piece mentioned earlier. In We Solo Men Van den Broek investigates how men use movement to seduce and claim attention in a different way from women. The five dancers are not all men, but the language of movement will be typically male for all dancers.

Julidans NEXT is the programme in which choreographers from the main programme in Julidans, following the good example of rock bands, invite a young talent to their preliminary programme. In this way the audience is acquainted with the next generation of dance makers. The preparations of NEXT are in full swing. (Source: Julidans.nl - First names Julidans 2009 revealed)