September 2012–May 2013
Dear friends and colleagues,
We are delighted to welcome you to the 6th edition of iDANS!
This year, iDANS is expanding into the entire theatre season until May to present a program which will encompass not only diverse expressions of contemporary dance but will also feature some of the most cutting edge theater and trans-disciplinary live arts from the international scene.
Since its inception, iDANS has always had an extensive program which was hardly fitting into a single month every year since 2007. Already in the fourth edition, iDANS was to break a record in Istanbul for the number of invited artists from abroad, with 41 projects of 154 artists from 21 countries. The expansion into the whole season will also keep the attention and passion of iDANS fans from the local scene fresh without overwhelming them.
Return of the Giant Cat
iDANS took off on September 1st with the return of the unique social creativity project iKEDi, especially designed and commissioned for iDANS. The giant cat sculptures of iKEDi started to navigate the streets of Istanbul and gather people of all ages around creativity in puppet building workshops in 12 different urban spaces between 1st of September–7th of October 2012. You can follow the detailed schedule as well as the photos of previous events at www.ikedi.info.
A Contemporary Silk Road
Inspired by the historical caravan iDANS 06 is framed around the metaphor of the Silk Road. As well as programming the work of established and upcoming artists from Europe and the Near East, the program includes contemporary performing arts from East and Southeast Asia, and will explore the migration, evolution and cross-pollination of diverse movement styles and expressions.
Obviously, iDANS program’s exploration is not exhaustive of what’s out there in Asia. Yet, it marks for iDANS the beginning of a deeper research and investment in contemporary performing arts in and around Central, East, and South East Asia.
iDANS 06 activities and program are clustered under separate sections that take their name and characteristics from the goods traded along the Silk Road. These sub-headings are: “Gemstones,” “Spices,” “Silk,” and “Paper”. “Gemstones” features staged contemporary dance and theatre performances of some established artists such as Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (BE), Rimini Protokoll (DE), Saburo Teshigawara (JP). “Spices” introduces some quite challenging, pungent and tasty works of numerous upcoming artists such as Aakash Odedra (UK), Anne-Linn Akselsen & Adrián Minkowitz (NO/AR), and heralds the news from the next generation of contemporary dance with P.A.R.T.S.’ recent graduates’ freshest works. “Silk” features Tao Dance Theater from Beijing and Toshiki Okada from Tokyo. “Paper” section encompasses the knowledge production and exchange projects of iDANS, namely, “Critical Endeavour Turkey 2012,” “Teaching the Teachers” as well as public lectures and talks.
Please check out the entire program at www.idans.info
The program of May 2013 part of iDANS is under construction, so, stay tuned for further surprises!
Looking forward to seeing you in iDANS,
iDANS Team