LEAP THROUGH : PFS4 Weekend 2
In our second Weekend of Season 4, we Leap Through spaces that do not know dance. Beyond dark theatres and tiny digital screens, dance deserves to be danced and experienced in the open, on the street, among people, in broad daylight, in real time. How can we claim and energise these public spaces with our bodies, with movement, with music and joy?
Here’s to Leap Through: Dance Encounters in Public Spaces featuring CieLaroque (Salzburg, Austria), Prashant More (Goa), Somya Kautia (Mumbai), and diverse performers from the dance community of Calcutta UNDER a New Town Flyover.
Friday, 16 February 2024
6pm to 7pm
Hear and Now
performance by CieLAROQUE
Saturday, 17 February 2024
5pm to 6.30pm
Back to the Streets
platform performances from Calcutta
7pm to 8pm
Rhythm and Intoxication
performance by CieLAROQUE
Sunday, 18 February 2024
6pm to 7pm
Everything Potentially is Something Else
performance featuring Calcutta dancers
choreographed by Prashant More and Somya Kautia
Performances
16 February ’24 | Hear and Now
contemporary interactive performance from Austria
New Town Community Zone
5pm
Open to All
“Hear and Now” invites the audience to participate in a structured improvisation. The audience chooses the music and some given movement structures initiate the dance, but how the choreography develops is largely determined by the audience. The contemplative qualities of the dancers play just as important a role as their professional knowledge of the technique of improvisation. In a fascinating way, HEAR AND NOW succeeds in combining choreographic virtuosity, the spontaneity of the moment and the alertness of the performers with the moving and dancing power of the ensemble.
This performance also incorporates six dancers from Calcutta who have engaged in a three day workshop with the company. Students from the NGOs EK Tara & Dakshini Prayash are also an integral part of the performance.
Read more about the workshops here.
Venue
New Town Community Zone,
Sub-Central Business District (Action Area 1), Action Area I, Newtown
New Town,
West Bengal – 700156
17 February ’24 | Back to the Streets
community platform performances
New Town Community Zone
5pm
Open to All
This event invites emerging dance artists from Calcutta for a community platform performance showcasing the elements of their forms and improvising together. Come join a diverse community of dancers claiming the streets for dance!
Venue
New Town Community Zone,
Sub-Central Business District(Action Area 1), Action Area I, Newtown
New Town,
West Bengal – 700156
17 February ’24 | Rhythm and Intoxication
contemporary interactive performance from Austria
New Town Community Zone
7pm
Open to All
“Rhythm and Intoxication” examines the extent to which interpersonal closeness or the reduction of physical distance creates intimacy in a performative setting. It also explores whether this closeness increases the distance between performers and audience. Does such a process of compression literally release centrifugal forces? Does the anonymity of the urban context allow personal cooperation and networking at all? The performers create an interactive, participatory puzzle landscape that develops over the course of the performance into a structured chaos, an abstract, energetic turmoil, a never-ending loop, uninterrupted movement, full of physical intensity. With increasing duration, the public space as an essential part of the piece becomes another performer.
Venue
New Town Community Zone,
Sub-Central Business District(Action Area 1), Action Area I, Newtown
New Town,
West Bengal – 700156
18 February ’24 | Everything Potentially is Something Else
devised site-specific performance piece by dancers and movement artists from Goa, Mumbai and Calcutta
New Town Community Zone
6pm
Open to All
Born out of a 10-day intensive workshop, the piece will explore the theme of violence all around us. Violence that exists in real time. It also thrives in various forms of content that is thrown at us every moment including those in various forms of media. The performance will explore some critical questions such as ‘What demands do these different forms of violence make on the body?’ , ‘Does the body behave differently when it steps out into open and public spaces?’ , ‘How does the performing body resist?’ , ‘What are the powers that control, shape or constrain the body?’
Venue
New Town Community Zone,
Sub-Central Business District(Action Area 1), Action Area I, Newtown
New Town,
West Bengal – 700156
Workshops
10 – 11 February ’24 | Movement Research Workshop
Anuchintan Arts Centre (AAC), Santoshpur
11am – 2.30pm
Registration Fee: Rs. 1000/-
The 2-day Movement Research workshop with Somya Kautia would be directed towards performers, actors and movers.
Somya will work with guided movement improvisations to work on ‘Presence’. She will bring attention to elements like the mobility, quality, structure, feeling and weight of different body parts which will progress into work that engages with pauses to explore rhythm, shape-making and character. The sessions will work on ‘Play’ with energizing warm-ups, incorporating elements of Capoeira and floorwork leading to attack and escape games. The sessions are designed to cultivate awareness of bodies in space by creating partner/ group compositions.
Venue:
Anuchintan Arts Centre (AAC)
Premises No 33, 25, Kali Kumar Majumdar Rd, Bagan Bari, Santoshpur
Kolkata – 700075
13 – 15 February ’24 | Hear and Now Workshop
Ek Tara Community Centre, Topsia
10am
This is a 3-day exploration, creation and performance by CieLAROQUE – one of Austria’s most touring dance ensembles.
This workshop will explore short embodiment exercises and improvisation tools focusing on simple warm up. Participants will work on movement research in the style of CieLAROQUE. By using tasks, through partner exercises and isolations, the dancers will explore different and unusual combinations of the body beyond their comfort zone and relate to others with these movements.
For practitioners with some contemporary performance experience
Intensive 3-day workshop sessions that then leads to a performance opportunity in a public space with cieLAROQUE artists as part of their interactive production Hear and Now
Workshop: 10am to 2pm
Performance: 6pm onwards | 16 February 2024 | Newtown Community Zone
Registration Fee: Rs. 1,200/-
For practitioners from any movement background
Introductory 3-day workshop sessions
Workshop: 10am to 11.30am
Registration Fee: Rs. 800/-
Venue
Ek Tara
597, Gobra, Kolkata, West Bengal 700046
8 – 18 February ’24 | Everything Potentially is Something Else
contemporary and outdoor performance with Somya Kautia and Prashant More
Myi Studio
4pm – 8pm (with a break)
Registration Fee: Rs. 3500/-
EPSE is an immersive 10 day workshop with Prashant More(Goa) and Somya Kautia (Mumbai). The workshop involves developing physical skills and intelligence by actively deconstructing past and current movement vocabulary and patterns. The modules aim to research body-mind coordination to explore one’s personal inner rhythm, freedom and authenticity. Through guided movement improvisations, the practice of presence and composition will look into the aspects of experimenting, creating, and reflecting while moving. The workshop will provide various frames of tasks, tools and methods to develop materials working with space, time, bodies, and objects. The group will work on how we make choices in the process of creation. Through the workshop, Prashant and Somya will work with the performers to slowly develop a series of compositions meant for the outdoor, for open public spaces.
Venue
Myi Studio
AE 501, A.E. Block sector 1, AE Block, Sector 1, Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700064
Other Events
13 February ’24 | Artist Diaries: Edition 1.2 with cieLAROQUE
Glenburn Penthouse
6.30pm
Registration Fee: Rs. 1,000/-
Join us for an exclusive performance preview of Rhythm and Intoxication and a conversation with choreographer Helene Weinzierl and her company cieLAROQUE from Salzburg, Austria.
Rhythm and Intoxication is an interactive dance piece that examines interpersonal proximity and distance in public spaces in a post-covid world. The performance and conversation will be followed by a curated selection of wine and cheese, and a grazing menu.
Venue
Glenburn Penthouse
Kanak Towers, 7A, Russel Street Kolkata 700071
13 – 15 February ’24 | Workshop by CieLAROQUE for Ek Tara and Dakshini Prayash
This workshop is for young people interested to explore together stories told with the body. We will focus on the communicative potential of dance with games, improvisational tasks and choreographed sequences. We will sharpen our listening skills while practicing staying connected to ourselves, others around us and our surroundings all at once. Using images, stories, dreams, memories, feelings and favorite songs, we will infuse our dancing with what is personal and special to each of us. This joyful and playful journey opens space to share your own body, your own dance, your own stories, and to create new ones all together. Some material from the piece ‘’Hear and Now’’ will be taught during the workshop, and the participants will share their dancing and stories with professional dancers during a public performance.
Along with taking part in the workshop, the students will also be performing with the company on 16 February 2024 at New Town Community Zone as a part of the performance “Hear and Now” by CieLAROQUE which has been curated for Weekend 2 (Leap Through) as a part of Pickle Factory Season 4: LEAP.
Venue
Ek Tara
597, Gobra, Kolkata, West Bengal – 700046
Dakshini Prayash
924, Madurdaha Main oad, Madurdaha, Hussainpur, Kolkata, West Bengal 700107
Venue
HIDCO
West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO) plans and executes development projects in the entire 6,000–7,000 hectare area in Rajarhat, Kolkata, West Bengal. WBHIDCO is trying to develop Rajarhat, New Town as a futuristic smart city and it is developing all infrastructure like roads, drains, sewerage line, water supply lines, major beautification works and other related major works as per master plan. The New Town Community Zone is envisioned by HIDCO as a vibrant and colourful meeting space for local communities in a smart repurposing of the space under the New Town flyover.
CieLAROQUE/helene weinzierl is one of the most touring ensembles of Austrian dance scene and shows her productions since almost 30 years all over the world. Some of her productions feature a connection between dance and theatre; others are dedicated exclusively to a clear and intensive language of movement. Many of the productions focus on socio-politically relevant topics as well as on interactions with the audience.
Uwe Brauns was born in Rostock, Germany 1986. He is working as a freelance dancer and currently based in Essen (G). After his BA at Folkwang University of the Arts, he furthered his studies in Salzburg at SEAD, where he was involved in collaborations with international artists from different disciplines and co-founded the Yugsamas Movement Collective. He was dancing for companies like Folkwang Tanzstudio, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bauch, Doris Uhlich, Peculiar Man, Fakers Club and Marina Abramovic. Since 2017 he has been a member of CieLAROQUE.
Luan de Lima was born in 1989 in Caxias do Sul-RS, Brazil. From a young age, Luan studied classical and contemporary dance. After finishing his dance studies, he worked at the dance Company in his hometown, where he worked with different Brazilian choreographers. Luan, later, moved to Austria to study at SEAD, where he continued his studies in contemporary dance. Since 2014, Luan is based in Vienna/Austria and works as a freelance dancer. He has been part of dance projects by Helene Weinzierl/CieLAROQUE
Azahara Sanz Jara, is a freelance dancer and choreographer. Born in Spain and based in Salzburg, she studied dance at SEAD, Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and at the Real Conservatorio de Danza Mariemma in Madrid. She has been dancing and collaborating with CieLAROQUE/ Helene Weinzierl (AT) since 2019. In 2022, she created and performed “Emotional creatures”, her own choreographic work.
Jolyane Langlois is a dance artist from Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal with ancestral roots in the Mi’gmaq of Gespe’gewa’gi. After graduating from the professional training program at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 2012, she worked as an interpreter, collaborator and movement facilitator with a myriad of independent choreographers and companies in Canada and also internationally. Currently based in Vienna, Austria, she can be seen in the works of Magdalena Forster, Gat Goodovitch, Daphna Horenzcky, Barbis Ruder, Doris Uhlich, VRUM Performing Arts Collective and CieLAROQUE/Helene Weinzerl.
Born in 1989 in France, Nejma Larichi graduated in contemporary dance at the conservatoire of Toulouse in 2005, after which she persued nursing and worked in different medical fields. In 2015, she came back to dance and studied at CNDC of Angers. Afterwards she joined the German company “Folkwang Tanz Studio” where she worked with Malou Airaudo, Rodolpho Leoni, Reinhild Hoffman, Carla Jordao, Pearsonwidrig Co., Ivan Strelkin, Iker Arrue, Chun Zhang. Since 2018, she has worked as a freelance artist and joined the group “Fakers Club” (site specific performances) with Stephanie Miracle, “Trust Dance Cie” in Korea, “CieLAROQUE” with Helene Weinzierl, Céline Bellut with the piece “Hold On” and “ a performance is a long quiet river”, and Romeo Castellucci.
Eli Hooker is a US born dancer, now based in Germany. Receiving a dance education in the US and later at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, he is now a member of CieLAROQUE by Helene Weinzierl and Beaver Dam Company by Edouard Hue. He won first prize at the contact.energy 22 contemporary dance competition, performing “The Koloklum” a solo by choreographer Uri Shafir.
Prashant More is an interdisciplinary artist from India. He engages in the field of dance as a performer, teacher, choreographer and dance filmmaker. He works towards creating immersive, intimate and experimental expressive physical performances. He studied dance in India and Europe. He graduated from Attakkalari, India, and worked as a company dancer. Later, he acquired intensive training in ‘Physical Experimental Performances’ and Choreography in Amsterdam and Berlin. As an educator, he teaches all ages and backgrounds as well as dancers, actors and performers of both professionals and non-professionals. His current research module is ‘Breaking Points’ in which the approach is to find an authentic flow of the physical body.
Somya Kautia is an interdisciplinary movement artist based in Mumbai. Her practice involves studying the mechanics and functionality of the body to become more aware of its/our primal movement potential and to then develop efficient ways of moving in harmony with gravity, other bodies, spaces and objects. She practices working with improvisation as a technique to listen and respond to our bodily sensations in different contexts that can allow us to interact creatively and purposefully. There is often an intersection between these two sides which she aims to bring out through her performative work.
Acknowledgements
Abhimanyu Prakash, Chumki Chatterjee, Debashish Majumdar, Vinita Saraf, Debashish Sen, Gaurav Das, Kunal Chakraborty,
Manjusmita Bagchi, Munish Bahl, Sanjit Sharma, Shubhangi Sanyal, Shyamal Dasgupta, Supriya Chatterjee, Tanya Wadhwa
