CDNP's "Hijack Dance (...define dance)" April 29, 2011

Contemporary Dance Network Philippines

presents

"Hijack Dance (...define dance)"

April 29, 2011, 5pm

Sidewalk of Gen. Aguinaldo Ave., Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
Free event


"Contemporary Dance Map Gala"
April 30, 8pm, 
Dance Forum Studio, 36E West Avenue, Quezon City
Tickets for sale
Contact 09178514732

International Dance Day was founded in 1982 by the International Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute of UNESCO and celebrated every April 29.

In this year's celebration we are enjoined to take a step back and celebrate in "open spaces:  streets, squares, parks, stadiums, beaches, parking lots, clearings - anywhere under the sky."  Throughout the year, "we teach dance, we rehearse, we perform within four walls."  But "on this special day dedicated to dance, [let us] mark the difference by practising, teaching or performing for everyone to see. It might be cold and rainy, the floor is certainly not good enough, and the wind takes the music away, but the beauty in those movements and the joy on those faces will brighten the hearts of the spontaneous audience of passers-by." -- from the circular by UNESCO's International Dance Council.

This event is part of CDNP's Contemporary Dance Map series, an effort to map alternative spaces for dance in a performance tour of these spaces. The series started in 2005 and has since continued yearly and still remains the forum by which contemporary-dance artists in urban Metro Manila renew and rethink their commitment to contemporary dance-both in the creative aspect and in the training and nurturing of new talent.

Two shows
Responding to the call to perform in open spaces, CDNP performs"Hijack Dance … define dance" on April 29, 2011, 5pm at the Araneta Center, on the sidewalk of Gen. Aguinaldo Avenue.

Performed by Contemporary Dance Network Philippines with U.P. Percussionists and guest artists, in cooperation with the Quezon City Gov't. and Araneta Center.  The concept for "Hijack Dance" is to engage the idea of dance as spectacle but in an excessive, hilarious or extraordinary way in the hopes of challenging some stereotype ideas about dance.

We invite everyone to cap IDD celebrations with the "Contemporary Dance Map Gala" on April 30, 2011, 8pm, Dance Forum Studio (36E West Avenue, QC).  Tickets for this show are priced at P150. For more info, contact: 09178514732

Message
Every year has a message by an eminent dance personality.  This year, the message is by Belgian choreographer, Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, artistic director of Rosas, and founder of P.A.R.T.S. Dance School:

I think dance celebrates what makes us human.
When we dance we use, in a very natural way, the mechanics of our body and all our senses to express joy, sadness, the things we care about.
People have always danced to celebrate the crucial moments of life and our bodies carry the memory of all the possible human experiences.
We can dance alone and we can dance together. We can share what makes us the same, what makes us different from each other.
For me dancing is a way of thinking. Through dance we can embody the most abstract ideas and thus reveal what we cannot see, what we cannot name.
Dance is a link between people, connecting heaven and earth.
We carry the world in our bodies.
I think that ultimately each dance is part of a larger whole, a dance that has no beginning, and no end.

CNDP, currently chaired by Angel Lawenko-Baguilat, is composed of contemporary-dance companies, artists, school-based organizations, critics and institutions, whose goal is to promote contemporary dance in the Philippines.

Last year, I wrote about CDNP's performance for International Dance Day here. (You can also read it here.)

What do you think of this production? Share your comments.