Get ready for a dance festival like no other as three dance companies join forces from around the world to showcase several challenging and provocative performances.
Set over nine nights, Mancopy and More is a festival created with a focus on global co-operation and a search for physical expression beyond limits. It brings together the Danish Mancopy Dance Company, the THE Dance Company from Singapore and dancers from the Budapest-based MU Terminal Company.
Kicking off on Tuesday, As it Fades will captivate audiences with its raw themes. Created by choreographer Kuik Swee Boon, As it Fades was first performed at the Singapore Arts Festival in 2011 by dancers from THE.
As it Fades focuses on showcasing mankind’s many facets through the medium of movement. Throughout the piece, Boon has created a performance where the story isn’t expressed through the dancer’s movements, but rather he uses the dancers as the actual emotions and ideas themselves.
The piece explores two thematic threads: the first tackles the theme of memory, and the second explores the possibilities of the human body. As it Fades also stays true to the company name THE, which stands for ‘the human expression’.
This is one performance that will have audiences memorised by the sheer beauty of dance as Boon captures physical nuances not easily expressed through words.
Following on from As it Fades, come two pieces, Inside and Adam without, which begin on Thursday (November 22).
Inside, choreographed by Adam Fejes, takes a close look at the most primitive aspect of the human being: our instincts. Through relationships, love, isolation and reciprocity, the dancers show that the line between humans and animals is continually blurred.
As if all that wasn’t enough, then comes Adam without, which is choreographed by Jens Bjerregarrd. This is a joint performance by Mancopy and MU Terminal – an in-house company hailing from Budapest.
The performance takes on a hypothetical biblical twist, posing the question: what if Adam was alone in the Garden of Eden?
Audiences then meet Adam in two states – with a woman and without. I guess you could also explain this as a creative take on the ‘Men are from Mars’ book that alternates when it includes the ‘and women are from Venus’ part.
The piece shows Adam in a sort of controlled laboratory type situation. The two lead dancers – although from the same garden – are exposed to different situations and roles. How does one respond when confronted with a woman? How does one respond without a woman? It’s a fascinating and original look at questions rarely asked.
The final performance, performed exclusively by Mancopy, is Every Last Breath.
Choreographed by Jens Bjerregaard, Every Last Breath shows the picture the modern media has painted of the Middle East and then seeks to challenge it. It offers a look at what life is like in the shadows when one must take on many identities just to survive.
The power in this piece comes from having the four principal dancers each hailing from a different background. Furthermore, the fact that many of the young dancers have lived in the Middle East – under various religious and political regimes – adds a rare authenticity to their on-stage performance.
Every Last Breath also reflects a core value of the Mancopy dance company – to create valid art that leaves an impression both in and outside one’s society.
So if you’re up for having all of your preconceived ideas about dance challenged, while contemplating some pretty far-flung ideas, then check out the Mancopy and More festival.
Mancopy and More Festival
Dansehallerne, Pasteursvej 20, Cph V; starts Tue, ends Nov 28; performances for all three productions – As it Fades (Store Carl, Tue & Wed), Inside and Adam without (Lille Carl, Thu & 23 Nov) & Every last Breath (Store Carl, 24-28 Nov) – start at 20:00; tickets: adults 130kr, kids 60kr; www.dansehallerne.dk
