WORLD PREMIERE
SITE-SPECIFIC CREATION
COPRODUCTION ORIENTE OCCIDENTE
A well-known and beloved author among the Oriente Occidente audience, Sharon Fridman returns after the success of Rizoma, which marked the centenary of World War I at the Bell of the Fallen in the 2014 edition, with a new magnificent ‘community’ project in the year that celebrates the end of that bloody war. Known for large-scale site-specific projects in which he develops ‘human landscapes,’ the Israeli choreographer, active in Spain, this time places the female figure at the center of his research. It is the woman, supported by rational devotion, who is the protagonist of the physical and psychological post-war reconstruction in the new project for Oriente Occidente entitled Barefoot – 100 Years Since the End of the Great War. “At the end of World War I, women - explains Fridman - took the reins of humanity, rebuilt homes and the family nest, healing the deep physical wounds and the disorientation caused by devastation; they offered refuge from absurdity, restoring hope.” And once again, to construct his work, the choreographer resorts to a participatory call to involve sixty local people to accompany the protagonist and an accordionist. “I like working with local people and with real family memories. Conveying life ‘on stage’ is what I seek. Dance is contact, proximity between bodies, mutual aid. This is the idea that underlies all my work: I feel the need to relate to people's natural necessity to move, express themselves, and connect with one another.” This legacy stems from his beginnings as a dancer, when at the age of eight in Israel he began studying folk dances to relate to the community and everyday life through movement. This was followed by engagements with major contemporary dance companies in the country and contact improvisation, another movement technique based on the relationship with others. With Barefoot, he combines all his knowledge to create a staged work to be presented in three symbolic locations in Trentino: the train station in Trento, the Tonale Military Memorial, and the Bell of the Fallen in Rovereto. A woman traverses the territories of humanity, reconciling the past with the present, accepting and understanding loss, solitude, and death, managing to transform herself to move forward. Because the woman is the helm of everyday life and carries her march toward a new family, a new society, a new country, a new continent.
sharon-fridman.com
Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) supports the participation of the Spanish company Compañia Sharon Fridman in the 2018 Oriente Occidente Festival through the Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), under the Mobility grants.
