The organisers of Cardiff Dance Festival 2015 (CDF15) are proud to announce details of this year’s inaugural event. The programme for CDF15 was unveiled at a launch event held at Chapter, Cardiff on Thursday the 10th of September.
Cardiff Dance Festival is a new biennial initiative which, this year, takes place between the 10th and 22nd of November.
The festival’s programme features work by leading Wales-based companies and practitioners including National Dance Company Wales, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru and Eddie Ladd, alongside exemplary work from acclaimed UK and international artists such as ZooNation, Dana Michel and Igor and Moreno.
Performances will take place at Chapter, the Dance House and Wales Millennium Centre over the twelve days.
Weaving its way through the performance programme will be an exploration of the relationship between dance and music, with many events involving live music or original soundscapes.
Dawns Ysbrydion opens CDF15 on Tuesday the 10th of November at the Dance House. Dawns Ysbrydion, a Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru in association with Galeri production, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2015 and will run at CDF15 for four nights as part of its tour of Wales.
Starring internationally acclaimed performer Eddie Ladd leading an all female cast, it tells the story of endangered cultures, told 50 years since the drowning of a north Wales village to create the Tryweryn reservoir. Taking inspiration from the ghost dances performed by some of the North American First Nations at the end of the nineteenth century, the piece is co-directed by Ladd and Montréal choreographer Sarah Williams, with live, original electro score by Y Pencadlys.
On Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th of November, Chapter will host Idiot-Syncrasy. Nominated for the Total Theatre Awards 2015, Idiot Syncrasy is a charming, whimsical and quirky performance from Igor Urzelai and Moreno Solias – two international artists based in London who perform across Europe.
Acclaimed Montréal artist Dana Michel will also be bringing her show Yellow Towel to Chapter between the 17th and 18th of November. As a child Michel would drape a yellow towel on her head so she would resemble the blonde girls at her school. In Yellow Towel she revisits the imaginary world of her other self in a ritual performance without cover-ups or censorship, exploring the stereotypes of black culture in a fascinating performance.
Groove on Down the Road, which runs at Wales Millennium Centre’s Weston Studio from Friday 13th of November for 6 performances, will see award-winning hip hop dance company ZooNation working with young Welsh dance talent to recreate and re-imagine the classic story of The Wizard of Oz. This choreographically spectacular journey features music by Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson.
Other performances during CDF15 include Studies for Maynard by Simon Whitehead; Cheap Lecture and The Cow Piece by Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion; Ode to the Attempt by Jan Martens; and the first performance by Cardiff’s Good News from the Future.
Cardiff Dance Festival is programmed by Chris Ricketts and project managed by Fieldwork. Chris Ricketts said “Having had to keep details under wraps it’s fantastic to be able to launch CDF15’s programme. There’s an avid audience for dance in Cardiff. We want the festival to feed into that interest and have lined up performances by some amazing companies. Over the next few years we hope Cardiff Dance Festival will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the best European dance festivals and become a strong focal point for dance in our city.”
In addition to the performances, there will be many other projects to get involved in, including workshops and discussions. A lead project will be a project called Cardiff West, which will see intensive community based work taking place in the Ely, Caerau and Fairwater areas of the city. CDF15’s full participation programme will be announced in early October.
CDF15 is supported by Arts Council of Wales and City of Cardiff Council.
CDF15’s lead presenting partners are Chapter, Dance House and Wales Millennium Centre. Additional programme partners, who are contributing to the events taking place, include Cardiff Metropolitan University, Coreo Cymru, Creu Cymru, National Dance Company Wales and Rubicon Dance.
For further details, including tickets, go to www.dance.wales.
