Rendezvous of Vietnamese, international choreographers in Hanoi

The Baydanc will bring their work entitled Random Cubic to the festival (Photo: courtesy of the organisers)

Hanoi, (VNA) – The Hanoi Dance Fest 2019 is a rendezvous of a new talented generation of Vietnamese choreographers and their peers from France and Scotland.

The festival will take place from June 28-30 at the Tuoi Tre (Youth) Theatre, No.11 Ngo Thi Nham Street, Hanoi.

A rendezvous of young artists

 The festival’s organisers said this is the first time Vietnamese young choreographers (under 34 years old) have had the chance to work with French and Scottish peers on an international stage.

The event introduces six works by Vu Ngoc Khai, Nguyen Duy Thanh (Vietnamese), Xuan Le (Vietnamese French), James Sutherland (Scottish) and Baydanc (a group of artists).

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The Hanoi Dance Fest 2019 is organised by the Vietnam National Opera & Ballet Theatre (VNOB) in coordination with the Goethe Institute and the French Culture Centre (L’Espace) in Hanoi. Emeritus Artist Tran Ly Ly is the festival’s art director.

“Hanoi Dance Fest aims to create a stage for young and talented choreographers, promotes new ideas and collaborations between local and international choreographers who are working in different cultural contexts. It also offers a chance for Vietnamese audience to discover the marks and aesthetic values expressed by contemporary dancing,” said Tran Ly Ly, who is director of the VNOB.

“With great sympathy, we cherish the development of choreographers and dancers in Vietnam,” said Goethe institute director Wilfried Eckstein at a press conference introducing the festival in Hanoi.

 “Their motivation is built on the beauty of the arts and the interest of the audiences. We encourage them to explore new paths of expression in dance and to build national and international co-operation,” Eckstein said.

An image from Huy Tran's Multidimensional (Photo: courtesy of the organisers) 

Dance performances at the festival

The six dances will be Multidimensional by Huy Tran, Into The Well by Vu Ngoc Khai, Than by Nguyen Duy Thanh, Loop by Xuan Le, Random Cubic by Baydanc Group, and FeMale by James Sutherland.

Choreographer Huy Tran is currently working in Germany. He is the first Vietnamese artist to serve as co-art director of an European theatre – the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern of Germany.

Tran brought his work Multidimensional to the festival, which combine visual effects from different perspectives: space, music, light, staging and stage design.   

Vu Ngoc Khai currently works at Konzert Theatre Bern in Switzerland. Last year, he won first prize at the International Ayang Young Choreographer Competition in the Republic of Korea.

His Into the Well dance depicts the journey of Vietnamese in seeking their nature, overcoming cultural challenges and reflecting on themselves in the relation with nature.

Meanwhile, Than by Nguyen Duy Thanh is inspired by the traditional Vietnamese art form tuong and takes its style from the body language of its performers. Thanh started his career in dancing with a passion for hip-hop, and is among the first artists in Vietnam to combine hip-hop with both Asian traditional and contemporary dancing, creating his own unique style.

French-Vietnamese dancer Xuan Le will perform his first solo piece entitled Loop. Le was the champion of France's Slalom League in 2009 and ranked sixth at the Slalom World Series in freestyle the same year.

Artist Xuan Le in his dance Loop (Photo: courtesy of the organisers) 

Loop will combine freestyle slalom and dance. The audience will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the artistic and poetic imaginary world.

Baydanc, which created Random Cubic, is a group of artists including dancers and traditional musicians. The dance is inspired by cardboard and sticky materials like tape and rice. Over the course of 30 minutes, the dancers use improvised movements to create blocks from the materials.

FeMale by Scottish choreographer James Sutherland will be performed by dancers Vittoria Carpegna, Camilla Marcati and Davide Degano. The piece opens on June 30 and centres around the characters' relationships.-VNA