Seventeenth International Contemporary Dance Festival
Róger Solórzano Canales | Aug 23, 2011
A week of performances will be in charge of outstanding national and foreign professional artists.
Professional dancers from Spain, United States, Canada, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua will participate in the Seventeenth International Contemporary Dance Festival, which will begin today, August 24 and will end on August 28. The main headquarters of the event will be the Espacio Abierto Theater (Managua), but there will also be parallel presentations in the cities of Leon, Granada and Diriamba.
"Attendees will see movements, music, feelings, risk, creativity, feet breaking on stage," described Gloria Beacon, director and organizer of the festival during a press conference given yesterday, August 23. In addition to the daily performances that will begin today, the festival also included a week of workshops, forums and meetings between artists and national dancers.
This year, the event is dedicated to the national artist Ivan Alí Escobar, interpreter of Nicaraguan folkloric dance, leader of the local dance collective and recently elected president of the Dance Artists Association. "Ivan is a great promoter and defender of dancers", declared Bacon.
The daily performances will be held at 7:30 pm. The Espacio Abierto Theater is located in front of Las Palmas Park, in Managua. The other scenarios will be Casa de los Tres Mundos (Granada), the Jose de la Cruz Mena Theater (Leon) and the Ricardo Morales Aviles House of Culture (Diriamba). The entrance fee will be C$80 per person (except in Granada, where performances will have no cost). Furthermore, there will special rates when purchasing tickets for several presentations: C$60 (three days) and C$50 if one buys passes for the whole week.
The companies and independent artists participating in the festival will be the following:
- Compañía Nacional de Danza (El Salvador)
- Compañía Daniel Abreu (Spain)
- Compañía Danza UNA (Costa Rica)
- Tony Olivares (Nicaraguan resident in Canada)
- Jennifer Chin and Sameena Mitta (United States)
- Compañía de Danza Contemporánea (UNAN-Managua)
- Teatro-Danza Desequilibrio
- Fundación Psicodanza
- Danza Contemporánea de Cámara
- Dasztar
- Grupo Yaxzall (León)
- Taller Contemporáneo UAM
- Academia Nicaragüense de la Danza
- Escuela Nacional de Danza
- Grupo Juvenil Espacio Abierto
An interesting fact for dancers and dance students is that there will be other training workshops. The American Jennifer Chin will give these classes at the National Dance School on Tuesday, August 23 (2:30 pm), on Wednesday, August 24 at the House of Culture of Diriamba (2:30 pm) and on Friday, August 26 at Casa de los Tres Mundos (1:00 pm). The Spanish Daniel Abreu, on the other hand, will give a workshop for dancers on Friday, August 26 at the Espacio Abierto Dance School from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Translated by Cinthia Membreño