iDANS 03 is dedicated to the memory of Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham.

Bimeras Foundation dedicates the third edition of iDANS to the memory of Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham, who have contributed significantly to the expansion of the notions of dance and choreography. They have left us recently, yet it is impossible not to hear their whispers either laughing or crying. If a transnational dance/choreography scene is luminous, it is thanks to these bright starts, the constellations of whom change and transform with every look, every gesture...There will be special film screenings about the artists and their work within the program.

iDANS 03: Laughing ↔ Crying

Bimeras Cultural Foundation is proud to launch the third edition of the internationally acclaimed iDANS Festival of Contemporary Dance and Performance which will take place between 10-31 October 2009 around the theme of “Laughing ↔ Crying.” Internationally renown artists will present numerous innovative performances related to the festival theme throughout the three weeks. The Istanbul-based festival encompasses a wide range of contemporary arts and breaks down the boundaries between visual and live arts. The program will continue throughout the season with additional performances, talks and book launches.

The concept of the 3rd edition of iDANS which will take place between 10-31 October 2009 is determined as "Laughing ↔ Crying" in order to question the still lingering dualism of the mind versus body in contemporary culture. iDANS proposes an approach that understands social agency in terms of the sensory and affective foundations of embodiment and therefore of experience, indicating the interdependency of the social with biological functions. Persons experience themselves simultaneously in and as their bodies. The festival will present works that acknowledge the simultaneous individual and social foundation of emotions, as well as their inextricability from thought and belief.

As physical, emotional and critical gestures, laughing and crying constitute profound corporeal commentaries on our world and our ways of being together. Spontaneous, learned or rehearsed actions, these instances of laughs, cries, stumbles, tremors, jolts and vibrations propose many limit experiences, where vibratory and shattering motions evoke, question and re-figure contemporary culture.

How can the laughing and crying gesture be choreographed? What might the formalization of such emotional experiences entail for artistic practices, as well as for a broader experience of the social and the political? What might these affective enunciations tell us about the relation between a singular corporeity and the social fabric? iDANS explores the genres of the comic, the burlesque, the tragic and the ecstatic as many affective modalities and proposes the mapping of contemporary choreography as an intense, affirmative and joyous mode of expression.

News

Bimeras Publications launches two books:

"Solo? in Contemporary Dance" consists of the proceedings of the conference which took place within the first iDANS at Bogazici University. Participants from different disciplines discus the "solo" as a particular artistic form, from historical, artistic, and sociological points of view. The book is both in Turkish and English.
"Selected Poems from Alle Galgenlieder in Turkish and German" The poems were selected by Annika Krump who performed compositions of his humorous lyric on the 28th of May in Roxy Music Club. This is the first book in Turkey with translation of Christian Morgenstern's poetry into Turkish.
On the line up: Exhausting Dance by Andre Lepecki (Turkish translation)

Question & answer Session with the artists:
After the first showing of every performance at iDANS, there will be a question & answer session with the artists. All audience members are welcome.