2017 Contemporary dance and art festival set to open in Tbilisi

Contemporary dance troupes, choreographers and audience will celebrate stage art by flocking to South Caucasus Contemporary Dance and Experimental Art Festival launching in Tbilisi on Tuesday.

Three distinct venues in the capital and countryside will host performances by artists from Japan, France and Georgia in a program of three shows.

The festival will open at the Khidi Club in Tbilisi, where the production More Than One Species by choreographer Takako Suzuki will see three dancers and three musical artists explore the theme of sexuality within the Georgian social and cultural landscape.

Dancers perform Jerome Bel's production 'Gala' at Sadler's Wells company in London. Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou.

[The dancers] create an installation, where working process is inspired by personal interviews, myths, legends and images from the visual arts and real life", said a preview of the show.

Involving a cast of artists Elene Enukidze, Giorgi Gulisashvili and Lasha Mdzinarishvili, the performance will also see percussionist Giorgi Iremashvili, trombonist Matthias Mueller and chonguri player Giorgi Zeniashvili.

More Than One Species comes from Suzuki, born in 1965 in Japan. Having studied dance in Tokyo and Braunschweig, Germany, the choreographer has been based in Berlin since 1992. She has been involved in various collaborations including with celebrated German choreographer Sasha Waltz.

Following the opening performance, the festival will take a break until September 1-2, when a group of Georgian and foreign artists invite audiences to the performative installation Supra4Ever.

Held at the Chateau Mukhrani Winery, 50km north-west of Tbilisi, the show will involve a staged dinner performance modelled after the Georgian supra feasting traditions as well as film production.

Viewers gather around a table, a Tamada is elected, Khachapuri offered, Chacha poured. The ensuing theatre experience gives each participant the freedom to partake in the events of the evening, or just to sit back and enjoy them", read a summary of the event by organisers.

Supra4Ever involves work by choreographer Salome Schneebeli, whose productions have been presented to audiences in Switzerland, Germany, Georgia and the United States.

French dancer Arthur Louarti in a 2016 festival master class with aspiring dancers. Photo: Iakob Gogotishvili.

In the final show of the festival, twenty performers of various ability and age will present the staging Gala by French choreographer Jerome Bel, praised by The Guardian for bearing "the stamp of his special genius".

What constitutes a performance? Who performs, and who is excluded? Contemporary dance, Bel has said, is 'dead'. His intention is 'to destroy the dream of the audience'", said a 2016 Guardian review of Gala.

The performance, noted for its atypical approach to contemporary dance, has been staged by Bel at London's famed Sadler's Wells company. Within the Georgian festival it will be performed at the Nodar Dumbadze Professional Youth Theatre on September 12-13.

The 2017 South Caucasus Contemporary Dance and Experimental Art Festival will mark the sixth edition of the annual event. It was established to "promote contemporary dance and to provide a platform for experimental art".

Beside hosting performances with in its official program, the festival also holds master classes and workshops for participants across the South Caucasus region.

Last year's event brought together troupes and artists from the region as well as across Europe in Tbilisi.