How can we shift perspectives
…as a festival, as an artist, as a spectator?
Where do we meet?
13 – 24 NOVEMBER 2019 – For 12 years, Dancing on the Edge has been presenting the best of performing arts from the Middle East, North Africa and the diaspora in The Netherlands. Every festival artists, curators, thinkers, theater professionals and audiences from different parts of the world bring together an abundance of stories and perspectives in one place. Only a small part of that richness is communicated through the performances.
That is why this year Dancing on the Edge is pressing the reset button. To offer a better opportunity to meet and interact on a deeper level, we are deconstructing the festival format. Without set frames, but with the soft radicality of open questions.
Dancing on the Edge is a festival that moves between different borders, bodies, histories and (pre)conceptions. In its working processes and programming, it attempts to challenge singular narratives and identities in representation as well as dominant power structures and (post)colonial relations. Between 13 and 24 November, we would like to invite you all -makers, spectators and partners- to embark with us on a personal and collective journey through the different programs, to unpack themes and urgencies, and to undergo the potentials of the encounter that the festival can provide.
WHAT’S ON THE PROGRAM?
This festival edition is conceived of as a journey through the programs, which take different artistic forms. A brief overview.
Interactive Installations
Alaa Minawi’s installation has been developed specifically for DOTE and forms a part of his project, 2048. It is an inquisitive installation, which invites each spectator to venture within themselves to search for a meaningful sense of belonging. The audience will pass through it before attending the festival performances, so activating our own bodies and an awareness of our personal point of departure.
Performances & After Talks
A program of contemporary dance and theater performances that share a dedication to an artistic process and practice that foregrounds the complex notions of identity and belonging, of personal and collective histories, and the power of re-writing and re-narrating them. Many of the performances are cross-national, where makers collaborate across disciplines, references and national boundaries.
DOTE Lab
A four day artistic lab at the heart of the festival, from 17 to 20 November, where different festival artists, a number of local and international artists, theater and dance students, and interested festival audience members come together in an open studio space for an intimate exploration of each other’s working processes and artistic material.
Mezrab-DOTE Nights
Three nights at Mezrab on 17,18 and 20 November. These nights are co-curated with Mezrab. Each night will have a focus based on themes within the festival and explored through performances, story-telling, and music. A program bringing together local performers with festival performers and spectators who would like to improvise.
Table Talks
A series of 7 Table Talks: 4 before the festival, 2 during the festival, and 1 after the festival. It is one of the spaces in which DOTE wants to imagine and realize a shift. Through these encounters, we hope to sense and imagine together: what are the urgencies that guide our practices, which structural changes do we desire and, what are we doing to achieve them? The starting point for each Table Talks is formulated out of what emerges as urgent in the preceding edition articulated by the group that is present. You are invited to join. See our online magazine to follow the process!
Second-hand Body – a collective writing project
Second-hand Body is a writing project, curated by Lina Issa, in which five writers from the MENA region and The Netherlands write a text collectively. A journey traversing different bodies, temporalities, locations and references. The proposal is based on the concept of second-hand, the re-using of what has already been used and has a history. The first writer started writing at the beginning of August, the point of departure a proposal from us, passed the text on to the next writer, and so on, till it returns to the festival. This process can be followed on our online magazine.
Collective Urban Gnawa – workshops and performances
What if we come together in dance, in trance? Drawing on both urban and contemporary dance as well as the traditions of trance in Gnawa music and rituals, choreographer Khalid Benghrib will guide a series of workshops leading to a large-scale collective performance in public space. The project is open to everyone: from first-time dancers to professionals, different body shapes and abilities, ages, backgrounds and life experience. A collective and transformational movement that will form the closing moment of the festival, taking place in a public space.
WHERE DOES THE JOURNEY TAKE PLACE?
13-14 November Utrecht – Stadsschouwburg Utrecht, Het Huis Utrecht
15-16 November Rotterdam – Theater Rotterdam
16-24 November Amsterdam – Podium Mozaïek, Mezrab, Frascati
The full festival program will be announced in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Instagram.
Become part of the DOTE Community! Add yourself to the Facebook Group and follow the artistic process of creating a new kind of festival and the announcements on programming.
