22nd Contemporary Dance Festival – The Netherlands

The 22nd Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival begins with a choreography by Arno Schuitemaker that has been presented at renowned theatres and performing arts festivals in over 15 countries across Europe.

With seeming casualness, If You Could See Me Now sets a chilled-out club dance into one dizzying wave-like motion. The three performers see no limits to what they take out of their bodies, propelled by the rhythm of the beat.

Progressing continuously, the vibes accumulate and electrify, drawing the audience deeper and deeper into the performance. At maximal exertion and sweaty physicality, the incessant movement flow audaciously redefines itself as luminous and versatile impressions. The performance space dilates and shifts. Time gets chopped up then reshapes.

From ecstasy to turmoil, from build-up to its dismantling, If You Could See Me Now challenges expectations and appeals for another look, to look again, and it transforms an exact spontaneity into a hypnotic sensory experience.

Arno Schuitemaker was born in 1976 in The Netherlands and is based in Amsterdam. His creations include EXIT (2009), TIDE (2011), The Fifteen Project | DUET (2012), I is an Other (2014), Together_till the end (2015) and the trilogy for three performers While We Strive (2015), I will wait for you (2016) and If You Could See Me Now (2017). His most recent and largest scale work to date, The Way You Sound Tonight, premiered at the Holland Festival in June 2018.

Compelling, mesmeric, intense — he creates works one has to experience. Using ongoing, perpetual movement, his perception-based performances become immersive and transformative encounters that speak about life and the time we live in. In collaboration with various extraordinary performers, composers and lighting designers each work shapes its own identity and perspective. Often characterized as interdisciplinary, they transcend dance and push its boundaries.

The performances have been presented at renowned theatres and contemporary performing arts festivals in over 15 countries across Europe and beyond. In Theatermaker magazine, both The Way You Sound Tonight and I will wait for you were selected in the critics’ lists featuring among the best performances of the season. Tanz magazine selected him as one of the most promising choreographers in their yearbook 2017 and Dance Europe characterized him as “one of the leading dance makers in The Netherlands.” He is a winner of the Dioraphte Encouragement Award and of the 2nd Jury Prize at [re]connaissance 2016.

If You Could See Me Now is a production by SHARP/ArnoSchuitemaker in co-production with HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste (Dresden, Germany), O Espaço Do Tempo – Associação Cultura (Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal), CND Centre National de la Danse (Pantin, France), KLAP Maison pour la Danse (Marseille, France) and Tafelhalle im KunstKulturQuartier (Nuremberg, Germany). The performance is created with contributions by Performing Arts Fund NL, Fonds 21, VSBfonds and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Concept & Creation: Arno Schuitemaker
Performers: Stein Fluijt, Ivan Ugrin, Noemie Wagner
Dramaturgy: Guy Cools
Music composition: Wim Selles
Lighting design: Vinny Jones
Costumes: Inge de Lange
Technique: Natasja Giebels

Duration: 55′

All dance performances are part of the 22nd Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival 2019, organized by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Rialto Theater.

Free Bus from Nicosia (99420642)

Tickets: €8
Festival Pass: €30

Free admission for pubils, students, soldiers, pensioners and dance professionals