Launching just now, in its 44th year, a summer dance festival known for edgy, forward-looking content in an ancient, historic city is Montpellier Danse. Montpellier, France’s eighth-largest city, gleams with Mediterranean sun bathing its beautiful, walkable historic center. This year, for the first time ever, artsmeme will attend the dance festival.
The festival curators have designed a sophisticated global dance village. Among the 16 new works are ones by a rich array of international dance artists, Briton Wayne McGregor‘s “Deepstaria“; the Japanese Saburo Teshigawara‘s “Voice of Desert,” the Serbian Josef Nadj‘s “Full Moon“; Spaniard Marta Izquierdo Munoz‘s “Roll“; French-American Michèle Murray‘s “Dancefloor“; Canadian Daina Ashbee‘s “We learned lot at our own funeral.” Showing his work, “TakeMeHome,” made in collaboration with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth is Dimitri Chamblas, who splits time between France and the great nation of California, where is on the dance faculty at California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts).
The Belgian Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker will present a work in association with Marrakech-born, Radouan Mriziga and French violinist/conductor Amandine Bayer.
More from the festival: “Lunar Halo” by the Taiwanese choreographer Cheng Tsung-Lung of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Of Taiwan. A Merce Cunningham retrospective, with three seminal works, “Rainforest/ sounddanse/ CRWDSPCR will be presented by Ballet de Lorraine…and finally, a much-anticipated work by the Frenchman Angelin Preljocaj who provides the grand wrap-up of the 44th Festival, in the aptly named, “Requiem(s).
Montpellier Danse | Montpellier, France | June 22 – July 6