Palma Loves Dance at the International Festival of Contemporary Dance

Spring officially takes hold. With support from the city of Palma de Mallorca and the collective Balearic Islands Government, the international festival of contemporary dance, 'Palma amb la dansa' as it's called in Catalan...or Palma loves dance in English, has arrived to Mallorca for the eighth year in a row.

These performances, all unique in their own way, represent some sort of artistic form of expressionism through an amalgamation of dance, music, staging and culture.

This past Sunday I attended the performance 'MMiri, Mizu, Water' by the Tchekpo Dance Company from Germany. Originating in 1991 in France under its founder and choreographer, Tchekpo Dan Adbetou, who was originally from the Republic of Benin, the Tchekpo Dance Company moved to Germany in 1995. There it has set down roots with support from the Ministry of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Bielefeld. Adbetou was first introduced to dance while living in Benin and continued his education in New York, having studied modern jazz dance at the very prestigious Alvin Alley Dance Theatre at Lincoln Centre in Manhattan. He has since studied with great choreographers such as Elsa Wiollaston, Germaine Acony, Alvin Mc Duffy, Gérard Wilson, Maurice Béjart, Jack Moïse, Andrew Gregosky and is now performing throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the US.

Through Adbetou's choreography, 'MMiri, Mizu, Water' is performed by three dancers bringing a Japanese, Nigerian and Brazilian/German influence and it interprets each dancers relationship with water. The Japanese dancer represents the dangers of water that surround the island of Japan, also representative of Asia. The Nigerian dancer represents the lack of water, also representative of Africa. And the Brazilian dancer represents how in the Western hemisphere we take our accessibility of water for granted. This performance truly is an amalgamation of cultural and socio-political influences.

As with all forms of art, the meaning of each piece can be interpreted differently from the artists' perspective and the audience as well. The three performers dancing together, and at times individually, are surrounded by blue bags of water laid out on the stage. This added to the fluidity of the performance and its theme: water. Each movement and dancer unique to each other manifested a brutalist architecture, rugged and direct with blunt and provocative physicality complexly layered kept the attention of the audience and mine as well. You could also say that this performance is symbolic of the power of water expressed through the fear, excitement and seduction of dance.

There are many interpretations of this performance and the many others that are currently part of the Palma loves dance showcase. I would recommend any of these performances to an art lover, especially while you have the chance, as this is the last week to see them around the city. Aside from the wonderful performers and the variety of performances, the city of Palma being used as the backdrop for most of them adds to the beauty of the experience and it is not to be missed.

There are a number of performances and workshops this weekend some of which I would recommend include:

- (24/4) The Avatara Ayuso Dance Company from London presents Postkriptum
- (25/4) Un Soir l'Ouest from France presents Mon Enhervé
- (26/4) Lucía de Miguel & Emilio Roig present Circuito a cielo abierto

Additional supporters of Palma loves dance include the the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Es Baluard and the Society of Cultural Dance in the Balearic Islands.

For detailed information regarding upcoming performances and locations read more here.