BIPOD’s new, intimate incarnation

BEIRUT: Last year, Beirut’s International Platform of Dance, BIPOD, celebrated its 10th anniversary. Maqamat founder and artistic director of its annual contemporary dance festival, Omar Rajeh, marked the occasion with a retrospective exhibition and the publication of a book, “Ten Years of BIPOD.”

It was something of a last hurrah for Rajeh, it would seem. After 10 years of running the festival – along with Moultaqa Leymoun, the biannual platform for dancers from the Arab world – Rajeh has stepped down as director.

Last year he created a board, made up of prominent cultural figures, and entrusted them with the task of choosing his successor. The board selected dancer Mia Habis, Rajeh’s longtime collaborator.

This year’s edition of BIPOD, Habis told The Daily Star, marks a new direction.

“It was very challenging for me after 10 years of BIPOD,” she said. “Now it’s like an established festival. Very big names came, so I was wondering what was still to be done…

“I wanted to stress that BIPOD was a time to unite, a time to be together. It was a festival for the people of Beirut. It’s a Lebanese festival. It’s an Arab festival. It’s an international festival.”

Habis has launched a new, accessible ad campaign, featuring young Lebanese people dancing casually at home or in the office, and selected a program of 10 performances featuring acclaimed but emerging young choreographers and dancers.

“I went in the direction of meetings, or intimacy – I think all the performances this year are more or less based on this,” she said. “I wanted to bring these fresh figures of contemporary dance to Lebanon.”

Performers at this year’s festival hail from Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the U.K., Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Spain. Habis explained that she was able to secure funding for European performers from embassies and cultural institutions. Due to lack of funding, she was forced to cancel scheduled appearances by performers from the Arab world.

“I had three performances programmed and I really tried but I had to cancel them. Because who’s going to provide support for Arabs?” Habis said. “Hopefully next year it will be possible.

“At least with the support of the British Council and Prohelvetia we could do Moultaqa Leymoun and invite ten choreographers. Eight of them are young emerging artists. Half are Lebanese. You have two from Palestine and two from Morocco. They’ll be meeting in the Chouf, in a workshop with [U.K. choreographer] Leila McMillan.”

Held in Maqamat’s new dance school Beit al-Raqs, the workshop constitutes a new formula for Moultaqa Leymoun.

Rather than staging public performances by choreographers and dancers from the Arab world, Habis decided to invite ten young choreographers to work together for two days on furthering their own skills, presenting the fruit of their collaboration to the public at the end of their stay.

The festival program includes the exhibition “Relief I Expansion.” Running concurrently with the opening performances (April 11-12), it features work by Belgian new media artist Julien Maire.

The show features a stereolithographic projector, a conceptual game built around the idea of 3D cinema. Maire proposes a form of 3D cinema that generates images with a real depth of field.

Using a 3D-printed film designed by the artist, the projector displays a looped animation of a man digging, raising questions about old and new technologies.

A series of workshops and master classes will run concurrently with the festival, for those who are interested in trying out contemporary dance for themselves.

BIPOD’s performance schedule opens on April 11 with “Tarab,” a performance by Switzerland-based Compagnie 7273. Choreographed by Laurance Yadi and Nicolas Cantillon, the performance is described as a “ceremony soufy-groovy” – a blend of Sufi movement and electronica, in which movement unfolds continuously with ever repeating itself.

“Revolt” (April 12), a world premiere solo performance featuring Belgium’s Compagnie Thor, explores revolution.

Choreographed by Thierry Smits, this performance by the youthful Nicola Leahey addresses themes of liberation, insubordination, the constraining power of conventions and the necessity of revolt.

“This is Concrete” (April 15) takes audiences on a slow, seductive duo journey. Choreographed by German-based Jefta van Dinther and Thiago Granato, the performance centers on the dizzying chemistry of the dancers, inviting viewers into an intimate world where the two men speak their feelings with their bodies.

British dancer Aakash Odedra, who studied the classical Indian forms Kathak and Bharat Natyam, will present “Rising” (April 18). The show features four works, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Odedra himself, each using the dancer’s background in Indian dance to create a unique contemporary aesthetic.

Presented by Sweden’s Propagande C “Gerro, Minos and Him” (April 19) explores what happens when three men, thrown into an empty room, must find a way to pass the time together. Collaborating choreographers Aloun Marchal, Simon Tanguy and Roger Sala Reyner work according to the rule that any proposal made by any of them must be accepted, a process they call “anarchy-democracy.”

The promotional photograph for the show (which features three men embracing tightly, while seemingly naked from the waist down), has proven controversial with audiences, Habis explained, hastening to add that the performance is “very innocent,” addressing neither homosexuality nor sexuality.

Dutch choreographer Jan Martens will present “Ode to the Attempt” (April 22), as part of a double-bill. This new self-choreographed solo work is a playful self-portrait in dance, providing insight into Martens’ approach to work and to daily life.

Martens’ performance will be followed by “Does It Start with a Kiss?” by Hungarian group Eva Duda. Choreographed by dancers Rosana Hribar and Gregor Lustek, the piece explores the nature of dance, questioning control, narrative and dependency in a sequence influenced by the passion and intimacy of tango.

Jan Martens returns to the stage on April 23 with a performance entitled “Sweat Baby Sweat.” Exploring the possibility of an all-consuming love, it shows two people who can’t let go of one another. The minimalist one-hour performance employs movement, music, text and images to mimic a modern mating ritual.

French group Sine Qua Non Art will present “Exuvie” (April 25). The work of choreographers Christophe Beranger and Jonathan Pranlas-Descours, the performance plays on the process of “exuviae” – molting among vertebrates.

Beginning with a bath of hot wax, the performance is built around the translucent, transmogrifying substance, which comes to control the nature of the dance, ensuring that no two performances are ever exactly the same.

BIPOD 2015 closes with “Flightless,” by Spanish dancer, choreographer, photographer and visual artist Elias Aguirre, who seeks inspiration in nature and particularly in the movement of insects. His performance centers on the imagined movement of a flightless bird, which forms an absurd and moving spectacle.

BIPOD runs from April 11 to 26 at multiple venues across Beirut. For more information, please visit www.maqamat.org.