Events

Mats Ek shall showcase on 7 and 8 October 2016, at the National Theatre of Bucharest, within the JTI Meetings, two extraordinary choreographic works, alongside his wife and muse, Ana Laguna.

Mats Ek won the Europe Theatre Prize, which was awarded to him on April 26 in Craiova. This prize represents the most prestigious European recognition in the field, being attributed to personalities or institutions which contributed to the creation of vital cultural events in the mutual understanding and knowledge of people. The winner has been designated for his entire artistic path, among the first-rate personalities of international theatre.

Mats Ek has already been present at the JTI Meetings in 2005, as a choreographer of the Cullberg Ballet, with three anthological works - Aluminium, original creation, Empty House and Negro con Flores, both signed by Johan Inger -, highly appreciated at that moment by the audience, the specialised press and the critics.

At the 2016 edition of the JTI Meetings, alongside Mats Ek and Ana Laguna, other two legendary names shall dance, Susanne Linke and Dominique Mercy. The four artists, selected by choreographer Daniele Cipriani, shall perform an original gala - Quartet Gala – proving that despite the passage of time, or maybe exactly for this reason, the mature dancers are a vast wellspring of experience, emotions, wisdom, depth.

Ek (70 years) shall perform together with Ana Laguna (61 years), The Potato and the Memory, giving the audience the truly unique opportunity to admire a famous couple dancing its „autobiography” and the rare chance to see choreographer Ek dancing. Together, the two artists emanate a strong energy, and the chemistry between them is genuinely tangible.

„Potato is a dialogue of an established couple. A playful and morose look upon the „torment” of cohabitation, filled with contrasts, well conceived in its powerful drama and strewn with paroxysms of scathing humour. Memory (…) presents fragments from the daily life of the team formed by husband and wife, leaving to dance the power to suggest the amplitude of words left unsaid, bonding two human beings, treading on the same path of their existential journey” (Leonetta Bentivoglio, theatre critic).

Dominique Mercy (65 years), famous performer with Pina Bausch, shall introduce the audience into the specific atmosphere of the Bausch Theatre, interpreting the solo That Paper Boy, in the choreography of Paschal Merighi.

The internationally acknowledged dancer and choreographer of German origin, Susanne Linke (71 years) shall interpret A Lost Solo...With Greeting To Dore, created in 2014 and based on the volcanic version of the fascinating creation The Rite of Spring, by Igor Stravinsky.

Founded in 2000, by the famous ballet company Bejart Ballet Lausanne, the JTI Meetings have hosted renowned dancers, choreographers and ballet troupes: Nacho Duato and Compania Nacional De Danza, Joaquin Cortes, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Tango Pasion, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant, Gigi Căciuleanu and the National Ballet of Chile, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Vortice Dance Company, Maria Pagés and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan Company.

The event is organised this year as well by the Art Production Foundation, under the artistic counselling of Silviei Ghiață.

Tickets are available at the ticketing counter of the National Theatre of Bucharest (tel. 021-314.71.71), in the Eventim network (Orange, Vodafone, Germanos, Carrefour stores, OMV gas stations, Cărtureşti, Humanitas bookstores) and online on www.eventim.ro.

You are most welcome at the JTI Meetings!

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu