JTI Meetings celebrate 25 years with B.Dance, for the first time in Romania
21 June 2024
Private event hosted by the National Theatre in Bucharest. The responsibility for the quality and content of this event lies solely with the organizer!
The B. Dance Company is coming to Romania for the first time, at the 25th edition of the JTI Meetings, with the performance Alice, on June 20 and 21, 2024, at 7:30 pm, at the National Theatre from Bucharest and on June 24 and 25, 2024, at 8:00 pm, at the Ion Besoiu Cultural Centre, within the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS).
Alice came about as a result of the collaboration between B. Dance Company in Taipei, led by choreographer Po-Cheng Tsai, with Tanz Luzerner Theater, led by Kathleen McNurney. The performance reimagines the classical literary work by placing it in a fantasy world at the confluence of Zen master. According to the official website of the B. Dance Company, the show entices with breathtaking choreography, haute couture costumes and an elegant set design, in a "wonderland" with an ethereal and deeply psychological atmosphere. A labyrinth of mirrors, artistic projections and black-and-white ink drawings unite poetry and fairy tale, as well as Western and Eastern culture.
"Po-Cheng Tsai's dancing is very dynamic. It combines East Asian dance styles with Western contemporary dance, ballet, hip hop, jazz, tai chi, martial arts, kung fu, Chinese folk dance. [...] The acrobatics complete the performance: the legs move like sharp razors, then again like flowing waves", writes Luzerner Zeitung about "Alice".
Choreographer Po-Cheng Tsai graduated from the National Taipei University of Arts in 2009 and founded B. Dance and found his own choreographic language and aesthetic. The artist combines traditional Asian movements, martial arts and contemporary dance, pushing boundaries to bring together Eastern mysticism and fantasy in exciting, accessible performances. Po-Cheng Tsai has been named Choreographer of the Year 2018 by the German magazine Tanz. In 2019, B. Dance received the Mervyn Stutter "Spirit of the Fringe" award at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Awarded several times in international choreographic competitions, Po-Cheng Tsai has also created choreography for renowned dance companies such as Introdans, Tanz Luzerner Theatre, Gauthier Dance, Cloud Gate 2, Bern Tanzcompagnie and La Veronal.
"We are delighted that the JTI Meetings are celebrating a quarter of a century. As the respected critic Dumitru Avakian says, the series of events under the Meetings has brought 'consistency to our artistic life'. Together with our long-term collaborators, Valerian Mares, president of the Art Production Foundation, and Silvia Ghiata, an undisputed authority in the world of dance, we have managed to be among the few supporters of this artistic genre and to bring to the country, year after year, premiere performances or companies that would not otherwise be seen by dance-loving audiences in Romania. Please join us for this 25th edition of the JTI Meetings!", said Gilda Lazar, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications at JTI Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria.
Tickets are available at the Bucharest National Theatre Box Office and online at Eventim.ro and tnb.ro.
Inaugurated in 2000 by the famous ballet company Bejart Ballet Lausanne, the JTI Meetings have been dedicated to dance, hosting famous choreographers and companies, including Nacho Duato and the Compania Nacional De Danza, Joaquin Cortes, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Tango Pasion, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant, Gigi Caciuleanu and the National Ballet of Chile, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Vortice Dance Company, Maria Pagés and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan Company, Gala-Mats Ek Quartet, Ana Laguna, Susanne Linke and Dominique Mercy. In 2017, Noism, the most important contemporary dance company in Japan, came to Romania, in 2018 the Martha Graham Dance Company, and in 2019 the IT Dansa Company from the Barcelona Theatre Institute. The 2020 and 2021 JTI Meetings have been postponed due to the pandemic taking place with a one-year delay. The 2020 edition, held in 2021, featured Wynton Marsalis, the greatest contemporary trumpeter, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In 2022, Jean-Claude Gallotta presented My Ladies Rock in Bucharest and at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, and Aterballetto, Italy's largest dance company performed Don Juan. Last year we invited Ballets Jazz de Montreal with Dance Me, set to the music of Leonard Cohen. JTI's Meetings with B. DANCE are organised, as usual, by the Art Production Foundation, with the artistic advice of Silvia Ghiata.
General Producer: Art Production Foundation
Translated by Andreea Codrea-Boeriu
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