The annual Dance Days Chania festival recently concluded, reaffirming its commitment to fostering a strong connection with the city of Chania and its inhabitants. The festival distinguishes itself through its dedication to performances that address pressing social and political issues, emphasising the significance of community and active involvement. A cornerstone of the festival’s success is the unwavering passion of its organisers and the invaluable contributions of its dedicated volunteers.
This year’s festival aimed to explore lesser-known areas of the city, broadening its reach and establishing welcoming spaces for artists to connect with locals and visitors alike. The goal was to cultivate a more intimate and welcoming atmosphere within the city during the summer months. This year’s event hosted over 120 contemporary dance artists.
Exploring Themes of Time, Memory, and Identity
One of the standout performances was “Trilogy: For Old Times’ Sake” by the Swiss group Pit Co. This piece delved into the intricate relationship between time, aging, and memory loss, weaving together fragments of memories to reveal the associated emotions and their profound impact on our lives. The performance unfolded across three interconnected temporal moments, each echoing the others to create a layered and deeply human narrative.
The audience encountered an older man, his younger self, and his lover, each representing different strata of memory and identity. Inspired by choreographer Phoebe Jewitt’s personal experiences with her grandfather’s dementia, the work reflected on the pivotal role of memory in shaping our identities and the consequences of forgetting.
Jewitt explained the motivation behind the performance, noting that dementia affects a substantial portion of the global population, with numbers expected to rise significantly. She emphasised the lack of a cure and the importance of addressing the issue through artistic expression, particularly highlighting the poignant moments of human interaction that reveal the realities of dementia.
She recounted a personal anecdote about her grandfather mistaking her for her grandmother during a conversation about a holiday, which underscored the profound loss of generational connection and the distortion of time that dementia can cause. This experience inspired her to explore how our sense of time erodes and the impact it has on our understanding of ourselves and our relationships.
The Struggle for Freedom and Inner Peace
Another compelling performance was “Escape” by Helene Weinzierl’s dance company, Cie Laroque. This Austrian group transported the audience on a unique journey, exploring themes of excess and collapse. In a world where we seemingly have everything, the dancers portrayed a sense of suffocation, where individuals yearn for freedom, peace, and inner calm.
The audience was seated in a circle around the performers, bearing witness to their struggle, a universe of repetition from which escape seemed impossible. The play, which premiered in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic, seemed eerily prescient in its depiction of societal anxieties.
Weinzierl shared her inspiration for “Escape,” explaining that she felt trapped in a cycle of constant activity, much like animals running endlessly on a wheel. This prompted her to question how she could change her life and break free from the system. She emphasised the importance of finding moments of stillness and reflection through practices like meditation or simply connecting with nature.
The revival of “Escape” has taken on new meaning, with the company now focusing on democratic systems and the challenges they face in Europe and around the world. Weinzierl stressed the need to fight for democratic values and resist the forces that threaten them.
Deconstructing Masculinity
Quindell Orton’s “Making of a Man” offered a thought-provoking lecture performance that dissected the concept of masculinity. Through humour and poignant observations, Orton explored various aspects of masculinity, the archetypes imposed by modern society, and the patriarchal attitudes and codes that shape our world.
The performance incorporated video projections, personal interviews, and references to iconic and contemporary figures, creating a multi-layered exploration of politics, pop culture, and gender issues. Orton explained that their queer feminist perspective inspired the piece, driving a desire to understand masculinity better in order to analyse the dynamics of gender and patriarchy.
Orton hoped the performance would encourage audiences to reflect on how we perform gender daily and how these performances create a system with its own power dynamics and hierarchies. The goal was to challenge biological claims and gender determinism, encouraging a more critical examination of societal norms and expectations.