- Dance Voices - קולות המחול

A Retrospective of Mallorquin Dance during the Sección Femenina (Women’s Division of the Falange Party) 1939-1975 and their continuing legacy in Mallorca

This article is drawn from my ethnographic research on Mallorquin dance on the Spanish Balearic Island of Mallorca, between 2003 and 2007. The Mallorquin dance repertoires have developed in two parallel lines following the establishment of the organisation Fomento del Turismo de Mallorca (Promotion of Tourism) in 1905: for tourists as presentational choreographed dances, and for locals as participatory improvised dances in social contexts. The Sección Femenina controlled dance throughout Spain and Mallorca between 1939 and 1975, when only choreographed dances were performed. These dances were devised for the national folkloric dance competitions of Spain.

Martha Graham Dance Company at the Teatre Liceu

“In the centre of the stage is where I am”
Martha Graham (1894-1991)

You would expect nothing less from the Martha Graham Dance Company than a superbly executed, attractive, and impeccable performance, alive with colour and amazing style.

5 - Diversion of Angels © A Bofill, courtesy of the Teatre Liceu

Iphigenie auf Tauris, a dance-opera by Pina Bausch

The Gran Teatre del Liceu 2010/11 season opened with Pina Bausch's choreographed version of Gluck's opera Iphigenie auf Tauris. With a libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard (1752-1814), the work is inspired by the tragedy of Euripides and was the German choreographer's first dance-opera, choreographed in 1973.

David Dawson's Giselle for the Dresden SemperOper Ballet

The world of the stage has been enriched by David Dawson's subtle reworking of Giselle for the Dresden SemperOper Ballet, shown at the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona.

Critical junctures in spectator / performer interactions in Tetris by Noah Dar

The Israeli choreographer Noah Dar and the plastic artist Nati Shamia-Ofer collaborate in Tetris, a dance that was ordered in 2006 by the Akko Festival of Alternative Theatre in Israel (The dance was awarded for its innovation). The dialogue between the artists generates a unique performance space in which the viewers observe the occurrence from the place where the dancers' feet meet the dancing floor. Shamia-Ofer created for this dance a special structure - a raised wooden floor, in which openings were made. The viewers stand under that surface, insert their heads through the openings and watch the dance.