International Kalamata Dance Festival

15 – 26 July 2016

Every year, the Kalamata International Dance Festival honors the timeless art of dance. The festival renews the summer appointment with the world of contemporary dance from July 15 to July 26, 2016, and, as always, it has planned an interesting educational program aimed at both professionals and students of dance and amateurs, as well as people who just love dance and movement. This year, the festival focuses on the promotion of diversity of idioms, ages, and artists’ identities as well as the simultaneous presence in the dance action of artists with and without disabilities. The festival opens its doors to everyone by organizing seminars and events involving international and Greek groups. In the seminars of the festival, anyone can participate, whether he is a dancer or not. The 22th Kalamata International Dance Festival includes two seminars of different aesthetic and technical, which reconnect dance with basic ideas and practices that derive from historical moments of contemporary dance: the beginnings of modern Dance of Isadora Duncan and the American postmodern dance. It also includes a workshop that focuses on contemporary art dance for everyone. In more details, the workshop will be held from July 15 – 25 at Zoumpouleio Hall, from 10:00 to 12:00, a dance seminar with Barbara Kane. The ancient Greek myths, the music of Gluck and the dance of Isadora Duncan, in cooperation with the French dancer and teacher Francoise Rangoon. A workshop for free will also be conducted, where everybody will be able to participate. By this way, the festival stimulates and strengthens the social dimension of dance. There will also be a modern dance seminar with Pat Katterson, from July 15-25 in Kalamata Municipal Stadium, 10:00 to 12:00. The aim of this seminar is for participants to learn and experience the creation process using the New Yorker choreographer Pat Katterson on the recent work, part of which is the 108th project entitled NOW. In addition, there will be a workshop with the group Candoco Dance Company, on Thursday, July 21, 2016. Various parallel events with major artists will take place, as well as a major outdoors event with free entrance. Quite interesting is the fact that graduate students of the Elementary Dance School of Kalamata, who became professionals in the field of dance ,will participate in a musical event. The dance performances of 2016 will take place at the Palace of Dance, the Cultural Centre, the Archaeological Museum and the Municipal Stadium. What’s more, the Archaeological Museum of Messinia and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia is still ongoing. It started off two years ago, and this year, following a joint organization, a dance performance will be held within the premises of the museum, as well as a tour in th exhibition “Mythical Dances of Messenia”. The presentation of the festival in Kalamata will also be held at the Archaeological Museum of Messinia.The Kalamata Dance Festival is one of the most anticipated happenings of the year in Messenia, helping to bring Greece to the international level for dance and the performing arts. This year, Kalamata, the city of dance, is set to host its 22nd annual festival in July 2016. Today, twenty years down the line, every year sees a widely varied audience enthusiastically respond to the call of the Festival.

HISTORY OF THE KALAMATA INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL

The Kalamata International Dance Festival is the key event of the International Dance Centre of the Messenian capital. The Center was founded in the spring of 1995, within the framework of the Hellenic National Cultural Network of Cities, charged with supporting and promoting the art of dance through research, education, artistic creation and production. After twenty-two years as an active presence in the Greek dance scene, and thanks to the support of the local authorities, the Kalamata Festival has earned itself a special place on the festival map of the Mediterranean South, by building bridges with international dance creativity. A number of influential figures, whose work is shaping the history of contemporary dance made their first Greek appearance at Kalamata, while the Festival has also taken care to promote and support Greek creativity in the field by commissioning works from talented Greek choreographers and supporting new companies in their experimental explorations. Another integral part of the Festival are the workshops and talks aimed at dance students and professionals alike, while other parallel events include publications and video dance productions. From the very start, the Festival was programmed with two considerations in mind: the wide range of trends in contemporary dance and the ever-larger audiences this art form attracts.

DAYS OF THE FESTIVAL

Friday, 15 July, 2016 – Tuesday, 26 July, 2016

PROGRAM OF THE FESTIVAL

The program of the festival will can be found on the following link.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF KALAMATA INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL

Visitors can find more information regarding the festival from the Official Website of Festival!