The Tempus Fugit project is organized by the Goethe-Institut Bulgarien and the French Institute of Bulgaria, based on an idea from the Metheor artistic collective, in the frame of thе French-German Cultural Fund.
Within the Tempus Fugit project, the dance and theatre researcher Mira Todorova will curate a series of conversations, lectures and screenings under the header “Dance and Age”. She will be focusing on age as a flow of time and a notion of normalcy, in contrast to its usual understanding as a drawback, stagnation, decay, helplessness, illness, deficiency, that have to be overcome for the sake of beauty, youth and perfection.
As part of the Without Distance educational platform at the Antistatic International Festival of Contemporary Dance and Performance, a series of online conversations with choreographers from France and Germany will be shown. With them the team of Tempus Fugit makes an attempt to examine the many intersections of time, age and dance: the flow of time and its impact on life and body of the dancer; the arrow of time and concepts of history and past (personal history, history of dance); the perception of time, age and dance in different cultures; age as a field for (casting) a critical reflection on the obsessions of modernity – one of the big (political) ideas of contemporary dance.
About the value of age and the new normal will talk:
Celebrating the moment
May 31, 17.00h, online
A conversation with Mark Tompkins, choreographer (USA/France)
Moderator: Mira Todorova
Mark Tompkins is a choreographer, performer, teacher, singer, who since 1973 lives and works in France. His work was introduced live to the dance community of Sofia in 2018, when Antistatic Festival hosted the solos Hommages – A tribute to Vaslav Nijinski, Valeska Gert, Josephine Baker, and Harry Sheppard.
In 1983 Mark Tompkins founded his company I.D.A. His manner of fabricating unidentified performance objects, mixing dance, music, song, text and video has become his signature. Since the 70’s he makes solo and group pieces, concerts and improvised performances, and since 1988 he works in close collaboration with the set and costume designer Jean-Louis Badet. His passion for real time composition meets him with many choreographers, dancers, musicians, light designers and video artists from around the world.
In 2008 Mark Tompkins receives the SACD choreography award for all his work. Fascinated by the frictions and resonances between high and low entertainment, his performances are often inspired by popular forms like cabaret, music-hall, musicals and burlesque: “American Trilogy (2010-13): Black’n’Blues; Opening Night”; “Showtime” and the gender ambivalence: “Hommages” (1998);” Le Printemps” (2015). Since 2013 he is colaborating with the Portuguese choreographer Mariana Tengner Barros, and since 2015 takes part in the concerts of Sarah Murcia. In 2018 he creates the solo “Staying Alive”, and in 2020 with two other performers and musicians makes the piece “Celebration”.
A dialogue between generations through the language of dance
June 2, 17.00h, online
A conversation with Silke Z., choreographer (Germany)
Moderator: Angelina Georgieva
Silke Z. lives and works as an independent choreographer in Cologne. She is the artistic director of the company for intergenerational dance “Silke Z./resistdance” and a director of “Ehrenfeldstudios”, a space for rehearsals and presentations for pieces in the interdisciplinary and intergenerational dance and performance field in Cologne. In 2011, together with seven European partners, she founded the “studiotrade” network for choreographers, producers and dance organizations.
Since 2020 she is working on the multi-year project “The Empathic Body”, realized with the help of “Fokus Tanz Munchen”, “Junges Schauspielhaus Bochum” and “Theatre Bielefeld”, in the field of artistic research, mediation and performance production. The project involves youth, students and elderly into questions of empathy, proximity and distance.
Dance On – the value of age
June 4, 17.00h, online
A conversation with Madeline Ritter, culture manager and producer (Germany)
with the participation of philosopher Boyan Manchev (Bulgaria)
Moderator: Mira Todorova
Madeline Ritter is a lawyer, art manager and curator in the field of dance. She has initiated many European networks, is the director of interdisciplinary festivals and a producer of international coproductions in performance art and media. From 1989 to 2004 she was the artistic director of “Tanz Performance” Köln, an international production and festival platform for contemporary dance and new media. In 2004, she was called to the German Federal Cultural Foundation as a project director for her concept “Tanzplan Deutschland” – a partnership-based strategy that generated over 21 Million Euro for dance in Germany and became a model for similar initiatives worldwide.
Since 2011 she has been the director of the new “Tanzfonds” of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. In 2014, she launched the company “Dance On”, which strives to promote artistic achievements in the context of “dance and age” through various ideas, projects, initiatives and practices.
Madeline Ritter is a certified coach and facilitator of processes of change and teaches cultural management at various European universities. She is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of “Pina Bausch” Foundation, member of the Supervisory Board of “Kulturfabrik Kampnagel” in Hamburg, the Advisory Board of “Deutsches Tanzarchiv”, the “Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain” and the company “Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods”.
Without Distance Platform is part of the project „Life Long Burning (LLB) – Towards a sustainable Eco-System for Contemporary Dance in Europe”, co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union and National Culture Fund. It is realized in partnership with the Tempus Fugit project, organized by the Goethe-Institut Bulgarien and the French Institute of Bulgaria, based on an idea from the Metheor artistic collective, in the frame of thе French-German Cultural Fund.