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La Plaza de la Danza Festival, Ecuador

The La Plaza de la Danza Festival runs from 14 to 20 February 2020 in Quito. This showcase of Ecuadorian dance will feature artists from the emerging Ecuadorian scene and French artists, including Julie Nioche and Sylvain Huc, whose pieces will be performed by the dancers of the Compañía Nacional de Danza del Ecuador.

Updated on 17/02/2020

2 min

On 20 February Sylvain Huc, French choreographer and dancer with the company Divergences based in Toulouse and Christian Masabanda, an Ecuadorian dancer with the Compañía Nacional de Danza, present the first part of a series of duos called Crash Studies. Two bodies who bring their knowledge, their experience and their memories into play in a network of spatial, physical and emotional rules. The piece was produced during a creative residency that the two dancers attended in January 2020 in Toulouse. It will then be shared with and registered in the repertoire of the Ecuadorian company.

Julie Nioche, choreographer and artist associated with the CDCN since September 2019, will share the piece Les Sisyphe with the dancers of the Compañía Nacional de Danza del Ecuador. This will be followed by two performances at the Teatro Capitol in Quito and entry into the repertoire.

Also on the festival's programme, in Quito, Cuenca and Portoviejo will be two French pieces: Héroïnes (Heroines) by Julie Nioche, an artist associated with the CDCN, a raw encounter between dance and music, a hybrid form of concert and dance performance; and Bataille (Battle) by Pierre Rigal, a choreographer from Toulouse, a confrontation between two physical actors: Hassan Razak, a body percussion specialist, and Pierre Cartonnet, an acrobat. Oona Doherty Hope’s piece Hunt  &  the Ascencion into Lazarus will also be performed by Sandrine “Mufasa” Lescourant, a French dancer and choreographer.

The festival also wanted to open this showcase of Ecuadorian dance to emerging artists from the Ecuadorian artistic scene, identified during the first edition. Two such companies will be presented at the Teatro Capitol in Quito.

The festival also offers two conference/debate sessions at the Lycée international and the Alliance française of Quito, based on video clips and covering 10 key moments in the history of dance, from Loïe Fuller to Michael Jackson, Nijinski and Bjart: Une histoire de la danse en 10 dates (A History of Dance in 10 Dates).

The Institut français and the project

Organised by La Place de la Danse – CDCN Toulouse/Occitanie, the Ecuador Alliances françaises network and the Compañía Nacional de Danza del Ecuador, La Plaza de la Danza is supported by the Institut français in partnership with the City of Toulouse.

L'institut français, LAB