notafe 2010

12.o7 - 17.o7. 2010 in viljandi

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NoTaFe 2o1o! july 12-17! in viljandi!

let us rejoice, while this summer, for the eighteenth (18, XVIII) time, the young dance festival is taking place in viljandi; therefore being in blossoming age and totally vital. as always, a motley international bunch of people gathers together for the festival – to learn and to teach, to perform and to watch, to have fun and to relax, to think and to formulate.

this year we may start our busy days at the festival quite early. at 8 o’clock in the morning all who wish are awaited to the yoga class lead by master saju – prepare for your sensitivity to be broadened and life energy released. master saju is also a true expert in indian ayurveda massage, he gives a massage on previous registration.

NoTaFe summer school offers following courses: improvisation (teacher andrew morrish/australia), qi gong and oriental martial arts (teacher kauko uusoksa/finland), corporeal mime (teacher elke luyten/usa), dance technique (beginners: teachers sanna myllylahti/finland and david king/usa, advanced: teacher fornier ortiz/colombia/holland), composition (teacher cid pearlman/usa), juggling and acrobatics (teacher marco bonissimo/holland), action theatre (teacher sabine von der tann/germany) and children’s dance (teacher eve noormets/estonia). main organiser eve noormets, who has decided to share her priceless experience in children’s dance with enthusiastic students, is the very first local and native teacher in festival’s history. hopefully the number of fine estonian doers within the honourable circle of summer school teachers will increase even more in future.

the festival stage opens this time with a festive closure: vaterland, premiered as the production of the mtü evestuudio two years ago, is going to be performed one last time on the home ground on july 12 at 2o.oo. this performance has been shown – besides the estonian towns viljandi, tallinn, rakvere, võru and tartu – in thailand at the pathumthani international theatre festival and in hungary, in cultural capital pecs. we’ll do some travelling in the future – fingers crossed! – but for the home audience this is probably the last chance to see andres noormets’ work vaterland. on the occasion of festive finish all actors are playing: in addition to the regular cast substitute silvia soro who has sometimes replaced anneli rahkema and mari kalkun in pathumthani.

same evening at 21.3o young dutch actresses kimmy ligtvoet and christina flick are showing their touching documentary meeting alice 2o1o, which allows us to meet aged artists from amsterdam, berlin and bangkok.

theatre rio rose from denmark pays us a visit with battlefield. rio rose is one of denmark’s most renowned companies of physical and visual theatre. at the NoTaFe battlefield #1 (younger couple) is going to be performed (july 13 at 2o.oo). they call their show a collage of battle and love coreographed for theatre.

the most exotic guest of the festival is mr. parnab mukherjee from india. parnab mukherjee is one of india’s best known alternative theatre directors. as human rights fighter he often handles sensitive topics in a society: e.g. freedom of speech. as actor he is most interested in possibilities a human body has to offer. different mode of using a body and flexible body are two concepts which have been used to describe his presence on stage. at the NoTaFe mr. mukherjee presents two performances: this room is not my room (based on texts by mahatma gandhi, king buddha and angulimala, fragments from the works of north-east asian video artists are also used) and parable of the post office fragments (texts by rabindranath tagore). he will perform on july 15 at 2o.oo.

as previous years, some of NoTaFe summer school teachers will perform. action theatre teacher sabine von der tann brings us delight with the emptiness revisited on july 14 at 2o.oo.

cid pearlman from the usa, who in academic year 2oo9/2o1o was working as a guest lecturer at the university of tallinn, has created several productions in estonia with david king and local dancers and dance students. two of those: this what we do in winter and catch as catch can will be seen at the NoTaFe stage, july 14 at 21.oo.

improvisator andrew morrich, originally from australia but teaching and performing all over europe most of the time, presents improvisational solo lying, stealing and cheating (july 16 at 2o.oo)

besides vaterland eike ülevainu’s estonia meets africa or view from a distance represents estonian artists (in viljandi hobby school july 14 at 22.oo).

as every year, dance students from tartu university viljandi culture academy and university of tallinn show their most exciting works. so on july 13 at 21.15 in a viljandi culture academy black box henry hütt’s the reader will be performed. students of the university of tallinn participate in cid pearlmann’s catch as catch can.

july 17 at 12.oo the festival will be concluded, as always, with the summer school open stage, so all participants can have their share in other workshops’ activities.

this year, too, we build a new dance stage for performances into the viljandi old sports hall, this was much appreciated both by the performers and the audience last year.

brand new initiative is to crack our brains a little and put some precious ideas into words. for this purpose there is already now a page for all good thoughts on our website titled „tegija räägib“/”practitioner speaking”. we hope to gather the thoughts of NoTaFe participants from all over the world and friends observing our life from a distance, thoughts about creation and work methods, improvisation and technique, dance and theatre, life and beauty etc … think along with us and share your thoughts with others, because one good idea gives birth to several new ones. and at least on one of the NoTaFe-evenings we’ll sit down together and take some time to rest our legs and exchange our views.

evening parties and jams will take place, of course, also cosy meetings at the männiku forest farm, on the viljandi lake beach and who knows where else. and surely you’ll have some time to take a private walk along the hospitable streets of viljandi, spare a moment to sit on a swing set in castle ruins, swim in the lake and breathe in the estonian summer with both lungs. because NoTaFe – this actually is vacation.