With the dance group Tao Dance Theater from China and the multi-award winning show 11 presented in collaboration with the Venice Dance Biennale, this year’s 29th Kalamata International Dance Festival begins on July 14.

China’s most internationally recognized choreographer Tao Che coordinates 11 dancers with a rule that is both liberating and restrictive:

Their lower body movements are strictly choreographed while their upper body movements are completely improvised.

Each dancer follows his own independent path. The rotation space of their hips, the orientation of their knees, and each step of their feet are predetermined, while their shoulders, elbows, wrists, spine, and head are free to move in different and random ways (July 14 at 21:00 & July 15 at 22:00).

Next on the Central Stage on July 16 is the award-winning work for the whole family The Others, by the Slovak Anton Lachky. The play received the Maeterlinck Prize 2022 as the “Best Dance Performance”, the Belgian Minister of Education Award and the “Critics’ Favorite Performance” Award.

After his stop in Kalamata, his world tour includes 100 more shows in 10 different countries until the end of 2024 (July 16 at 19:00). On July 15 and 16, the Frenchman Christian Rizzo presents the solo En son lieu starring Nicolas Fayol at Black Box.

En son lieu (In its place) traces the genesis of dances in their natural environment.

The aim of the project is to deconstruct dances first performed in a studio environment, re-placing them in the natural landscape and observing what emerges after contact (July 15th at 7pm & July 16th at 10pm).

In the Central Square of Kalamata, on July 15th the show BOLERO by Antonis Foniadakis and the play FÁRISA by Danais & Dionysios are presented, while on July 16th the duo presents another play, this time for the whole family, entitled “Napi, the girl and the bubble”.

Entitled (Epi)Turn to the Body, the 29th Kalamata International Dance Festival will take place from July 14 to 23 hosting this year choreographers, dancers and teachers from 10 countries from four continents, Asia, Europe, America and Africa.

Contemporary dance, from all over the world, is represented through a total of 17 productions, 9 groups from Greece and 7 from abroad: The purely artistic program of the Festival will take place from July 14 to 23 and includes the performances of the Central Stage and the Black Box of the Megaro Chorus of Kalamata as well as the performances that will be presented in the Central Square of Kalamata and in 3 cities of the Peloponnese Region, Sparta, Tripoli and Nafplio. The program includes dance performances that combine different genres, and integrate theatre, live music and digital media into their narrative.

The foreign artists who will present their works and teach in the professional seminars of the Festival come from 10 countries, China, Canada, France, Portugal, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Croatia and Mozambique.

From July 6th to July 23rd, the seminars and workshops of the educational program will be held for professionals and for the residents and visitors of Kalamata, while this year we will once again see the long-awaited Art within One which ends every year in a powerful dance battle with one-minute performances in the Central Square of Kalamata. Two innovations this year are the Danceathon, a contemporary dance marathon and the visual lighting installation Shooting Stars by Antonello Ghezzi.