REAL DANCE Dance Festival

The third edition of the Real Dance Festival is an invitation to actively engage with political and aesthetic realities, but also to indulge in glittering escapism: The program ranges from the opening performance of *A.I.* by Kyle Abraham, the internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer from New York who has already worked with icons such as Beyoncé and Sufjan Stevens, to Hanover’s first No-Boundaries Battle by the Brujas
Collective. The Cultural Office of the State Capital of Hanover invites you to City Hall for this event as part of the Real Dance Festival and in cooperation with the Brujas Collective. In addition to the world premiere of Mediation Reprise,
Kyle Abraham will present three other outstanding pieces from his repertoire—which has been growing for 20 years—with his company A.I.M. Also traveling from New York is Jerron Herman, who will present his performance LAX at the Kunstverein Hannover. As “site-responsive choreography,” his exploration of athletic stillness—a stillness that is less an absence of strength than a disciplined pause—relates to the current exhibition Self-Portrait as a Pregnant Woman by Teresa Solar Abboud. At Ballhof 1, the renowned artist Choy Ka Faim, who lives between Singapore and Berlin, will present SoftMachine: The Return. His
work on Soft Machine began ten years ago. As a friend and fellow traveler, he himself is part of the living archive of contemporary Asia. He brings together four choreographers and, together with them, liberates dance from its metaphorical framework, thereby transforming it into a form of thought itself. Two of the four works comprising Soft Machine:
The Return will be presented in Hannover: In his dances, Rianto explores the search for love, gender norms, and tradition in Indonesia, while Yuya Tsukahara of contact Gonzo—known for her improvisational style, in which blows and jolts blur the line
between violence and trust—returns as a digital “metahuman.” Nadia Beugré, one of the most influential choreographers of her generation, who explores artistic and social frontiers
between Africa and Europe, returns in Epique ! (pour Yikakou), she returns to her childhood, to the long-overgrown village of Yikakou, and tells her story through the female figures who shaped her, accompanied musically by what remains of a long-vanished place. The foyer of Ballhof 1 is transformed by a takeover from acid collège into a Parcours, inviting visitors to daily sessions to practice survival in an increasingly corrosive present

Finally, we head to the New City Hall for the grand Brujas finale, where Mayor Belit Onay will open Hanover’s first No-Boundaries Dance Battle. The Brujas are a collective of eight women who are redefining the politics of battle right where urban policy is made. Everyone can participate in the battle—actively or as a spectator, with or without a disability, beginners and advanced dancers alike, open to all dance styles.
In addition, the video dance Sarkha by artist Jumana Dabis will be shown, taking us on an abstract journey through the lives of Palestinian female artists, women, and girls in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Cairo. Tiago Manquinho and Yanel Barbeito invite you to a showing with a feedback discussion of their latest work on the Cumberland Stage, and two workshops also offer the opportunity to participate
in the Real Dance Festival. In their workshop, the dasmis collective works with participants to translate dance into sound, and Cara Rother, co-founder of Tanzpunkt Hannover, offers several workshops for blind and visually impaired dance enthusiasts to learn the basics of dance.

More information www.realdance.de