MY DEAREST RITUALS
Rituals can be reassuring or confining, since they are traditions and customs we follow. They can be seen as formal, mandatory, and restrictive, or as a way to feel a sense of belonging to a larger group. The human race is diverse in its cultural, social, and generational aspects. Thus, rituals have a significant social value.
A captivating dance performance, My Dearest Rituals delves into the idea of ambiguity in different types of rituals that people encounter in their lives – be it cultural, religious, or familial.
Seven dancers from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Croatia, France, Ghana, and Spain, under the direction of choreographer Sophie Bulbulyan, collaborated to shape and explore the concept of ambiguity in various rituals pertaining to their individual lives and a sense of being in the world. They were to visualise how individuals adapt to these rituals and create their own, while navigating the structural elements they impose. How to avoid feeling confined?
My Dearest Rituals is a collaboration project created and developed between partnering organisations Exodos Ljubljana (SI), Compagnie DK-BEL (FR), Kultura Kreatiboa / Errenteria Udala (SP) and Zagrebački plesni centar / Zagreb Youth Theatre (HR), and was realised within the framework of SHARE: Creative powers of art, a transnational cooperation project supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union – the Culture strand.
Developed over the course of three artistic residencies and mentoring programs in Accra – Ghana, Zagreb – Croatia, and Errenteria – Euskadi/Spain, where the project premiered in September 2023, Rituals are set to tour across both Europe and Africa during 2024.
Sophie Bulbulyan, French choreographer lives between Paris and Athens. She cofounded the DK-BEL Company, which welcomes dancers with disabilities. She was one of the two choreographers of the Drops of Breath show, the first underwater dance performance in the world, which took place in Greece in 2015. She is also the artistic director of the International Anamesa Festival, a European meeting for youth on Art and Disability, initiated in Athens, Greece in 2013. In her personal life, she is very involved in welcoming refugees to the Greek territory. In March 2018 the newspaper Le Monde honoured Sophie as the laureate of the French Citizen living abroad Trophy for her artistic and cultural work.
Dancers:
Jone Amezaga del Frago (Basque Country – Spain)
Gabriel Bokorvi (Ghana)
Tessa Ljubić (Croatia)
Charlotte Manu (Ghana)
Tchina Ndjidda (Cameroon)
Djibril Ouattara (Burkina Faso)
Raymond Siopathis (France)
Choreographer / Mentor:
Sophie Bulbulyan (France)Sound design: Sokhna Assietou Diallo (Senegal)
/ Mentor: Jure Vlahović (Slovenia)
Light design: Alassane Diedhiou (Senegal)
/ Mentor: Luka Curk (Slovenia)
Costume design: Charlotte Manu (Gana)
Tech. director: Borut Cajnko (Slovenia)
Technical support: Duško Richtermoc Riki, Saša Fistrić (Croatia)
Photo, video: Borut Bučinel (Slovenia), Nenad Petrović (Croatia)
Trailer: Borut Bučinel (Slovenia)
Graphic design: Katarina Đurđić (Croatia)
Producers:
Nataša Zavolovšek (Slovenia)
Patricia Arozena (Basque Country – Spain)
Sophie Bulbulyan (France)
Martina Nevistić Vukobrat (Croatia)
Production: SHARE: Creative powers of art – Exodos Ljubljana (SI), Compagnie DK-BEL (FR), Kultura Kreatiboa / Errenteria Udala (SP) and Zagrebački plesni centar/ Zagrebačko kazalište mladih (HR)
In partnership with: Compagnie Tamadia (Burkina Faso), Senegal Talent Campus (Senegal) and National Theatre of Ghana / Ghana Dance Ensemble (Ghana)
Premiere: September 21, 2023, Lekuona Fabrika – Errenteria, Spain
Duration: 55 min.
Age: 12+
SHARE: Creative powers of art (2020−24) is an inclusive, innovative and connective international socio-cultural project, created on the basis of experience and examples of good practice. As a result of previous joint international projects which entwined artists from across the continents, SHARE focused on education, creation and forging of connections with and between artistic and domicile communities in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. SHARE is rooted in a transnational partnership that brings together experience and expertise from the so-called Global North (Slovenia, Basque Country, France, Croatia) and the South (Cameroon, Palestine, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana); and seeks to implement capacity building activities and encourage all-around knowledge-exchange and artistic development opportunities as an essential intercultural approach.
The project and participation of the Zagreb Dance Center – Zagreb Youth Theater are co-financed by European Union / EACEA – Creative Europe, sub-program Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Zagreb and by the Embassy of Spain in Croatia.
The entire project is financially supported by the European Union / EACEA – Creative Europe, sub-program Culture, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb, Embassy of Spain in Croatia, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Errenteria Udala and Etxepare Euskal Institutu.
