The Beirut International Festival of Contemporary Dance Bipod (2022) can be considered a new sign of contemporary theater, where the body has become a master of creative possibilities. In the 18th edition of the festival, the search for unseen sensual relationships, the discovery of colors and letters, the perception of higher reality amidst the ambiguity and dynamism that gives the human body of a new beauty.

Against the backdrop of these concepts, BIPOD was launched in Beirut yesterday after its activities in Lyon, France. The festival, which has put Lebanon on the map of contemporary dance, uses the Sursok Museum, Beret Theater and Baaklin Village as a platform for its activities, which are not limited to contemporary dance performances, but also include venues for discussion, dialogue. , exchange of experiences, Artistic interaction. It will run until Sunday, May 29th. Note that all shows are available free of charge to all Lebanese residents, and the events are broadcast on the Stern Live electronic platform.
Nearly three years after the dismantling of the Citrine Theater in Beirut’s Quarantine District and the launch of a “cultural defiance” campaign by Maqamat Troupe founder and Baipod Festival director Omar Raje, the term now appears with the return of “ Beirut International Contemporary Dance Festival ”. “Disobedience is an act of care, correction, and change for the better,” Rajeh assured us. The main issues held by this year’s festival focus on the role of culture as a philosophical question about being and its reflection, as well as on the artists themselves, which is the core of the creative and artistic process. “What do they bring from social, consumer and political issues, with global destruction and chaos, to the level of health, psychology and economy,” Rajeh told us, adding: “We should ask about culture and its role, and how it can overlap with each other and intervene in the field. Social and political without losing its artistic value? The range of questions expands to ask what does it mean to be an artist or an art worker? What is the role of the audience, what does it mean to be an active audience and why? So, as a form of disobedience to free will and as a call for renewal and change, the eighteenth edition of the BiPod was held to explore how sensational ideas are brought to life in cinemas and festivals. can continue to stimulate and serve the purposes of creative artists. . .

Bassam Abu Diab presents Pina My Love on the Beret Stage tonight.

It is noteworthy that this year the Bipod was shown at the Beret Theater, which is attended by no more than 150 people, and at the Sursok Museum in Beirut. Rageh said: “There are some theater curators who use the logic of the current government in Lebanon.” He sees the need to spread the spirit of youth and change in some cinemas to take cultural skills to another level. “There are dinosaurs in the culture and we need new blood,” Raje said. Despite artistic dissatisfaction with reality, the virtual world has become a welcome alternative. By taking the festival to the next level through digitally streaming presentations, presentations and other activities through the Citerne.live platform, viewers in different cities can follow the festival online, creating opportunity to use the culture and sense of cross-border solidarity.
Among the works participating in Bipod is the show Hadrat (30.D), which was shown yesterday at Sursok, and tomorrow (at 18:00) it will also be shown at Baaklin. The show was designed by French-Moroccan artist and dancer Alexandre Roccoli, who draws inspiration from circle dance as an artistic aesthetic. Combines choreography, visual arts, music and theater. He interrogates the “hazrat” of memory, questioning the processes of the imagination. In this performance, the dancer uses the body as a tool to explore the past and future, moving freely between temporal fantasies.

This year’s festival raised the slogan of cultural defiance

And this year’s Bipod program includes Nebula or “Nebula” (60 D), presented by dancer Vanya Fano today at the Sursock Museum (Q: 18:00). The French dancer and choreographer viewed the relationship between the human body and nature as a meeting of strength. He questions the modern signs of the universe, so that the show becomes a cross-travel into the unknown, reflecting “the moment of a cosmic eclipse, with the aim of looking at others and possible worlds where the future and the past are converging. ”So, in science fiction, Fano takes us back to prehistory. On the same day, that is, May 27, Lebanese choreographer, founder of the Beirut Physics Lab, Bassam Abu Diab will present his upcoming show “Pina My Love” (45.D) on the Beirut stage, at 8 p.m. of the night. the show was inspired by choreographer and late German dancer Pina Bausch. Abu Diab recalled stories of incarceration and illness and aimed to expand prison conditions and the cruel and inhumane methods of prisoners. is subject to. Bassam tells us that “imprisonment is a direct punishment and a forced restriction on human freedom and space.” A prison used by totalitarian regimes as a tool to suppress their body of personality expression through intimidation and torture, where the body remains the most important means of human self -expression. How does dancer Bassam Abu Diab view the prisoner experiences he has documented? Thus, Pina My Love describes movements and reactions in an enclosed space and wonders if it is possible for the body to find the supernatural, avoid pain and make it a survival dance.

Hazrat by artist and dancer Alexander Rokuli

BiPod is scheduled to finish with Swiss choreographer Luans Mandavonis and From Scratch show (45.d.) at the Sursock Museum at 7pm on Sunday. The performance is improvisational, it is built on the views of the audience, which they will present to him during the presentation. Candavones collects and presents proposals to the public in the form of dance and immediate performance and incorporates them into the creation process. The show showcases a new perspective on the art of choreography to help understand some of the rules and tools for dancers, as well as how to build a choreography.
The activities of the festival are not limited to the presentation of contemporary dance performances, but more than that and have developed a cultural forum “Baipod”, where artists, activists and the public share space for discussion, dialogue and interaction. The most notable meetings were the Dialogue Session held today at the Sursock Museum (at 6 pm) entitled “Caring, Courage, Change”, which was attended by several cultural activists from Lebanon and France.
This year, bipods have come under unprecedented circumstances in Beirut, which is experiencing unprecedented recessions. Modern dance performances are admired by the Lebanese public to witness a new theatrical language that returns the body to its human origin and to a more pure reality that responds to the new aspirations of human society.

Beirut Contemporary Dance Festival – Baibud: Until May 29 – Beret Theater, Sursok Museum in Beirut and Baaklin in Chouf – Admission free – performances available on Citerne.live platform