FLOW5 International Dance Festival

Seven dance productions, a workshop presentation, audience meetings and a closing party will mark the fifth edition of the FLOW International Dance Festival, organized by M Studio. Tickets for the performances are already available on www.biletmaster.ro and at the Tickets Office in Sfântu Gheorghe.

FLOW – movement, dynamism, fluidity. FLOW Festival was launched in 2015 on the occasion of M Studio’s 10th anniversary. As the only contemporary dance festival in the region, the event has managed to keep its spirit throughout these years, presenting high quality, relevant and unique dance productions that represent current international dance trends, not only to the audience in Sfântu Gheorghe, but also across the country. Over the years the festival has hosted dance companies and artists such as Josef Nadj, FrenÁk Company, Emanuel Gat Dance and Atelier 3+1 from France, Dandelion production choreographed by Hannes Langolf and Ermira Goro, former dancers of DV8 Physical Theatre in London, and Ferenc Fehér, a representative and unique figure of the independent dance scene in Hungary. The festival also hosted the Gergye Krisztián Company, the Góbi Rita Company, the Szkéné Theatre and Forte Company’s performance The Big Book, the Belgian Anton Lachky Company’s production The Others and the independent Linotip company from Bucharest.

The FLOW5 Festival will take place between 17-23 of June and will offer a diverse and exciting repertoire of dance productions: the event will include artists already well known to the public, productions that will be presented for the first time in Romania and productions from M Studio’s partner countries within the international project Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery – Creative Europe 2023-2026.

Josef Nadj and FrenÁk Company are already well-known names in Sfântu Gheorghe. Thanks to their collaboration of more than ten years, many of their productions and creations have been presented in the city and at previous editions of the FLOW Festival. The audience is always amazed by the intense experience of FrenÁk’s performances and the acrobatic ingenuity of the productions. This year FrenÁk Company returns to FLOW with the production BOYS (23 June), presented in 2004 and since then became an iconic and timeless production, presenting and analyzing the social stereotypes of masculinity with fierce honesty.

A memorable experience was the performance OMMA, choreographed by Josef Nadj in 2022, presented as part of FLOW4 program, in which dancers from Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Congo moved an incredible energy in the performance hall. Full Moon (17 June) brings back seven dancers from OMMA who will return to Sfântu Gheorghe to amaze the audience again. Another exciting aspect of Full Moon will be that Josef Nadj will join the dancers on stage.

The partner countries of the international project Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery – Creative Europe 2023-2026 will bring 3 productions to FLOW5.

The Krakow Dance Theatre’s production Shakespearia brings together the female protagonists of Shakespeare’s tragedies in one space (18 June). The Krakow Dance Theatre is the most active contemporary dance company in Poland currently based in the Cricoteka Documentation Centre, which preserves the legacy of world-renowned theatre director Tadeusz Kantor.

Central Europe Dance Theatre from Hungary will present the production Ageless Generation (20 June), choreographed by Anton Lachky. The Slovak choreographer’s name is also familiar to audiences in the city: the production Special Society (also by Central Europe Dance Theatre) participated on FLOW3 in 2022 and Anton Lachky’s The Others was on FLOW4. Ageless Generation promises to deliver the same explosive experience that is the choreographer’s signature style.

Also part of Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery will be #ORPHEUS#EURYDICE (19 June), a duet by Beatrix Simkó and Zoltán Grecsó, reinterpreting the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, placing the couple in the present day and offering a unique take on this love story.

The program will also include the open presentation of the Dance Communication Lab workshop, coordinated and choreographed by Andrea Gavriliu, a workshop with 6 professional dancers selected from Beyond Front@ partner countries: Romania, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia and Sweden. The choreography created during the workshop will be presented during a public showing with free entrance (19 June).

Andrea Gavriliu will participate on FLOW5 with another choreography: Fiesta, a production of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre from Bulgaria. Fiesta is a physical theatre performance that uses highly developed movement material and will delight the audience with its effervescent dynamism.

The festival will also present BLOT – Body Line of Thought, a Romanian-Canadian co-production of the Bucharest-based company Tangaj Collective (22 June), which in 2018 presented Counterbody in Sfântu Gheorghe, choreographed by Simona Deaconescu, a production that participated and won awards at numerous international dance festivals.

FLOW5 Festival events are supported by Sfântu Gheorghe City Hall, Covasna County Council, the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN), the French Institute of Romania and the Creative Europe 2023-2026 program of the European Union.

Partners: Tamási Áron Theatre, Háromszék Dance Ensemble, Cinema Arta, Kónya Ádám House of Culture, Andrei Mureșanu Theatre, Cimborák Puppet Theatre, Kobak Design.

After each performance, participants are expected to meet the artists for a free discussion, and on June 23, FLOW5 will end with a party by Mihai Dobre (Șuie Paparude) in the Tamási Áron Theatre Café.

Tickets are already available on www.biletmaster.ro and at the Tickets Office in Sfântu Gheorghe. For detailed information follow M Studio’s website and social media pages!