Mancopy’s 2012 Tour Includes Lebanon

In a unique artistic initiative to collaborate with dancers from the Arab World, and to bring the outcome to audiences all over Lebanon, Danish dance company Mancopy is presenting its new contemporary dance performance “EVERY last BREATH” between the 14th and the 24th of June 2012, before going onto a world tour.

For the past seven years, Jens Bjerregaard, artistic director of Mancopy Dance Company, has been collaborating with artists from around the world, convinced that through international exchange; art finally becomes an instrument of free expression.

For this project, Bjerregaard chooses to work with four dancers from Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt, alongside with a team of artists.

Being extremely aware of contact and flow, Bjerregaard is one of the few dance-makers who have persistently followed their own choreographic direction. With a natural instinct for the relations in the body and between bodies, Bjerregaard gives “movement” an accessible and human dimension.

For the creation of EVERY last BREATH, the artists flew from different parts of the world and gathered in Beirut. Rehearsals began early May in Art & Movement - Alice Massabki dance studio in Jal el Dib.

The starting point of EVERY last BREATH is the four dancers themselves; it is through their stories that the performance takes shape. From their stirred up histories, constantly shaken by political and social instabilities, each one of them reveals a personal artistic and physical reality.

To avoid that this piece remains just another dance performance by another international company, Mancopy chose to collaborate with venues and organizations around Lebanon and organized an unusual tour where each performance is followed by an open discussion between the artists and the audience.

EVERY last BREATH premieres in Monnot Theatre (Beirut) on the 14th of June then plays in the Oriental College (Zahle) in collaboration with the Municipality of Zahle and l’Institut Français, in Azm Cultural Centre – Beit el Fann (Tripoli), in Théâtre de l’Athénée (Jounieh), Maarouf Saad Cultural Centre (Sidon), Lycée Officiel Mixte (Tyre) in collaboration with l’Institut Français.

Because Mancopy perceives art as a means of exchange and understanding, and in collaboration with the Lebanese Centre for Drama Therapy- Catharsis, EVERY last BREATH will be adapted for an exceptional performance in Baabda Women’s Prison on the 18th of June.

This initiative is definitely unusual for an international performance coming to Lebanon, but in reality, it very much reflects Mancopy’s approach to art projects all over the world: from co-creations with Chinese dance companies, to exchange and artistic development programs in several African countries, to cross-cultural projects in America, Mancopy aims for the social, global and human impact of Art, above all.

The project is created with the support of the Danish Arts Council and the generous assistance of the Royal Danish Embassy in Beirut.

After Lebanon, EVERY last BREATH will be presented in Warsaw, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Copenhagen, Singapore to name a few.