FAM 25 will take place in the Auditorio de Tenerife, the Espacio La Granja, the Museo de Bellas Artes and at several open-air locations
The company of the iconic Canadian choreographer Marie Chouinard offers a double programme with a world première.
The Tenerife Island Council has announced the 15th annual ‘Festival de las Artes del Movimiento‘ (Arts and Movement Festival), FAM 25. This initiative of the Auditorio de Tenerife is to take place from 27 May to 8 June in the Auditorio’s Symphony Hall and La Salita hall, at the cultural venue ‘Espacio La Granja‘, in the Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz ‘Museo de Bellas Artes’ and at several open-air locations in the capital. The details were announced by the provincial Minister for Culture, Museums and Sports of the Island Council of Tenerife, José Carlos Acha, the General Director of Cultural Innovation and Creative Industries, Cristóbal de la Rosa, the council member for Culture of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santiago Díaz, and José Luis Rivero, the Artistic Director of the Auditorio de Tenerife.
José Carlos Acha announced the celebration of the 15th anniversary of FAM, with a programme of 11 days of activities, 15 dance companies and a festival pass for 15 euros. The performances are to take place in several venues of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and on the city’s streets to provide all its citizens with the opportunity to enjoy dance. The Councillor for Cultural Affairs also expressed his appreciation of ‘the collaboration among authorities, which is a fine example of the teamwork that has made this festival possible’.
Cristóbal de la Rosa mentioned ‘the change for the better we have seen in the last 15 years regarding the perception of dance by citizens and also by the institutions involved, which must continue to gain insight on the subject and further coordinate their efforts at every administrative level, from municipal to nationwide authorities’. He went on to insist that ‘culture, in terms of well-being, must define far-reaching issues insofar as how and to what extent it contributes to society from a public standpoint, and concluded by expressing his appreciation of the extraordinary work done to present this year’s FAM’.
Santiago Díaz said he was ‘very pleased to see the promotion of the festival pass and congratulated the festival organisers for having collaborated for 15 years with regional authorities’. He added, ‘This year, due to the closure of Guimerá Theatre, we are providing the theatre grounds, the surroundings of La Granja Park and the Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz, which will be used as a stage for two site-specific events and a conference’. The councillor for cultural affairs concluded his comments by adding, ‘The only thing left now is for everyone to enjoy the dance programme’.
José Luis Rivero said, ‘For 15 years, FAM has provided citizens with all types of dance events, from the simplest arrangements to large-scale formal performances, focusing our efforts at all times on Canarian dance companies. We are offering the public a festival pass for 15 euros. We have gone to great lengths to make this pass affordable for all citizens who wish to attend the festival.
The festival aims to make the island a centre of dance arts for 11 days with contemporary dance companies from Spain and abroad. The vitality of this art form permeates the programme, which includes large-scale formal interpretations, duet street performances, site-specific works and other initiatives of varying formats and ideas, in addition to several world premières.
The programme begins on Tuesday, 27 May at 6 p.m. at Espacio La Granja with the family-oriented show ‘Sujeto-verbo-predicado’ of the company CondeGalí BL. The show, in which the public may take part, depicts the relationship between syntax and choreography as language-specific forms of composition. With a price of admission of five euros, it is the only event not included in the festival pass, precisely because it is a family-oriented show.
Over the next two days of the festival, site-specific works of Jesús Caramés and Esther Martínez are to be performed at the Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz, starting on Wednesday, 28 May at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Performances have also been scheduled for Thursday, 29 May at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., as well as a conference hosted by Javier Martín at 6 p.m.
Among this year’s most promising events are two works of iconic Canadian choreographer Marie Chouinard, scheduled for the first weekend of the festival. Six days after its world premiere in Madrid, her new creation MAGNIFICAT will be interpreted in Tenerife, along with BodyremixRemix, another new work which will be performed at the Auditorio de Tenerife for the first time. Both shows are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday (31 May and 1 June) in the Symphony Hall of the Auditorio at 7.30 p.m.
The festival’s programme will continue on Monday, 2 June at 7.30 p.m. at Espacio La Granja with the company Clémentine & Lisard and La mecànica de l’infortuni. Dancers Clémentine Télesfort and Lisard Tranis will fill the stage with their art in a show that features body language and the reflexes that are produced in response to adverse circumstances.
On Wednesday, 4 June at 7.30 p.m., also at Espacio La Granja, the company Estévez/Paños y Compañía will interpret Tríptico #2 (Meter los pies, Nondedéu y Silencios). This is part of a numbered series of shows based on choreographies in which the dancers accompany each other with voice, lighting, their bodies, their presence and small instruments.
FAM 25 will take to the streets on Thursday, 5 June, on the grounds of the Guimerá Theatre. Starting at 6 p.m., the first performances will be Laura López Muñoz and Pablo Pérez Alonso interpreting Bailaban las perolas, along with the premiere of RAM by Galicia-born Javier Martín during his artistic residence at the La Salita hall. This will be followed by Kiko López Company performing Honest at 7.30 p.m. and Ángel Durán Performing Arts interpreting Clinch.
The next day’s events will return to Espacio La Granja. The new show of Paula Quintana, Atlas de anatomía humana, has been scheduled for Friday, 6 June at 7.30 p.m. The Tenerife-based dancer and choreographer is to interpret a flamenco-influenced work that will take the public into her ongoing quest for the construction of identity in a process that brings together several influences through a multifaceted approach.
The festival’s second weekend will begin with two new creations scheduled for Saturday, 7 June at 10 a.m. at Espacio La Granja. Under the billing ‘Jornada FAM’, the company Colectivo Lamajara will interpret Cuaderno de campo, el legado de una obra and the troupe Javier Arozena cía will perform Cuarto, a site-specific work consisting of dance interpreted before a unique, brutalist construction.
The festival programme will continue the same day at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife with another of this year’s large-scale productions: Dance On Ensemble and the work Mellowing. In this creation of Greek choreographer Christos Papadopoulos, the Berlin-based company will share with the public its insight into the intensity of the moment, generating underlying restlessness and ceaseless vibration that inevitably draws in spectators.
The festival will conclude on Sunday, 8 June, with two shows at the Auditorio de Tenerife. The first, at noon in the Auditorium’s La Salita hall, will feature the company of dancer and performer Sonia Gómez and her work Calidoscòpica, which deals with the type of filter needed to make visible and to give a first-hand account of the capacities that may stem from the taboo of madness or mental illness. In the second show, scheduled to begin at 7.30 p.m., Richard Mascherin will bring the festival to its close in the venue’s Symphony Hall with the première of Abertura. The work, presented as ‘an exit from this world’, portrays a world in the throes of catastrophe in which the remaining bodies that inhabit it are pushed to the limits of their resistance.
Alongside the Tenerife Island Council, the FAM festival is supported by the Canary Islands Government through the Regional Institute of Cultural Development, the Autonomous Department of Cultural Affairs of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the programme ‘Danza a Escena’, which is part of the Spanish Network of Theatres of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM) of Spain’s Ministry of Culture. The festival holds the EFFE Label (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) of the European Union. The label is an acknowledgement of the quality of festivals with artistic missions, commitment to local communities, and strategic vision.
The festival passes can be purchased at a single price of €15 on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium’s box office, or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You must collect your festival pass in person at the Auditorium’s box office or the Espacio La Granja on performance days to attend the shows. The passes, together with the attendance control for each of the eight indoor shows (provided via email if purchased online or by telephone or by hand if purchased at one of the box offices), allow admission to the shows scheduled at the Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife. Admission will be granted to the rest of the festival’s events after showing the festival pass and the attendance control, which is to be assigned upon arrival of each spectator. The only event for which admission will be charged separately is the show scheduled for the first day, because it is a family-oriented show.