STEPS Contemporary DANCE FESTIVAL in Switzerland is presenting famous choreographies from 7. April to 1 May 2016 over 90 events in 40 stages
When I saw the program for this Dance Festival I started to think about my TOP 10 famous contemporary Choreographers. It is difficult to say what I love most and what I have seen lately which, which is uppermost in my mind.
Sydney Dance Company/ Interplay
As Contemporary dance is an art, it is judged by each person in a subjective way. This means that what one person perceives as ‚the best‘ might not be ‚the best‘ for another one.
Here are my TOP 10
William Forsythe – all pieces of the 80thies
Wayne McGregor
Jiri Kylian
Akram Khan
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Alvin Ailey
Maurice Bejart
Mats Ek
John Neumeier
Lin Hwai-min/ Clouds Gate Taiwan Theatre
LAST BUT NOT LEAST Rafael Bonachela/Sydney Dance Company and Christian Spuck/ Stuttgarter and Zurich Ballet. I include Spuck even though he is considered more neo-classical.
These famous choreographers present their work all over the world and with the most well known dance companies and while I love to watch their productions, I regret not seeing other smaller companies with less well known artists. Smaller dance festivals would be an excellent opportunity for relative ‘unknowns’ to perform in front of an audience. It seems to me that there is no financial risk for the festival promoter to sign up the internationally known choreographers and dance companies. Perhaps well endowed sponsors should consider other platforms for those performers and choreographers on the fringes.
In Switzerland we have the STEPS Dance Festival starting 7. April to look forward to. This high quality contemporary Dance Festival takes place every second year . For those of you who do not live in Switzerland I am including my recommendations, my TOP 5 on the STEPS program as well as some videos, so as you are able to keep up to date.
Sydney Dance Company/ Interplay – energetic and flowing to the music
Wayne McGregor/ Atomos – challenging innovative, new cool moves
Eastmen/Sidi Larbi Cherkauoi / Fractus V – an intercultural dialogue
Ramirez, Molina and Wang/ Felahikum – ballet and hip-hop meets flamenco
Watch https://youtu.be/lBMvuJ-WZ6I
Candoco Dance Company/ Set and Reset – a restaging Project by Trisha Brown Dance Company + Thomas Haubert Notturnino
Not to forget Huang Yi -a poetic encounter between human and machine AND the South Korean Eun-Me Ahn – the dancing grandmothers.
Have fun at STEPS and enjoy all these great companies!
BLOG ABOUT BALLET AND DANCE 
Deborah Colker
Grupo Corpo
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