Combined Evening by Sharon Fridman Dance Company

In the frame of Tel Aviv Dance 2015 / EspanaDanza 2015.

Sharon Fridman (Hadera, Israel, 1980), arrived in Spain in 2006. By that time, he was touring Europe with Mayumana Company, working as the artistic coordinator. The day they arrived in Madrid marked a milestone in Sharon’s career. Dazzled by the streets, peoples and customs of this city, he decides to change the course of history and settles down in the Spanish capital city. This is when Projects in movement starts.

Since he arrived in Madrid, Sharon feels the need to create his own material. Inspired by this desire, he meets the dancer Carlos Fernández. Together, they create Carlos & me (2006), which is Sharon Fridman’s first created and choreographed duet in Spain. As a result of this play, Sharon discovers contact as a creation method, thus he uses it in all his later productions. Carlos & me is a play about dualism, the different quality of movement, and the harmony they can notice despite their different natures. Helped by Laura Kumin, the duet takes part in the Madrid Choreography Contest, where it is awarded 5 prizes: the second prize of the contest, the audience award, the prize Conservatorio María de Ávila (which will set the beginning of a close cooperation to date), Bassano del Grappa Festival B-Motion‘s prize of Artistic Assistance (starting an artistic cooperation with three young choreographers: Janet Novas, Pisando Ovos and Natxo Montero, Vuelo 6408, which will tour Galicia and the Basque Country), and Residencia artística award in Portugal’s o espaço do tempo. Here, a new turning point arises: Q-Project (2008), his first full-length creation, starts taking form. It will be released in Madrid en Danza Festival, and will tour the whole Madrid’s Theaters network. This play is a result of studying the details, the individualism. There is a need of expressing those unique moments and raising them to a universe of indisputable significance. The result is an expressionist play that takes a painstaking photograph of the instant of change.

Two people join Sharon’s cause in this first stage. Convinced of the Company potential and basing their work on love and friendship, Belén Núñez and Nacho Azagra start performing key functions that will allow the project to grow immensely. Sharon’s company, called Projects in movement at that time, becomes established: He is invited by The Royal Opera House of London to participate in Dance Lines 2008. He choreographs a project comprising 15 dancers.
In 2009 he takes part in Choreoroam, an artist residencies program that takes place in different European places: Bassano del Grappa, Zagreb, Rotterdam, London, Copenhagen and Madrid. This is another moment to celebrate. Silvia Gribaudi, Italian choreographer and performer appears on the scene. Both choreographers go on a research and creation trip that will arrive to INNER birth (2012), the Company’s last production.
Choreoroam ´09 means also the starting point for Shakuff (2010), the second full-length production to be released in Madrid’s Cartografías de la Danza en el Teatro Festival. It was one of the last dance plays performed in that theater before it was closed down, after a short while. Shakuff was the choreographic project that opened the residencies program of the Centro de Danza Canal. And it set another milestone: the Company’s first production performed out of Madrid (Cadiz, Bilbao, Albacete, Santiago de Compostela, etc). Shakuff (“transparent” in Hebrew) is a deep exploration of perception mechanisms, a choreographic test that looks into the transparent and opaque communications.

Martín Padrón, artistic director of the Centro Coreográfico La Gomera, attends to one of Shakuff plays and offers Sharon a research-oriented residency. It was 2010. At the same time, the Agency Fani Benages Arts Escèniques appears on scene to start a cooperation to date.
Sharon was giving seminars in the Conservatorio Superior de Danza María de Ávila. A young student that was gracefully hanging from a tree of the entrance playground grabbed his attention. His name was Arthur Bernard Bazin, a French dancer that had also chosen Madrid to settle down some years before. Sharon invited him to take part in a research process, to be developed in La Gomera, with a final course work.
Back in Madrid, in October 2010, Sharon is given great news. For its edition of 2011, the Otoño en Primavera Festival wants to count on a new creation of the Company. Thanks to the support provided by Centro Coreográfico La Gomera, Centro de Danza Canal, Madrid Autonomous Region and Centro de Humanidades Cardenal Gonzaga, the creation starts quickly. Sharon makes an unbreakable, powerful and very creative working staff that sets Al menos dos caras (2011) in motion. This project is a new proposal that takes back the work started in Shakuff and tries to explore the “transparency” notion again. Luis Miguel Cobo composes the music, Antonio Ramírez-Stabivo works on play-writing, Paloma Parra designs the lights and oficina 4play arquitectura conceives a stunning set. It is the beginning of a great Cooperation. Projects in movement becomes established, the seed has germinated, a very productive organization makes way: it is The Sharon Fridman Company. New acting fields appear soon. Laura Gil joins the Company as the communication and press manager. 2012 is projected as an intense and stimulating year.
But let’s take a look back… When Al menos dos caras is about to being released, the Cartagena Mudanzas Festival invites Sharon to take part in the program with a street duet that will be performed in front of the sea. Therefore a great idea called Hasta dónde…? arises. This 20-minute duet is a greatly versatile extract of Al menos dos caras, that has been performed in more than 30 places throughout the world: Bilbao, Seville, Granada, Marseille, Paris, Réunion, Ghent, Strasbourg, Liburnia, Bolonia, La Havana, etc.

Hasta dónde…? has been awarded several prizes, such as the First Prize in the Burgos-New York International Choreography Contest of 2011 and the Iberoamerican Choreography Award Alicia Alonso CIC´12. Al menos dos caras was awarded the best dance performance in Feria de Huesca of 2011. However, the best prize for this production are the festivals, networks and theaters it has gained access to thanks -among others- to the INAEM support: Paris quartier d´été, Marseille FDAmM, Tanec Praha, Oriente Occidente, Danza a Escena, etc.
And we keep moving forward… in October 2011, Didier Michel (Artistic consultant in Mister Dante) and Ana Cabo (Madrid en Danza Artistic Director) organized Ventana de la Danza. It is an exhibition platform for the contemporary dance of Madrid oriented to European producers. On that occasion, the Company performed Al menos dos caras and a nameless play, choreographed by Sharon for two weeks and performed by 10 dancers of the Company t.a.c.H. in the central courtyard of Conde Duque (Madrid). The co-director of Festival Paris quartier d´été, Carole Fierz, present in the audience, did not doubt that the modest proposal should keep growing and become part of the program in the subsequent edition of the Paris Festival. That is how Rizoma (2012) is created. A huge eco-friendly play performed at dawn by 70 volunteer citizens and 10 cellists. This creation is built after listening to the natural processes and focuses on the birth of ideas and their unexpected evolution. In May 2012, a first rehearsal was carried out in Matadero Madrid. It is officially released in Les Invalides of Paris on 15th July of the same year. The second performance (July 18th) took place at Trocadéro’s square grouping more than 800 people at 6:30 am.
Since then they start a cooperation with the Flemish Agency Frans Brood Productions, which has been dedicated to global diffusion since 1983, that will give its results soon.
After this explosion to the outside, to other places, countries and peoples, other ways of understanding the dance, making all processes popular…- year 2012 ends with a way to introspection, an inner look, where wishes crystallize and the unnameable materializes. Silvia Gribaudi and Sharon Fridman shut themselves –literally– for one month and a half in LSD in Movement study (Losdedae Company) and conceive the Company’s last proposal: INNER (2012), released in Madrid en Danza Festival. The critics include it in 2012 top-7 of dance performances seen in Spain.

Now what…? In 2013, the Company will join a new choreography project for 6 dancers that will take place all along several artistic residencies throughout Spain. Furthermore, the Company will still be touring Spain and the World performing the plays included in the repertoire. INNER, Rizoma, Al menos dos caras, Hasta dónde? and Shalosh 2013. The last one is a unique proposal, created in 2011, made up by three (“shalosh” in hebrew) 20-minute plays –of own creation or similar contributors– , that turns into a new staging every season. It feeds on duets, dance video creations, solos, performances, etc. Shalosh is a window to the creative processes and the Company’s artistic career.