Platform 14 provides a stage for emerging independent choreographers

Uferstudios, Berlin
August 11, 2023

On August 11 and 12, Platform 14 returned for its fourth year, again at Uferstudios, it’s home from the beginning. Organised by Roosa Sofia Nirhamo from Finland and Aseel Qupty from Palestine, with the support of Christine Schmidt (former dancer and teacher at Trinity Laban, London and founder of shibak sharki gGmbH), it provides a platform for international independent dancers and emerging choreographers who have moved to Berlin to pursue their profession. In keeping with the festival motto, “Create. Perform. Connect,” the annual event allows them to share short pieces and works in progress. This year, the organisers received 500 applications, proving the need for such a platform.

I was only there the first evening but the event was clearly well organised and the selection of the artists well thought as a range of highly crafted dancers and interesting choreographers showed their skills in pieces that lasted from 15 to 30 minutes.

The festival opened with Estrange, a duet by Amanda Donato, originally from Canada. Danced by Tamae Yoneda and Beatrice Capanni, it’s a highly-skilled, precise, physical work in which their interaction showcases a turbulent mother-daughter relationship. Without casting blame on the situation, negotiation, support, negation, symbiosis, detachment, control and dependency are just some of the aspects that can be perceived. Well-composed and well-performed, it was pleasant to watch yet, somehow, without being particularly engaging.

ENTITEY/Jason Martin (also Canada), presented étude nO.1 – Plaidoyer pour l’Impermanence, an work that proved the highlight of the evening. Martin created a special atmosphere and set an intimate energetic field for the whole of the piece’s 18 minutes. He captured the attention as he created an organic, breathy performance where the tempo, movements, aesthetic choices and dramaturgy came together fully. Focusing on cycles of transformation, metamorphosis, renewal and reconstruction through sensorial and bodily responses, Martin’s aim is to reflect on the destiny of the humankind and the resilience and interdependence of the human condition. Maybe those aspects don’t always come out that straightforwardly, but étude nO.1 is a mature piece that fully absorbs.

Mariana Collado and Lucio A. Baglivo (Spain) choreographed and danced MyL. The outstanding pair engaged with the audience in a funny, vibrant and peculiar performance. The meeting of contemporary dance with flamenco in various forms, together with remarkable acting and cabaret skills, made the work really engaging and fun to watch. Collado, an excellent multi-skilled performer, created an energetic flow between the acting, singing and dancing. Baglivo showed his crafts as dancer, acrobat and actor in a passionate yet distressed dialogue with his companion. The whole mix was spiced up with some interaction with the public who strongly enjoyed the flamboyant couple and the hybridity of the work.

Estelle Bézombes (France) danced her own L’ Horizon est fait de petits cailloux, a solo of fluid and rounded movements. Bézombes explores the constant relationship between the meaning we give to our existence and our present, the daily life. Somewhat vague in the intention, the piece flows in a suspended space with nice lines and steps but no clear direction, nor dramaturgical force.

Maria Chaira de’ Nobili and Alexander Miller (Italy and Germany) presented Until again danced by Miller himself and Nam Tran Xuan. Inspired by the camaraderie between two men who share their journeys of life, it’s a hymn to friendship emphasising how sharing loneliness and struggles can turn cries into laughter and loneliness into love. Through their superb, highly skilled dancing, Miller and Xuan made those struggles visible and their complicity tangible.

The final piece of the evening, Manifest by Paula Caldirola (Argentina) is a short work that is a tribute to celebration and parties as a symbol of collective resistance and enjoyment. Again, it wasn’t really clear what the intention was, but Caldirola certainly danced with fierceness.

Despite that fact that some works seemed less mature and grounded than others, perhaps in need of further development, Platform 14 was a pleasant discovery. It was good to witness some excellent dancing and well-thought choreographies. It’s also good to see that international emerging but talented choreographers are able to get visibility through such Berlin independent platforms.