The 25th Macao Arts Festival (MAF) enters its fourth week with two highly anticipated shows, namely Dance Dome - 360º Cinema Experience by 4π Productions and Coreo Cymru (United Kingdom) and The Andersen Project by Ex Machina / Robert Lepage (Canada).
The Dance Dome is an innovative and intimate 360° immersive cinema developed to surround its audiences in cutting edge contemporary dance. It presents three unique films all produced in Wales as a collaboration between 4π Productions, Coreo Cymru (Creative Producer for Dance in Wales) and Chapter. Created by an international film crew and featuring choreography by award-winning companies Taikabox, Harnisch-Lacey Dance Theatre and Earthfall, the Dance Dome blurs the boundaries between movement, digital technology and cinema, wrapping dance around the viewer to create an extraordinary immersive experience. The trilogy includes Pal O’ Me Heart, a full dome adaptation of Earthfall’s most critically acclaimed production, accompanied by The Beautiful, featuring contemporary dance and Chinese pole and the 2012 Innovation Prize Winner at Domefest USA, The Sublime, which explores breakdance and parkour styles. Both thrilling and exquisite, Dance Dome will be shown from 19 May to 1 June, at Praça da Amizade (19 to 25 May) and at Pak Tai Temple Square (28 May to 1 June) from 6:30pm to 9:30 pm (19-23, 28-30/5); 11am-9:30pm (24, 25, 31/5, 1/6). Tickets are also available on site during the screenings which are 35 minutes long.
Robert Lepage is one of the leading directors of contemporary theatre. His theatrical works, films and stories are exceptionally groundbreaking and he is hailed a genius creator. Lepage became world-renowned with his work The Dragons’ Trilogy in 1985, and has since claimed many awards and recognition. He has also collaborated with artists of other fields. In 1993, he was invited to be the stage director for the world tour of British rock star Peter Gabriel. In 2005, he created the show KÀ for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. His vision and unique style have been widely recognized. Lepage was commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Culture to launch The Andersen Project to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. Freely inspired from two stories by Andersen (The Dryad and The Shadow) and from anecdotes drawn from the famed Danish author’s Parisian travels, The Andersen Project is infused with complex multimedia effects and has toured globally since its debut in 2005. The play calls on some of Lepage’s recurring themes: the confrontation of romanticism and modernism, of recognized and underground art forms, between past and present. However, in this solo work, he also explores more troubling territories: questions about sexual identity, unfulfilled fantasies and a thirst for recognition and fame that are drawn from Andersen’s life and writings, only to serve as a filigree to the modern tale. Robert Lepage’s modern fairy-tale is a masterful contemporary theatrical work not to be missed on 23 and 24 May, Friday and Saturday, at 8pm at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium.
Tickets for the 25th Macao Arts Festival are still available, in limited numbers, at all Kong Seng Ticketing Network outlets. Telephone bookings may be made on 2855 5555. For more information please check the MAF website at: www.icm.gov.mo/fam.
