Dance greats on Zurich’s stages

In today’s fragmented world, the Steps dance festival has made it its mission to build bridges, bring people together and bring a touch of magic to every corner of Switzerland. Many stages, many cities, many performers, many spectators and, hopefully, a whole host of different perspectives. That strikes me as particularly wonderful and potentially very promising. The biennial festival spreads across Switzerland like a spider’s web, taking place from 5 to 29 March at 38 venues featuring international names from the contemporary dance scene.

The Gessnerallee stage is also hosting some big names. With the Dance Ensemble tanzmainz, the renowned Swiss choreographer Rafaële Giovanola turns her attention to the human musculoskeletal system. It is not every day that such an ensemble can be seen on a Zurich stage. All the more reason to look forward to the award-winning Sphynx, which promises a sensory overload of the best kind on Tuesday 10 March.

The new creation IN THE BRAIN by star choreographer Hofesh Shechter will be performed twice at the Gessnerallee. The fusion of club culture with Shechter’s movement language arouses curiosity and has the potential to draw the audience into a state of dance ecstasy. The piece is even celebrating its world premiere as part of Steps and is definitely a must-see!

The grand finale at the Gessnerallee will be provided by Megan & Jessica Kennedy’s Dublin-based dance theatre company on 18 March with Dances Like a Bomb. With the duet by Finola Cronin and Luc Dunberry, the sisters artistically address an omnipresent theme: the ageing body. Through dance, speech, humour, honesty and warmth, the two performers highlight a process that we often prefer to leave unspoken in our fast-paced lives. The spoken text is in English with descriptive surtitles in German.

And to do justice to the dance festival’s mission, it’s also worth taking a look at the supporting programme. After all, the best way to build a bridge to the piece is to embody it yourself. For example, there is a 15-minute, movement-based introduction to Sphynx by tanzmainz and Rafaële Giovanola before the performance on 10 March. In the same format, IN THE BRAIN and Dances Like a Bomb also offer opportunities to get the body in the right frame of mind, allowing you to engage with the piece in a different or perhaps more intense way. The rest of the supporting programme can be found on the Steps website.

And here is the link to the homepage with all the information: www.steps.ch
An overview of the Zurich Steps programme is available here. Simply go to the online programme and filter by city. It’s well worth a look!