Focus on French culture at Vaba Lava 2017-2019

The focus of Vaba Lava for the 2017/2019 seasons is Francophonie and French culture !

French curators José Alfarroba and Tristan Barani will present performances related to “Big Data” and “post-truth”.

These performances are the result of a competition for theatrical projects. More than 142 propositions came out of it. Several theatres, companies, independent creators and international stars from Estonia and other countries participated in this project

The program for the two coming years includes a selection of dance and theatre performances, visual arts and much more. The main themes of the project are interdisciplinarity, cinema, theatre, personal data, international cooperation and how to attract a younger audience.
Other events like exhibitions, debates, workshops and other surprises will also be organised.

The performances of the Vaba Lava curated programme 2017/ 2018 are:

1) Big Data, conceived and directed by Alexandre Zeff (France), premier on the 19th of September 2017.
2) (The Dissident), conceived and directed by Andri Luup (Estonia), premier on the 4th of November 2017.
3) The End of the Night, conceived and directed by Rainer Sarnet (Estonia), premier on the 24th of January 2018.
4) The Cloud Opera or The Dido Problem, created and conceived by Mart Kampus (Estonia), Liina Keevallik (Estonia) and Christina Batman (France), February 2019.
5) The Deluge, conceived and directed by Andris Feldmanis, Jaak Kilmi and Kiur Aarma (Estonia), premier on the 23rd of March 2018.
6) Spring Awakening, created and conceived by Armel Roussel (France/Belgium), premier on the 10th of April 2018.
7) Hackathon of performing arts, French and Estonian performative artists, September 2018.
8) Pandora 3.0, GEN Z – searching for beauty, created and conceived by Salvatore Calcagno (Belgium/Italy), premier on the 19th of September 2018.

The curators :

José Alfarroba was born in 1950 in southern Portugal. He moved to France in 1969 for political reasons and first worked for the Culture and Freedom Network of Léo Lagrange. In 1984, he became the director of Le théâtre Rutebeuf where he founded a street art festival called Folies Urbaines.
In 1998 Jose Alfarroba became the Artistic Director of the Théâtre de Vanves focusing on presenting modern dance, theatre, music and cinema. While being the artistic director of the Théâtre de Vanves, José Alfarroba developed several programs to support young artists.
Out of his initiative, the international interdisciplinary festival Artdanthé was created in 1998 at Théâtre de Vanves. Whereas contemporary dance has become the centrepiece of this international festival, it is also open to other fields such as theater, performance, visual arts etc. The festival is recognized today for its high-quality standards and its support for young choreographers and directors
He was rewarded the medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2012 for his work in promoting performing arts.

After finishing his studies in Law and Communication in Paris, Tristan Barani has been working for the Théâtre de Vanves since 2006. He has been in charge of production and public relations for the festival Artdanthé. Since 2010 he has been responsible for developing international relations of the Artdanthé festival together with José Alfarroba. Under the new director of the Théâtre de Vanves, Anouchka Charbey, he is the programmer of the Artdanthé festival with a focus on dance, performances, theatre, visual arts and music. In 2015 he was appointed Expert of the Dance Commission for the DRAC Île-de-France organization under authority of the Ministry of Culture of France. At present, he is also responsible for running an exchange and cooperation program between Vanves, Bruxelles and Paris to promote the work of young emerging artists and companies in performing arts.

Vaba Lava is the first theatre centre of the kind in Estonia since the concept of a theatre without a resident company is new to us. It provides opportunities for both established and emerging independent companies in Estonia and promotes international cooperation organizing joint projects, co-productions, workshops, and seminars. Vaba Lava aims at offering independent companies both a space for performing and support services as well as serving as a production centre and hotbed for new experimental and unconventional work.

Find out more about Vaba Lava theater center on the website vabalava.ee