The MASDANZA Solo and Choreography Contests are a leading event on the international contemporary dance scene, serving as a platform that fosters the international careers of emerging choreographers and dance creators from around the world.
SOLO & CHOREOGRAPHY CONTEST I 2026 PROGRAMME
THURSDAY OCT 15 – PEREZ GALDOS THEATRE – 20:00 h
SOLO CONTEST
EILEEN (15’)
Berlin, Germany
Created & Performed by: Sarah Gordon Butler
Original music composed & performed by: Sarah Gordon Butler
“‘EILEEN’ is a solo performance exposing the honest process of navigating uncomfortable and self-made circumstances. Multi-media artist and performer Sarah Gordon Butler intricately weaves movement and vocals to undress themes of identity and transformation, highlighting the impossible situations we willingly create for ourselves. Straining both the body and voice in an attempt to access a raw, almost disturbing sense of vulnerability and beauty, the work features highly nuanced movement, dissonant harmonies, extreme physicality, and the live layering of an original acapella sound score.”
DEW (13’25”)
Balen, Belgium
Created & Performed by: Pommelien Van Hees
Music: Ben Salisbury “Plainsong”
“ ‘DEW’ is a solo inspired by the energy of club culture and natural elements. The piece traces a body caught in transitions between clarity and blur, control and surrender, solitude and collectivity. Through rhythm, repetition and subtle shifts, the work unfolds as a physical ritual that edges towards trance and release.”
PRIMAL ECHOES (11’)
Linz, Austria
Created by: Valerio Iurato
Performed by: Samuel van der Veer
Original Music: Kaperotxipi “Primal Echoes”
“In a world where artificial intelligence races ahead, our human forms lag behind, bound by primordial constraints. This dance piece captures the growing tension of our obsolescence in the shadow of Super intelligence, a timely reflection on the urgent challenges of our era.”
CHOREOGRAPHY CONTEST
ADSURBE (11’23”)
Vineuil, France
Created & Performed by: Clémence Juglet & Emilie Joneau [OUPS Dance Company]
Original Music: Robin BETELU “Society”
“ ‘ADSURBE’ is a physical and visceral exploration of burnout in a world that constantly demands more. Through sharp, pulsating movements and moments of rupture, the piece follows a body pushed to the edge—a dancer oscillating between control and collapse, acceleration and exhaustion. The choreography reveals the invisible weight of performance, productivity, and societal expectations that slowly erode one’s sense of self.”
REMAINDER (14’40”)
Taipei City, Taiwan
Created by: Chuang Po-Hsiang
Performed by: Ong Kuan Ying & Huang Shi-Hao
Music: Gustavo Santaolalla “Endless Flight”, Son Lux “Jobu Sees All”, Rival Consoles “Touches Everything”, Alexander Ekman “The Contradiction of Silence” & Heike Brinkmann “Kinder Jorn”
“Against the time, the pendulum swings as we pace ourselves into the river of life’s emptiness, occasionally cursing, sniggering, reveling, but most of the time, we simply wander aimlessly or reincarnate unconsciously, like the tears that disappear unseen as we stand weeping in the pouring rain.In contrast to memory, which is active, forgetting is passive, which means that one can opt to remember something, but not to forget it. Even if we can choose to pass on our memories, it is inevitable that as time passes, some things will be forgotten, some will become unfamiliar, and others will lose their sense of meaning, like bricks and tiles flaking off and gradually falling away. Life is like a journey of escape, and time is the bullet that is fired every day, and there is no way to break out of the cage. We are often faithful to the past and try to open up to the present, long before we realize that time exists, as a leftover living in the remaining time. The dominoes used in the piece are my physical imagination of “time.” If one can be a carrier, then we hold time in our hands, building and destroying it, slowly arranging the trajectory of our own lives.”
MASDANZA Award at the Yokohama Dance Collection Festival 2024. Yokohama, Japan.
SOFT ANIMALS (12’)
Dresden, Germany
Created by: Jack Bannerman
Performed by: Gavin Law & Lilla Jenei
Music: Arreglo original de Jack Bannerman, incluyendo música de “I dreamed a dream”, interpretada por Patti LuPone & The Violet, compuesta por Charles Original arrangement by Jack Bannerman, including music from ‘I dreamed a dream’ performed by Patti LuPone & The Violet, composed by Charles Washington.
“The rhythmical, cyclical, patterned and emotional nature of language makes it often difficult to interpret exactly what another person is telling us. Words, when overused or emotionally charged, may lose their meaning and dissolve into pure rhythm. This work explores whether rhythm, timing, and context connect us more deeply than words The timing of our sentences, much like the sounds of vehicles speeding past us on the street corner, can give us a much stronger indicator of if we are existing in the same reality as the people closest to us. Do you hear the cars on the street like I do?”.
MUGA (12’)
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Created by: Francesco Paolino
Performed by: Francesco Paolino & Tom Blanc
Music: Godspeed You! Black Emperor “The Dead Flag Blues”, Cristobal Tapia de Veer “He Looks So Real”, Sebastian Meissner – Foreigner “Snow Tracks”, Sebastian Meissner – Light Movement “Nova Huta”, Efrim Menuck “The Dead Flag Blues”
“ ‘MUGA’ is a term from Japanese philosophy referring to the state of non-ego: a condition of emptiness free from attachments and desires. It is not absence, but a space where being can manifest authentically. The work reflects on contemporary individuals, immersed in a system that accelerates life and reduces existence to production and performance. Two bodies move within this mechanism in a suspended landscape. When one loses precision, a fracture appears, giving rise to fragility and awareness. This marks an awakening: a return to presence and individuality, where dance becomes a space in which the void is inhabited.”