The dance festival titled ‘Europe meets Asia in Contemporary Dance’ will take place in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from September 30-October 4.

The event has recently become one of the major cultural activities in the capital since 2011 and received enthusiasm and applause from both media and the public, contributing to promoting contemporary dance in Hanoi.

‘Europe meets Asia in Contemporary Dance’ is an initiative of EUNIC, the Network of European Cultural Institutes and Embassies in Hanoi, in cooperation with Vietnam National Opera and Ballet.

This year’s dance festival will present to audiences dance performances by art troupes from France, Germany, Israel, Japan, and Poland. In addition, a special highlight of the festival will be a co-productions of Wallonie-Bruxelles and Vietnam, and a performance of the internationally renowned Compagnie Sasha Waltz & Guests from Berlin in the Hanoi Opera House.

“Europe meets Asia in Contemporary Dance” for the first time is organized at several venues, Youth Theater in Hanoi on  September 30-October 4, Hanoi Opera House on October 2-3, Drama Theater on October 2 and Dance College on October 3 in Ho Chi Minh City.

French artist Julie Nioche will present a dance perfromance “Nos Solitudes” that provides a new relationship between the body with space and gravity.

The experience of solitude brings dance into a theatrical metaphor of our ties, our relationship and our support. By her own impulses, subtly mastered, she generates the necessary energy that allows the body to rise, move, curl, levitate, wave. Julie Nioche received the Jury Prize in 2010 of the Trade Union of Music and Dance Theater criticism for the perfromance “Nos Solitudes”.