First dance and music camp ends in Hà Nội

HÀ NỘI — Seventeen Vietnamese musicians and dancers put on a show at the Việt Nam Dance School yesterday after completing the Dance & Music Summer Camp.

The 2-hour show included performances by eight choreographers and dancers and nine musicians and composers who were selected to participate in the camp from July 16 to 27.

“Don’t expect a perfect performance,” said German director Heiner Goebbels — one of the camp’s art directors, at the closing ceremony. “We have just one week to work together and for the artists to reflect the relationship between music, light, the stage and their movements.”

Alongside Goebbels, Trần Ly Ly – director of Việt Nam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB) is another art director of the camp. Goebbels belongs is well versed in the contemporary music and theatre scene. His compositions for ensembles and big orchestras are currently performed worldwide as well as several of his music theatre works and staged concerts.

Goebbels worked for nearly 20 years as a professor at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and was president of the Theatre Academy Hessen for twelve years. He was the artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts.

Director Ly is one of the leading choreographers working in contemporary dance in Việt Nam. After graduating from the Việt Nam Dance College in 1996 with honours she studied and worked as a dancer and choreographer abroad in Australia and France.

She became popular with contemporary dances such as One Day; Zen and Burning Man’s Figure, which sparked a big debate on contemporary dance in Việt Nam.

For the first time, the camp was co-organised by Hanoi Goethe Institute, VNOB and Việt Nam Dance School in Hà Nội from July 16 to 27. The camp was initiated last year by Goethe Institute’s director Wilfried Eckstein after the institute had successfully held a dance festival for Asian and European dancers for seven consecutive years. — VNS