Playing with repetitions and syncopated movements, Rosana Ribeiro’s “Echoes of Resistance” is a solo exploring the stage through summoned gestures of resistance: structured in two sections, both ending and starting with the performer laying on the floor, the piece first builds up to an energetic and struggling dance of resistance, and then resumes the movements through wider gestures and some sense of humour (the performer in on the floor at the end, while Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” plays loudly). A well-danced piece, that holds ideas for maybe more than one solo, and that has space for moving away from a very polished structure to a stronger impact on the audience.

Ulduz Ahmadzadeh/ATASH’s “ZĀĀR” drew on ritual forms to explore embodied memory that the change of politics tried to erase, for a all-female quintet in which echoes of tradition and contemporary structures layer constantly. In a sandy landscape, divided from the audience by drops of melting ice hanging from the ceiling, the piece builds up like a puzzle: from the melodic particles of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps resonating here and there, sometimes to twist the direction of the movement; to the quotes of ritual dances (mostly from forbidden Persian/Iranian indigenous dances) leading up to solos and - never perfect - unison.

On a more intimate scale, Sasha Portyannikova, a Russian-born Austria-based choreographer and researcher, investigates the concept of avant-garde and post-Soviet identity in “Parsley for garnish” (playing with the fact that Petrushka in Russian means parsley). Portyannikova seems to invite the audience into her studio, while she’s dancing (freely?) to pop music and through small talk introduces the background research of the piece, stopping here and there to explain the songs lyrics. Almost halfway through the piece, she invites people to interact with a set of cards they were given at the entrance whenever a projection tells them to do so, and to reply to the question they find on a card by crossing the space, while she’s dancing. Her movements soft and full of quotes and images from the Ballet Russes’ “Petrushka,” are crossed by people moving around the space, silently—but visibly—answering questions about invasion, human rights violation, migration and parenthood. A smart work on the topic of identity and cultural heritage, that choreographs the audience as well.