Etta Ermini: Great opportunity to see different countries

• 30 December 2021   Ingelise de Vries  

The residencies of Etta Ermini took place in Imaginarius (Portugal) and KoresponDance (Czech Republic). The opportunity to do a residency in different countries, to meet festivals and programmers was one of the main goals for Etta.

It was an opportunity to do something unique as I had never taken part in a project like Roundabout before. It felt incredibly well supported by both residencies (Imaginarius and KoresponDance); stayed in contact, very well looked after with amazing facilities and locations. The artistic coaching, whilst challenging and was a different approach to her usual way of working, added a lot of clarity to the storytelling and characters in a very positive way

The focus of the project

The project focused on borders: three people are stranded on the border between Africa and Europe, all lacking the necessary travel documents. Through disciplines of hand balance, acrobatics, hand-to-hand and dance, a series of events unfolded, bringing together the four travelers, and an interest and understanding of their respective cultures began to develop. Composed by director and choreographer Andrietta Brenk from Switzerland,  Greek dancer Christina Dionysiopoulou, and acrobats Mohammed Hammich and Quahib Hammich from Morocco and a dancer from the Austrian hip-hop dance scene, Farah Deen.

OQDA by Etta Ermini Dance Theatre (UK/MA) - Artistic Coach Jean Gaudin and Marketing/Capacity building support - Mara Serina. The artistic team worked with Jean Gaudin to create a new version of OQDA, gaining a more sophisticated dramaturgy and the choreographer gained new tools to approach the creation of her own performance.

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