Flying the flag for the Festival
Time to put the banners out in our Festival City
FERGUS LINEHAN (pictured left) is the current Director of Edinburgh International Festival, (EIF) although he is to move on after this year’s 75th edition. Linehan is the Irishman behind all manner of large scale opening events and opened up the “official” festival to more contemporary music during his tenure .
And this year is no different. The free ticketed opening event MACRO takes place at BT Murrayfield on Friday 5 August at 9.30pm. The acclaimed Australian circus and physical theatre company Gravity & Other Myths will be joined by First Nations dance company Djuki Mala, the National Choir of Scotland and Scottish musicians including Aidan O’Rourke, Brighde Chaimbeul and Kathleen MacInnes for the one night only event.
It is Sydney in Australia which is calling to Linehan and his family and we wish him well. He gives up his role to newly appointed director, the world renowned violinist, Nicola Benedetti, CBE, who will make her own changes.
With 87 events, 160 performances and more than 2,300 artists in EIF, Edinburgh will be a world focus for top class music, opera, dance and theatre as well as the thousands of Fringe shows. And we are putting the flags out to welcome them all back.
FREEDOM BALLET, the renowned Ukrainian company, will journey from Kyiv to celebrate their 20th anniversary at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and are believed to be the only Ukrainian company performing at the Fringe this year.
The company was created by Artistic Director, Olena Koliadenko. Her rich directing experience includes working with Cirque du Soleil in Canada, an award-winning musical film on the life of Ukrainian singer Tina Karol, and a Eurovision Song Contest entry. Notably in 2020, Olena produced an immersive performance for disabled children requested by the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The show is called Ballet Freedom and will be performed at the Edinburgh
International Conference Centre (EICC) as part of The Pleasance line-up. It was performed for the first time in Kyiv after the Russian forces invaded.
The decision to stage the performance in Kyiv was a difficult one. The day before the show opened, the performance in the Molodyy Theatre was interrupted several times when air raid sirens sounded and the audience had to take cover in the bomb shelter.
Artistic Director Olena Koliadenko said: “We needed to breath the air of Freedom at least one more time on stage in Kyiv, to give the audience an escape, strength of spirit and to help let go of the accumulated darkness.”
With many of their female performers fleeing the country with young families at the outbreak of war and the company scattered,
Freedom Ballet looked to cast dancers who had remained in Ukraine. To their delight, they found that every dancer who auditioned had a long-held dream of one day joining Freedom Ballet.
Olena Koliadenko said, “This has shown us that the war, no matter how terrible and cruel cannot deprive us of our dreams.”
Kostiantyn Hordiienko, soloist and choreographer with the Freedom Ballet, describes their casting process as openminded. Kostiantyn said: “The process is very important. We turn into one big antenna, and want to feel the whole range of emotions, hear every sound of the soul, and see the truth in the body of the dancer.”
The result is compelling. The fictitious characters fuse with the dancer’s own personal story giving an honest performance with emotional intensity and the occasional element of comedy.
The company of 13 artists, who are currently spread across Ukraine, Poland, Hungry and Romania, have launched a crowdfunding appeal to help bring them to the Fringe in Edinburgh.
This outstanding dance collective is excited to share their astonishing, passionate and sensual ballet. Ballet Freedom is about the moment when you come to terms with your love, your loss and your life - when you can truly see yourself in the mirror.
Ballet Freedom at EICC 4 - 28 August at 9pm and 12 - 13 August at 4pm (No performance 24 August). Tickets from pleasance.co.uk