📅 SATURDAY, June 24, 20:00
📍FABER Cultural Center, Splaiul Peneș Curcanul 4 - 5, Timisoara, Romania
🎟️ Free entry, on the basis of reservation to the email address info@dans.ro or to the WhatsApp number 0722 322 366.

The performance "Cancer, Choreographed" is a cathartic and participatory emotional journey between life, death and dance. Premiered in April in Bucharest, New York and New Jersey and created by choreographer Cosmin Manolescu, the show focuses on the pain and visions of a male character, who is dealing with breast cancer, a rare form but also present in men , but less known and publicized in Romania. The show was created based on the text of the same name written by playwright Cătălina Florescu from New York.

"Talking about pain, about death, about the things that transform us is human and essential at the same time, somehow part of the experience of life. Through this project, initiated by Cătălina Florescu and staged by me in a participatory version, I return to the difficult area of encountering cancer. We thus try to bring a ray of hope and contribute to the understanding of how we can fight the demons and problems of contemporary society. You can't limit yourself to just doing dance shows about love and the beauty of life when people are dying by your side. Especially after the pandemic and in the context of the current war in Ukraine, I think it is necessary to address the darker aspects of ourselves, including the prospect of meeting death. The show is built as a participatory rollercoaster and the goal is to accompany people on this journey, to provide companionship and empathy, for people and for life. The loss of Gabriela Tudor in 2009 radically changed my life, my relationship with people but, I think, with dance as well. Through the "Cancer, Choreographed" show and the WellDance course, we try to create a safe meeting space, where we can talk through dance and movement about the pain accumulated in us, offering support and accompaniment to those who need it." - Cosmin Manolescu in the interview conducted by Beatrice Lăpădat for Liternet.Ro which can be read in full at
https://atelier.liternet.ro/.../A-vorbi-despre-cancer...

"I chose to collaborate with the choreographer Cosmin Manolescu, because those of us who have gone through the shock of losing loved ones are marked for life and, however, we feel that longing cannot have the last word. The "Cancer, Choreographed" project is unique in the country. It is the result of research work that started with my PhD in the US and has continued to this day. It's a project that needs visibility because, through art, we raise public awareness on a topic related to health and prevention," says Cătălina Florescu, the project's initiator.

The show will continue to be presented in June at ARCUB - Sala Mare, on June 8 and 9 at 7 p.m., June 16 at the Brașov Reduta Cultural Center at 7:30 p.m. and on June 24 at 8 p.m. at FABER, Timișoara. Show co-produced by the Gabriela Tudor Foundation, ARCUB - the Cultural Center of the City of Bucharest, the Romanian Cultural Institute New York and presented in Brașov in partnership with the Reduta Cultural Center within the "Tree of Life" project, a cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund . The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the program or how the results of the program may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.

CREDITS:
After the dramatic text "Cancer, Choreographed" by Cătălina Florescu | Concept: Cosmin Manolescu | Choreography and interpretation: Cosmin Manolescu, Cristina Lilienfeld | Original musical composition: Sabina Ulubeanu | Video design: Cinty Ionescu | Light design and live DJ: Alexandros Raptis | Photo : Alina Usurelu | Approximate duration: 100'

BIO
𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐨lescu is a choreographer and experience designer, executive director of the Gabriela Tudor Foundation. He deeply believes that contemporary dance is an art form that can positively change people's lives, regardless of age, gender, issues or identity. Since 1997, he has played an important role in the development of contemporary dance in Romania and in the creation of the Bucharest National Dance Center (2004). He made his debut as a choreographer in 1994 within the Marginalii Group. His shows and projects have been successfully presented in Bucharest, New York, Paris, Lyon, Rome, Dublin, Porto, Amsterdam, Beirut, Riga, Seattle, Lisbon, etc. Between 2012-2015, he was the artistic director of the ZonaD laboratory space - Paradis Serial studio, where he created various workshops, residencies and projects for the general public. Since 2014, he begins to develop his own method of work – the emotional body, a holistic approach to the body that includes touch, yoga exercises, subtle sensory movements, which he teaches in the country and abroad and uses in his performances. He is currently interested in experimental projects that connect the body with the city, landscape, nature and well-being. In 2017, he launched the tree project "Dans-Wanderer", which talks about the philosophy of experiential travel and the discovery of the unknown. Since 2017, she has been organizing annual emotional trips and dance retreats in India, Japan, Portugal and Greece, and in 2019 she created the show "Simple Pleasures", in the form of a performative hike to the Howling Waterfall. Since 2019, she regularly organizes the Gabriela Tudor residencies in Portugal and Romania. Since 2020, he is the initiator, co-founding member and co-director of the AREAL | collective space for choreographic development with which in 2021 he performs the show "In search of the lost body" and in March 2023 the play "Flowers, stones and other demons". In 2020 he initiates AREAL space for choreographic development, which he leads collectively with Cristina Lilienfeld, Alexandra Bălășoiu and Valentina De Piante |
www.arealcollectiv.ro, www.dans.ro, www.danswanderer.ro

Cristina Lilienfeld studied choreography and psychology, constantly looking for the point where the two disciplines meet. In recent years he collaborated and continues to work with different choreographers and dancers but also with visual artists and musicians being part of several interdisciplinary artistic groups. The shows signed by her, as well as the numerous shows in which she dances, continue to be presented on the stages in Bucharest, in the country and internationally. He collaborated in a multitude of projects with choreographers such as: Cosmin Manolescu, Mihaela Alexandra Dancs, Benno Voorham, Mădălina Dan, Andreea Novac, Andreea Belu, Smaranda Găbudeanu, Virginia Negru, etc., with visual artists: Dilmana Yordanova, Mihaela Kavdanska, Alina Ușurelu, etc., musicians: Diana Rotaru, Irinel Anghel, Vlaicu Golcea, Kamer Art, LeVant, Fierbinteanu band, etc., writers: Răzvan Țupa, Andra Rotaru, as well as with numerous actors and directors. In 2021 he worked with the renowned choreographer Anjelin Preljocaj in an international project that took place in Aix en Provence, France. In recent years he traveled and worked in countries such as: Portugal, Ghana, Italy, France, Germany, UK, Serbia, USA, Luxembourg. He is currently a co-founding member of the AREAL Collective – space for choreographic development. |
www.arealcollectiv.ro, www.cristinalilienfeld.ro

Cătălina Florescu is a graduate of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest. He lives in the United States, where he obtained a master's degree and a doctorate in comparative literature, specializing in theater criticism and humanistic medicine. He teaches theater and literature at Pace University in Manhattan, NY. She is the author of several books cataloged at the famous Library of Congress in Washington, DC, as well as at famous universities (Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, UCLA, etc.): Transacting Sites of the Liminal Bodily Spaces (theatre and film criticism ; humanistic medicine), Disjointed Perspectives on Motherhood (feminist criticism; cultural and interdisciplinary criticism), Of Silences in Munch, Beckett, Hopper, and Hanson (A Monograph) (existential and ontological philosophy; treatise on silence; cultural and interdisciplinary criticism); The Night I Burned My Origami Skin (volume of poems), Transnational Narratives in Englishes of Exile (exile in literature and art; cultural criticism). | http://www.catalinaflorescu.com