Showcase
UPDATE The National Rural Touring Forum plans to assist UK Rural Touring Schemes with re-tours of companies which were involved in the International Village of Culture Showcase performances in April 2009 in County Durham. There will be some degree of subsidy; and the tour period will be Spring 2010 to Spring/Winter 2011. Please note that Dautenis (Poland) are no longer playing with the exact personnel as seen & heard in April 2009. However, they are offering 2 separate acts, made up of the original musicians and others. Below is information about the 5 companies which performed at the International Village of Culture Showcase events. The focus was on companies from Scandinavia and the Baltic countries and those from Eastern Europe. Norway - Frikar Dance Company Finland - Akseli Klonk Theatre Denmark -Harald Haugaard Trio Poland - Dautenis Estonia -Ro:toro RO:TORO - Estonia Ro:Toro play traditional Estonian melodies with female piper, an improvising saxophonist, electric guitar and a mad percussionist who plays plastic bowls in a waterbed! The group has its origins in Viljandi Cultural Academy of the University of Tartu. Its members regularly perform at folk music festivals both in Estonia and abroad. The group works with traditional bagpipe tunes which also inspire its original compositions. Ro:toro have been collecting the songs of Khant (speakers of the Finno-Ugric language Khanty, who live in remote parts of Russia) and will be including some of them in their concert. You may also see a flat foot waltz, learn some Estonian words, and marvel at the plethora of unusual items that can make percussive sounds as Silver Sepp creates percussion from planks of wood, bicycle wheels and other everyday objects!
www.myspace.com/rotoro http://www.rootoro.mcp.pri.ee/
FRIKAR DANCE - Norway FRIKAR actually is an old Nordic word for the English "freaker". But the ethymological significiant means "person which is free from rules, unconventional and hard to battle". It also was a title given to dancers who managed to dance the others off the floor, like a floor knight.
Hallgrim studied at Nordland Arts and Film School and at the Academy of Digital Arts in Florence. He works across performing arts heading for closer integratation between dance and video. He brings traditional 'Laus' acrobatic dance into the contemporary and cutting edge.
Photos www.frikar.com/presse.html video www.frikar.com/videono.html
You may have caught Frikar Dance at this year's Eurovision Song Contest Finals. They were the backing dance group tothe Eurovision winner- Norway's Alexander Rybak. Havea look at the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME
DAUTENIS - Poland The name Dautenis comes from the old Baltic language Jatvin. The Baltic pagans believed that the souls of the departed were cleansed in the holy rivers and lakes. For these young musicians this magical name represents the large and almost lost treasure of old lyrics and melodies which they have brought up to date with powerful voices and delicate arrangements. Dautenis introduce their songs with stories which are in turn fascinating, haunting and sometimes humorous...they can also teach the audience a Polish dance or two...
Please note that Dautenis areno longer playing with the exact personnel as seen & heard in April 2009. However, they are offering 2 separate acts, made up of the original musicians and others.
HARALD HAUGAARD TRIO - Denmark Harald Haugaard began playing violin at the age of 7 years. His teacher was the local organ player in the village of Harndrup in the island of Funen where Harald grew up. From the beginning folk music was his biggest inspiration. His mother was active in folk dance as caller and teacher, and soon Harald began to play for her dances. The traditional Danish dance became one of his biggest musical platforms and appears prominently in his performances. In 1998, Harald joined guitar player Hoirup and they turned out to be one of the most successful groups in the Danish music scene. They toured playing more than 600 concerts all over the World, have six albums and won many awards. In 2009 Harald Haugaard presents a new trio.Haugaard has gathered upcoming Danish guitarist Rasmus Zeeberg and old mate from folkfusion band Serras percussionist Sune Rahbek in a vibrant and virtuous trio.The trio performs with great presence in the delicate blend of old traditional Danish dance tunes and Haugaard's beautiful compositions with rash improvisations...........
AKSELI KLONK - Finland PUPPET THEATRE AKSELI KLONK is a professional puppet theatre, founded in 1998.They present the very best in object theatre mixed with mime, dance and puppetry. What is object theatre? It's when everydayobjects are used as tools or props. Rosie Cross, International Village of Culture's International co-ordinator,saw them perform and said:" I was transported and completely believed that the iron was a telephone and the ironing board was a motor bike!" There is a wonderful sense of visual humour that translates into any language. Slightly surreal and very, very funny, Akseli Klonk are highly energetic young performers working alongside beautifully crafted wooden puppets. They perform in English. "Puppet Theatre Akseli Klonk is one of the most ingenious and inventive companies I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing". Gretchen Van LentDirector, Drama of Works theatre (New York)
www.dockorinorr.org/english/groups/akseli-klonk
IVOC SHOWCASES AT A GLANCE (public performances only) 2- 4 April 2009 Dautenis: Thu 2 April St John's Chapel Town Hall 7.30pm Akseli Klonk:Thu 2 April Hamsterley Village Hall 7.30pm Ro:toro: Fri 3 April Bowes & Gilmonby Parish Hall 7.30pm Dautenis: Fri 3 April Frosterley Village Hall 7.30pm Akseli Klonk: Fri 3 April Whorlton Village Hall 7.30pm Scandinavian Double Bill[Frikar Dance & Harald Haugaard Trio] Sat 4 April Witham Hall, Barnard Castle 7.30pm Dautenis: Sat 4 April Cotherstone Village Hall 7.30pm 
FRIKAR dance company construct further on the experience and knowledge of the old frikar`s, the acrobatic dancers of Norway which already 100 years before the break dancers did head spins and other less human moves. Actually much of the movement material is based on animals. Grounded in these roots FRIKAR dance company also intend to be a leading experimenter with the link between new technology and human movement developing programmes with panorama of sound surrounded by dance movements. 
