Neighbours

Brigel Gjoka, a classically trained Albanian choreographer and dancer, comes from the world of ballet and contemporary dance. Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit, a self-taught b-boy with Kurdish roots and pioneer of so-called abstract breakdancing, has created a style that combines flexibility, yoga, contemporary dance and breakdancing. The two performers met while creating A Quiet Evening of Dance in 2018, when the iconic American choreographer William Forsythe asked them to improvise together. The dancers discovered a chemistry that they wanted to expand in one of their own creations. Accompanied by the experimental music of Turkish composer Ruşan Filiztek, who is present on-stage, the duo explores the differences and similarities between their practices, their journeys and their aesthetic and cultural roots, and highlight the overlapping body languages that they have inherited from folk dances and community festivities. Located at the unfiltered crossroads between classical, contemporary and urban dance, this dialogue between exceptional artists is an exceptional, rare, sensitive, occasionally playful and always powerful performance.