La Strada

La Strada Graz, the international festival for street art, puppet theatre, new circus and community art, is known for its skilful connection of people with art and performance. For many years, it has opened up blank spaces in an artistic way, discovered future parts of the city and made urban spaces into the city’s great stages. 

There’s going to be plenty happening in the city this summer. People will be lying sprawled on the ground, using their bodies to measure out the public space. Others will be balancing stones on their heads as they file through the streets in single file. And still others will be carrying their tubas and triangles towards Freiheitsplatz. Some of them will be artists; but many will simply be residents or visitors to the city who want to take part in the festival with enthusiasm.
As every year, it all begins with the grand opening on the stage of the Graz Opera House. The 19-member French Collectif XY will present Möbius there, a bold fusion of acrobatics, dance and poetry that blurs the boundaries between the arts. They draw inspiration from natural phenomena such as the wonderfully gliding movement patterns of birds and fish in their shoals. An ode to the resilience of individuals within their community.

Circus Ronaldo invites you into the big top with its new production, *Da Capo*. Through a blend of traditional and contemporary staging, the show breathes new life into the *Commedia dell'arte* of days gone by, whilst telling its own story – one spanning seven generations and 180 years, filled with wonder, passion and serendipity. At the Next Liberty Theatre, Frédérique Cournoyer Lessard will reflect on what it means to be different and to find oneself. In the form of a theatrical monologue, supported by striking acrobatics on the aerial hoop, SCUSE brings a work to the stage that is as moving as it is complex.
A very special performance awaits us with A MOMENT’S NOTICE by Alex Deutinger & Alexander Gottfarb at the Graz Botanical Garden. In this co-production with La Strada, strange creatures become reflectors of their surroundings, but also of their counterparts.

This year, La Strada is inviting people to get actively involved more than ever before. In workshops, city dwellers will become co-creators of the artistic process. In the first phase of the project, you can help develop ‘Graz on the Move’ with Johannes Bellinkx & Benjamin Vandewalle – a choreography for and with the public space. Dutch artist Nick Steur focuses on mindfulness and responsibility towards others in his participatory performance Care to Carry. Zwermers, in collaboration with Caritas Styria and local participants, are developing the project Worn out?, a textile portrait of the city. At Freiheitsplatz, the audience becomes part of the performance when, together with the Compagnie du Coin, 

You can find the full programme at lastrada.at. 

Various venues!