To the main content To the footer

Kites

Rover / Roshanak Morrowatian
Tue 30 May ’23 and Wed 31 May ’23
A gripping solo about the experiences of a child on the run.
Tue 30 May ’23
and
Wed 31 May ’23

What is it like to have to flee your homeland at a young age and grow up in an asylum seekers' centre, in a ‘limbo’ between past and future?

Based on her own life, choreographer Roshanak Morrowatian investigates the physical traces of being on the run and the long procedure after arriving in a new country. Through memories and flashbacks, she shares her own experiences and those of children with a similar past. 

Kites is a visual, interdisciplinary solo that takes the audience into the experiences of a child on the run. A hyper-actual dance performance that makes tangible why children must have a voice in the refugee debate.

“What should be a debate about people – about human beings, about children and families – has been deliberately poisoned to become a debate about borders and security.”

 – journalist Behrouz Boochani

Credits

concept, choreography and dance Roshanak Morrowatian artistic assistence and production Mami Izumi video Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska music Rutger Zuydervelt constume Julina Vanille Bezold light design Jean-Lou Caglar dramaturgic advice Nicole Beutler production Rover coproduction Nederlandse Dansdagen, SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht, schrit_tmacher en VIA ZUID – Talentontwikkeling podiumkunsten Limburg (financial) support Brand Cultuurfonds, Stichting Elisabeth Strouven, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Proeftuin Dans: Right Now!, Norma Corona Fonds, We Are Public en VSBfonds special thanks to Parkstad Limburg Theaters Heerlen, Mahnaz Heygharnejadi, Abbas en Afagh Morrowatian en Moos Pozzo

About Roshanak Morrowatian

The desire for a more harmonious society runs as a fil rouge through the work of Roshanak Morrowatian (Iran, 1989) and her dance company Rover. Unnoticed details, invisible people, and forgotten stories are given leading roles in her choreographies. Interdisciplinary performances where subjects such as identity, boundaries, and belonging are central. As an artist, she looks for the physical roots of memories and redefines traditions and rituals. 

For the performance Polished, she received the 2020 BNG Bank Dance Prize together with Mami Izumi; she also was included in the DansClick 22 tour. In 2020, Morrowatian was awarded the Prize of the Nederlandse Dansdagen, the national encouragement prize for talented, promising creatives. From 2023 she is part of the Nieuwe Makers program of the Fonds Podiumkunsten.

Roshanak Morrowatian is a choreographer, dancer and actress. After receiving her BA in dance and an MA in dance composition at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Germany she appeared in works by artists such as Marina Abramović, Pina Bausch, Isabelle Beernaert, Alexis Blake, and Joost Vrouwenraets. 

 

Press about Kites

"Unnoticed you think of all those frightened faces of Afghan children, there and here, who can’t oversee what happens to them and what makes them plaything. This is how Kites brings the burning current affairs into the theater like a kite." - Theaterkrant

"With its powerful imagery and colour scheme, Kites brings across the overwhelming experience that fleeing one life and waiting for the right to begin a new one must be for refugee children." – Movement Exposed