What Are We Fighting For?

18'599km apart. 4 dancers in New Zealand and 4 dancers in Switzerland fight to keep creating. Isolated in their own homes because of Covid-19 lockdowns they take us into their private lives revealing their personalities, their idiosyncrasies, their determination to keep working, their openness to create a unique bridge across the world through dance.

Covid-19 interrupted the creation Swiss choreographer József Trefeli was working on with The New Zealand Dance Company. Trefeli decided to keep working through video conference bringing together four dancers in Switzerland with the four dancers in New Zealand. The creation seized the opportunity to collaborate with people on the other side of the globe with whom they had never worked with before. The result is a dance documentary film which goes from first meetings to final product going beyond just showing perfect well rehearsed dancers. The film gives us a glimpse into the private lives of dancers as they work from home revealing the personalities of each dancer as they drop barriers to get closer with their partners on the other side of the globe. The tangible bonds they develop through the screens allows them to create something new and extraordinary. Together they express the desire to treat themselves, others and the environments we live in with respect.

18'599 km between the dancers in

Switzerland New Zealand

Fabio Bergamaschi Katie Rudd

Kilian Haselbeck Ngaere Jenkins

Madeleine Piguet Chrissy Kokiri

Amaury Reot Carl Tolentino

Directed by Bartek Sozanski

Original idea, artistic direction, script & choreography József Trefeli

Editing, sound mix, graphics, color correction

F/8 Studio Kyriakos Rontsis, Filippos Molfetas, Alex Chatzoglou

Camera & gimbal operators

Switzerland New Zealand

Bartek Sozanski Caroline Bindon

Music Composer Andrès Garcia

Costume Designer Chantelle Gerrard

Assistant director József Trefeli

Producers - Compagnie József Trefeli & The New Zealand Dance Company

Cie József Trefeli - Executive Creative Director Laure Chapel

Cie József Trefeli - Artistic Director József Trefeli

The NZDC - Executive Creative Director Janine Dijkmeijer

The NZDC - Co-Artistic Directors Tor Colombus & James O’Hara

with the support of - Compagnie József Trefeli Switzerland, Transformation funding Ville de Genève Switzerland, The New Zealand Dance Company New Zealand, STEPS Festival MIGROS Switzerland

Thanks to - Shona McCullagh, Rudi van der Merwe, Aalya Rajkov, Joachim Piguet

Duration - twenty nine minutes and fifty seconds

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