The Art of Mentoring: The Rolex Arts Festival

euronews (in English)

Since its inception, this remarkable mentoring initiative has cultivated an extensive community of artists, cutting across generations, cultures, and disciplines worldwide

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:06 Musica is proudly presented by Rolex.

00:09 Celebrating the art of mentoring,

00:14 passing on cultural heritage, and contributing

00:17 to the arts worldwide, the Rolex Arts Festival in Athens.

00:23 It's a great sensation of joy, like a celebration.

00:27 Also like a dream, like sensation.

00:31 These artists are part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts

00:35 Initiative.

00:36 To be surrounded by so many artists,

00:40 it's been like the way that I would like

00:42 to see the rest of the world.

00:46 The mentoring, it's not just giving hair things,

00:49 but taking also from hair.

00:54 My mentor has given me her love.

00:58 Yeah.

01:00 Musica brings you the highlights in this special edition.

01:03 Perpetual quest for knowledge and excellence.

01:20 Athens, the cradle of culture and art.

01:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:28 Houdia Toure and Pouchi Sasaki are here

01:31 to celebrate a unique program, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé

01:37 Arts Initiative.

01:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:43 This is amazing.

01:44 Wow.

01:49 We belong to that history, you know?

01:50 We are made and connected to the history of the past, what

01:54 has come before.

01:56 There is this relationship with time,

01:57 and this is also what we talk about with this mentorship.

02:01 And like, these things are traveling invisible.

02:04 Yeah, and from generations to generations,

02:08 from thousands of years ago to us.

02:11 Yes.

02:12 You just feel it was the right place to do it.

02:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:19 To honor 20 years of artistic collaboration,

02:23 mentors and fellows are gathering in Athens

02:25 for the Rolex Arts Festival.

02:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:37 Over several days, the festival is

02:39 a hive for performances, readings, discussions,

02:42 screenings, exhibitions, and installations.

02:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:57 There's over 150 artists involved,

03:00 including a lot of Greek artists.

03:03 It's absolutely wonderful, the range

03:06 of what this program brings together

03:08 across styles, across countries, and across art forms.

03:11 I really-- I can't think of anywhere else that

03:14 does it like this.

03:15 I'm hoping people will come and see the vision

03:21 that these people have.

03:22 I think change in our society comes through imagination,

03:27 and these artists have it.

03:29 The program seeks to pass on knowledge

03:32 from generation to generation, bringing together

03:35 young, aspiring artists and masters.

03:38 This one-to-one mentoring relationship

03:40 has seen legends like Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Jesse

03:44 Norman.

03:46 Protégés follow their mentors around the world

03:48 and observe, exchange, learn, and get insight

03:52 into their craft.

03:53 And he liked it.

03:54 For Peruvian-Japanese artist Pauchi Sasaki,

03:57 working with iconic composer Philip Glass

04:00 has been a revelation.

04:03 But I think with a real harp, it'll be better.

04:04 Yes.

04:05 I think something very beautiful about the mentorship

04:12 is that you start to develop a kind of confidence

04:19 in your own voice.

04:20 And that's something that really mentors help,

04:24 to give us that security.

04:28 Look for what you want to express.

04:33 The idea of the festival is also to include local artists.

04:38 Pauchi collaborates with 30 members of the acclaimed Greek

04:41 choir, Choukhes.

04:42 The process was very joyful.

04:49 The girls were so excited.

04:51 And they brought all their energy into the project.

04:55 So it was a whole experience that I really enjoyed.

04:59 Enjoy it.

04:59 Pauchi Sasaki's contribution to the festival

05:15 is a premiere, Artemis Fountain.

05:19 The performance is an excerpt of her multi-platform opera.

05:23 The opera is inspired by NASA's program Artemis,

05:27 a space mission that will bring the first woman to the moon's

05:30 surface this decade.

05:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:35 [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

05:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:42 [CHEERING]

05:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:49 [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

06:17 [APPLAUSE]

06:21 Dancers are here having fun.

06:29 Dancers are here having fun.

06:33 Khoudia Touré and her dancers are getting

06:34 ready for their performance.

06:36 [INTERPOSING VOICES]

06:40 The hip hop dancer and choreographer from Senegal

06:43 is presenting her latest work at the festival, Oro.

06:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:49 It's an ambitious artistic and social project

06:58 created through exchanges between young adults

07:00 from different countries and multiple social backgrounds.

07:11 Going beyond words, its power is expressed through dancing.

07:15 The performance is a great success

07:32 in the presence of her mentor, Crystal Pite.

07:35 The superstar of modern dance and one

07:37 of the world's most acclaimed choreographers

07:39 traveled all the way to Athens to watch the performance.

07:43 It's inspiring to be here and to see all these artists

07:46 from all these different disciplines

07:47 and to reconnect with Khoudia and see her work

07:50 and see her just ace that whole experience.

07:55 I don't know how you did it.

07:57 It was a lot on your shoulders, a lot of pressure,

08:00 a lot of exposure.

08:01 So yeah, it was incredible watching her do that.

08:04 I was really, really excited that you

08:06 could see it this way.

08:08 Even besides coming to rehearsal,

08:10 I just wanted her to see the piece.

08:12 It was very meaningful to me.

08:16 Khoudia has watched Crystal in her Canadian hometown

08:19 of Vancouver and at the Paris Opera Ballet.

08:23 But it's not only the protégées who learn from their masters.

08:27 The inspiration goes both ways.

08:29 It gave Crystal a new perspective on her work.

08:33 I want to experience creation through her.

08:38 I think mentorship has to be a conversation.

08:42 It's an exchange between two people.

08:46 And the spirit of it, I think, is best

08:48 when we both feel like we're going to learn something

08:50 and we both have something to learn.

08:52 And certainly that's been my experience with Khoudia.

08:55 It was just an incredible opportunity

08:56 for me to learn something.

08:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:25 The program also features legendary performers

09:28 like Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil.

09:33 His protégée, Egyptian singer Dina Elwedidi,

09:36 comes from a completely different musical world.

09:40 When they met, she reminded him of himself

09:42 at the start of his own career.

09:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:47 [SINGING IN PORTUGUESE]

09:50 The talent was there.

10:07 The music was there.

10:09 And being with me, spending some time with us, the band,

10:14 was a new experience for her.

10:17 And I expected she was absorbing experience.

10:22 I think she did.

10:25 It was amazing because the mentorship simply is like you

10:28 have to follow your mentor.

10:30 And I was so lucky because my mentor is always

10:32 on tour and busy.

10:34 So I had to follow my mentor wherever.

10:36 So we had so much fun.

10:38 [LAUGHTER]

10:39 Gil!

10:40 Hello.

10:41 The mentors opened doors for young artists.

10:45 The nine-time Grammy-winning singer

10:48 helped Dina to move to the world stage by performing together,

10:52 a unique experience repeated at the festival.

10:55 Thank you.

10:57 I'm so emotional now.

10:58 But I would love and I have the honor

11:00 to introduce my friend and the great artist

11:04 and my mentor, Mr. Gilberto Gil.

11:07 [APPLAUSE]

11:11 [MUSIC - GILBERTO GIL, "ABEI"]

11:14 It's inspired me so much.

11:33 So from that time until now, many things

11:37 have in terms of growth and in terms of definitely

11:42 a new awareness of discovering your own artistic identity

11:47 as well.

11:48 [MUSIC - GILBERTO GIL, "ABEI"]

12:06 [APPLAUSE]

12:09 For many proteges, like Australian composer

12:20 and performer Ben Frost, the collaboration

12:22 with their mentors has left a long-lasting impact.

12:25 [MUSIC - BEN FROST, "ABEI"]

12:33 My time with Brian Eno was a gift.

12:37 He raised many questions for me during my mentorship.

12:41 It's nicely syncopated.

12:43 It's very syncopated.

12:46 Like breathing, yeah.

12:48 Yeah.

12:49 He challenged a lot of ideas that maybe

12:52 were some preconceptions that I had about myself

12:55 and about music.

12:55 [MUSIC - BEN FROST, "ABEI"]

12:59 [MUSIC - BEN FROST, "ABEI"]

13:02 The birth of it is kind of in different parts.

13:15 As a child, I played a lot with piano.

13:19 My favorite thing was to spread my hands as far as possible

13:23 across the keyboard and try and build

13:24 these really long, suspended chords with the sustain pedal

13:28 down.

13:28 [MUSIC - BEN FROST, "ABEI"]

13:30 Then taking each of those notes, if you can imagine,

13:33 and sort of rather than thinking of them as a note,

13:36 but rather as a vector within space.

13:40 And so then kind of mapping that out

13:41 across this field of speakers.

13:45 So you're sort of sitting inside of a chord.

13:47 But the chord, the relationship between all those harmonics

13:50 is shifting.

13:51 It's constantly shifting.

13:52 [MUSIC - BEN FROST, "ABEI"]

13:55 [MUSIC - BEN FROST, "ABEI"]

13:59 They are dancing a work of mine called 549.

14:14 It describes when you have an awareness

14:17 that a relationship is ending, or some chapter of your life

14:20 is ending, and how your experience with another person

14:23 changes with that awareness.

14:26 Instead of it being a surprise, there's this kind of array

14:29 of emotions that you go through, I think.

14:33 The creative collaboration between American choreographer

14:36 Miles Thatcher and his Russian mentor, Alexei Ratmansky,

14:41 still inspires him today.

14:43 I think something Alexei was really successful at in

14:46 the studio was always encouraging his dancers

14:49 to work with him.

14:51 He was always pulling from them and asking for feedback

14:55 from them.

14:55 And that's something I really tried to do with mine as well.

14:58 So I hope to learn as much from them as they learn from me.

15:01 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

15:04 From learning to teaching, many of the protégés

15:14 have become mentors in their own right.

15:16 American violinist David Aaron Carpenter

15:19 gives master classes at the festival

15:21 and works with the local El Sistema Youth Orchestra.

15:24 It's really inspiring, I think, just

15:28 to see kids of all different age categories

15:31 coming together and playing, and to see a young orchestra

15:35 really tackle on something that's quite, quite difficult,

15:38 but really pushing them to the extremes of their potential.

15:41 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

15:45 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

15:48 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

15:50 You're basically giving everything

15:51 that you've learned to the next generation,

15:53 and then they're taking it and then making it a lot better.

15:58 I think the importance of mentorship, it's huge.

16:01 I mean, for me to have the opportunity

16:03 to work with somebody like Jesse Norman,

16:06 to then be able to have a master class or lessons

16:10 with a younger singer, yes, I have my own things

16:15 that I can pass along, but so much of what I am

16:18 is what Jesse gave to me.

16:19 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

16:23 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

16:30 And then tell us the rest of the story.

16:32 [MUSIC - ALEXEI RATMANSKY, "549"]

16:37 I feel like I'm passing the torch that Jesse gave to me

16:40 in what I learned from her, and I'm giving that

16:44 to the next generation, too.

16:45 And I will credit her.

16:47 I will say, this is not me.

16:49 This is what Jesse said.

16:50 So if Jesse said it, this is golden.

16:52 The program is also about forging

16:55 inspiring relationships.

16:57 Good evening, everyone.

16:59 For me, I can offer you what I've lived.

17:05 I can share with you what I know I will give to you

17:11 and what I think I will offer.

17:16 I cannot really say what I would expect.

17:19 It's just whatever that happens or whatever she does or she is,

17:27 I am inspired, and I'm going to learn everything.

17:32 Five-times Grammy winner and legendary jazz singer Diane

17:36 Reeves joined the program this season.

17:38 She is mentoring Song Chi-shun, a South Korean modern jazz

17:42 singer and composer.

17:43 [MUSIC - SONG CHI-SHUN, "SORANGABALA"]

17:54 For me, that was the highlight, to see this person just shine

17:59 and stand in her power and work her magic

18:04 through her improvisational skills.

18:05 But more than that, pull up from somewhere

18:10 that is real rich and really, really deep.

18:13 That was extraordinary.

18:15 [MUSIC - SONG CHI-SHUN, "SORANGABALA"]

18:19 Coming here, that everybody does what they strongly believe in

18:24 and surely believe in themselves and welcomed

18:29 by everybody, it's all amazing.

18:32 And that really, really inspiring

18:35 me to continue my journey.

18:41 Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain.

18:49 We all have sorrow.

18:55 But if we are wise--

19:00 Mentorship, for me, means that I have something

19:05 that was given to me that I have worked very, very

19:08 hard in developing that I can do the same for someone else.

19:14 That is the true gift.

19:17 Lean on me when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend.

19:25 I'll help you carry on.

19:29 For it won't be long till I'm going to need somebody

19:38 to lean on.

19:41 Lean on me.

19:43 Lean on me.

19:46 Yeah!

19:48 [APPLAUSE]

19:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]

19:55 "Musica" was proudly presented by Rolex.

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