hosted at Teatro Palladium on Feb 1st with Op.22 N°2
- The title of our season is “Vertigine”. What is vertiginous to you?
Vertigo are sensations of oscillatory, rotational movement. These are sensations that I experience often in my work, sometimes in a literal and physical way. All the research I have done to date goes toward exploring and accepting those sensations. They have to do with fear and fascination with existence.
- What power do dance practices have to change the imaginary and/or act the world?
If there are the conditions for an exchange of energy to occur between the performer and the observer, in my opinion, dance can become a transformative experience. Like when we stand before a flock of birds in flight, or the northern lights…Suddenly we become aware of our presence.
- In your works the body has always emerged as a constellation generated by a specific experience, and the choreographic writings, in turn, seem to be shaped from that specificity. In the case of Op. 22 No. 2 you did not personally choose the performer to work with, although you had a long familiarity with Marta Ciappina. What emerged from this “new” mode of operation? And what dialogue is established with the universe of “The Swan of Tuonela” by Jean Sibelius?
The idea of creating a solo performed by Marta Ciappina from Sibelius’ music came from Emanuele Masi, artistic director of Bolzano Danza.
Before accepting his proposal, I discussed it with my collaborators and with Marta. I wanted to be sure that this could be a mode of creation to which we felt able to adhere.
Normally in my work I always start from the identification of a pre-existing practice: folk dances, ballet, sports, circus practices, or actions (laughing, jumping, spinning, etc…). From the object of research I move toward identifying the subjects, the performers, around whom I build the choreographic composition, dramaturgy, visual and soundscapes. In Op. 22 No. 2 the opposite happened: the landscape and the performer were already assigned, we had to identify the practice.
The medieval legend of the musical work imposed itself as dramaturgical material, and together with Marta Ciappina we tried our hand at identifying possible stage translations. We brought into play our desires and the dances we had gone through over the years as practice and imagery, until the construction of a dramatic character that coincides both with our restitution of the myth and with the identity of the performer herself.