Storie is a small anthology of danced fragments. They are only an infinitesimal part of the very rich artistic and human universe of the two choreographers Diego Tortelli and Philippe Kratz.
Tortelli creates two pieces: Preludio, opening the bill, is a love letter to the body for five dancers, Another story is a duo about the impossible gesture of 2020, the hug.
Between past and future the two creations by Kratz. The duo “O” offers us two human bodies / robots that force us to question ourselves on how the sense of physical contact might change: will it remain emotional and heartfelt, or will it become serial and alienated?
Alpha Grace, a creation for six dancers at the end of the bill, is a reflection on empathy, a form of gentle communication among people who feel on the same level. It too is severely stretched by the present times.
STORIE
Evening for 6 dancers composed by:
PRELUDIO
Choreography Diego Tortelli
Music Nick Cave
Lighting design Carlo Cerri
Assistant to the choreographer Casia Vengoechea
5 dancers – 18′
“O”
Choreography Philippe Kratz
Music Mark Pritchard, The Field
Lighting design Carlo Cerri
2 dancers – 12′
ANOTHER STORY
Choreography Diego Tortelli
Music Spiritualized
Music consultant Federico Bigonzetti
Lighting design Carlo Cerri
2 dancers – 13′
ALPHA GRACE
Choreography Philippe Kratz
Music Barrio Sur, Fela Kuti
Dramaturgy consultant Tyrone Isaac-Stuart
Lighting design Carlo Cerri
6 dancers – 24′
Co-production Teatro Ristori di Verona
With the support of Centro per la Scena Contemporanea di Bassano del Grappa for Alpha Grace
Premiere 18 November 2021, Teatro Melotti, Rovereto
PRELUDIO is a creation for 5 performers designed around some of the most intense songs by Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave, one of the greatest exponents of Post Punk.
In his songs, Cave explores the interplay of themes such as love, “belief”, addiction, obsession and loss, crossing over each other as if he were telling a story, an experience that can be perceived by everyone through his use of notes or tone of voice. His strength is that it is not essential to fully understand the content or the source of inspiration in order to ‘hear’ and ‘be heard’. Through his work, Cave argues that we should not go to the theatre, to a concert, to a museum, in order to understand, but in order to ask questions and to enrich ourselves, to analyse ourselves.
In one of his pieces I found the question I wanted to ask myself for this creation: MAH SANCTUM (my belief).
What do I believe in? I believe in the ‘body’, I believe in its fragility and strength, in its limitation and expansion, in its capacity for change and constant transformation, I believe in its contemporaneity, but also in its capacity to continue to feel those emotions that have been handed down to us; I believe in its violent beauty and frightening fragility. In this work I research above all on these obsessions, compulsions, addictions, contrasts, transforming the bodies of the five dancers not into men and women, but into emotional impulses; impulses that are part of written poems of which it would be enough to understand that they do not end there on the stage.
PRELUDIO is my profane prayer, my love letter to the body, my credo for today.
Diego Tortelli
In the summer of 2017 in Hong Kong, for the very first time, two humanoid robots vocally interacted with one another. It became clear to anyone watching that a future, in which accumulated human knowledge is passed on by communicating inorganic material, is within reach.
“O” can be seen as a celebration of this event: two human beings or two robots celebrating in a state of transcendence and emotional fulfilment, both moving to the never-ending beat of their unstoppable hearts.
And as the spaceship computer Hal in Stanley Kubrick’s movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ puts it: “I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.”
Another story wants to tell the new story of the most feared and at the same time desired gesture of 2020, suffering from a global epidemic: the hug.
A gesture as simple as a hug has now been reinvented by adding infinite variations to its most basic meaning, transforming itself into the most hidden desire and, on the other side, into an almost “terrorist” act, without losing its deep meaning of actual carnal sharing.
Another story thus becomes a solitary hug, a shared hug, a violent, painful, tiring and also desired, hidden, intimate, idolised hug… the only prediction we cannot rely on is how this simple gesture will continue its mutation; what choreographer Diego Tortelli intends to do is to write another story for it to be felt and watched by both performer and spectator.
Alpha Grace turns to the past, to the essential, and in this case, to one of our perhaps most important virtues: compassion, empathy, understood as the perception of ourselves on a common plane with those around us. A state that allows us to truly understand the other, not to see them as different, to learn to feel their emotions and thus know their value.
The word “alpha”, symbol of the archaic, is combined with the word “grace”, kindness with an almost sacred value. The creation allows moments of solitude to flow before our eyes, in which the performers communicate individually. Then, progressively, more people join the picture until we arrive at a group action in which the various voices in their dispersion follow a rhythm that finally joins them.
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