The company is coming to Jesi next week, I should be able to go, it is a long time since I have seen them and I am quite excited about it.

Here is the company website:

http://www.aterballetto.it/

At the Pergolesi Theatre in Jesi they are going to perform on February 23rd. The programme includes WAM, one of their most recent productions inspired by the genius of Wolfang Amadeus Mozart, and Cantata, one of their most famous pieces.

Rosella, I do hope you will give us a review of the performance. It sounds like it will be exciting.

I have been to the performance and will report on it soon. It was interesting to see Bigonzetti's movement approach, the dancers are phenomenal...

Pleased it was a good experience and I'll look forward to your review, Rosella.

I continue to enjoy Bigonzetti's "Coppelia" from the Estonian National Ballet's rep. With quirky ballet and contemporary dance set on four interesting characters, it is SO much more interesting than the traditional versions that make a mockery of the dark original story.

He is one of the most interesting ballet choreographers around.

MOZART, LOVE AND THE ‘COLOURS’ OF THE SOUTH OF ITALY
Aterballetto: 'WAM', 'Après midi d’enfants', 'Cantata'
Pergolesi Theatre, Jesi, 23rd February 2006, h 9 pm

The year 2006 marks the 250th anniversary of W. A. Mozart’s birth and a lot of celebrations are being organised all over Europe. That is partly why Italian choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti decided to create a work dedicated to the music and figure of the Austrian genius. “WAM”, whose letters correspond to the initials of the musician’s name, is abundant in evocative suggestions. As the opening with the lights still on in the theatre and Maestro Bruno Moretti, in an eighteenth-century costume, playing a piano on the right corner of the proscenium. A woman, in a period red costume, starts chatting with him. People are still entering the theatre and taking their seats, when the lights go gradually off.

The lady, after singing for a little while, goes to centre stage and literally opens her elaborated dress as to officially open the door into a different world. Next to her a man, who has been standing on the stage right, wearing a tutued long skirt, takes her dress and shoes. The other members of the company enter and a choral dance is alternated with a pas de deux between the lady and her tutued partner. Her developé shows a perfect flexibility and it is only the beginning of a series of marvellously performed steps. “WAM”, which is maybe a bit too long (about fifty minutes) shows Bigonzetti’s original capability to invent unusual ways for the body to move from a position to another, with the result of pushing the dancers’ bodies towards unimaginable movement articulations. The choreographic phrases are mainly developed in place and the space is not used in terms of horizontality or width, but rather in terms of depth. An exception to this is the male group dancing a high paced sequence, made of heavy stepping and movements in second position combined with a series of jumps. They move across the stage following horizontal lines and covering the whole stage. Particularly sweet then is the solo piece of a female dancer with a tiny piano. She wears a lilac splendid costume, made of a corset like top and a short tutu. She plays the piano with her feet and shakes it until it produces disharmonic notes.

Of a different tone is the absolute premiere of “Après midi d’enfants”, a pas de deux dedicated to the freshness of adolescent love and set to the music of another genius, Ludwig Van Beethoven . It is inspired by and dedicated to Jules, son of two members of the company, Macha Daudel and Thibaut Cherradi. The colour white replaces the coloured costumes (blue, lilac, green, red) seen in “WAM”. Stefania Figliossi and Adrien Boissonnet look at each other and seem love struck. Initially they are timid, but their inhibition is soon replaced by the pleasure of discovering each other’s body. The way they intertwine their bodies is a challenge to gravity and to human flexibility. In a particularly risky passage Figliossi goes upside down and intersects her legs with her partner, to then end up with her body curled in his arms. In spite of Bigonzetti’s unusual body articulations, his gender-based vision is quite traditional and men are those who lift and support their female partners.

This is pushed to almost brutal effects in “Cantata”, the company’s signature piece dedicated to “the typical strong colours of the South of Italy”. Bigonzetti defines it as his “homage to traditional Italian culture and music, a popular work in the noble sense of the term”. Its genesis is traceable to his collaboration with the all female group of traditional Italian music, the “Gruppo Musicale Assurd” who arranged the music for the piece. The man-woman relationship is the main focus and it is expressed through love, rage, jealousy and uncompromising quarrels. In this sense, some of the sequences show a particularly harsh movement approach on the men’s part. In particular, when they pile the female dancers up into the centre of the stage. But this is only one aspect of the piece as the female dancers react by biting their hands in a gesture that presupposes trouble for their aggressors. And, in a funny sketch, two of them mock the guys for their supposed bad smell. In “Cantata” the dancers sing, talk in different languages and dance frantic sequences. The music presents different melodies that range from old lullabies to more sustained motifs such as the pizzica from Salento. It is a feast for the audience who applauds excited and overwhelmed, in particular for two members of the company who come from Jesi.