Elegia
choreography: Enrico Morelli
music: Frédéric Chopin, Giuseppe Villarosa
costumes: Nuvia Valestri
lighting design: Carlo Cerri
voice: Isidora Balberini
duration: 30’
premiere: Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni, Modena, 2022
dancers: Emiliana Campo, Lorenzo Fiorito, Mario Genovese, Matilde Gherardi, Fabiana Lonardo, Alice Ruspaggiari, Nicola Stasi, Giuseppe Villarosa
People in search of their own path and identity, united by the same inclusion in one historical period, in an era like the present one that brings dizziness and bewilderment. Individuals who trace new trajectories and look for new ways to recover their own route, in a moment of exile from normality. A tale of lost moments and relationships, coupled with the search, in one's memory, for images and landscapes that used to be familiar and comforting to us. A dream journey to rediscover one's self, now lost. When we think we have nothing left to lose, the hope of a new beginning brings us back to the primary instinct of resistance and struggle for life. A choral dance that plunges us into a whirlwind of lines and trajectories. These meet and intertwine, in an apparent primordial chaos until the return of quiet, which brings with it the choice of abandoning oneself to a rediscovered hope, in view of a new rebirth. A praise of care, of paying attention to others, amplified by the words taken from the poems of Mariangela Gualtieri.
Dancer and choreographer, Enrico Morelli graduated from the National Dance Academy in Rome in 1999. In same Academy, he also attended the teachers' specialization course. He has won prizes at numerous choreographic competitions in Italy, while in 2001 was awarded, in his capacity as a dancer, the Silver Medal of the President of the Italian Republic. He has created choreography for MM Contemporary Dance Company, Astra Roma Ballet, the School of Opera Theatre in Rome, Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre, Palermo InDanza, Company KAOS - Firenze, Teatro Massimo of Palermo, Szegedi Kortàrs Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet. In 2004 he became a dancer of MM Contemporary Dance Company directed by Michele Merola and is now joint-director (with Michele Merola) of Agora Coaching Project-Reggio Emilia, an advanced training program for dancers.
Ballad
choreography: Mauro Bigonzetti
music: CCCP - Fedeli alla linea, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Frank Zappa, Nick Cave, Arvo Paart, Nina Simone
costumes: Silvia Califano
lighting design: Carlo Cerri
assistant to choreographer: Roberto Zamorano
ballet master: Paolo Lauri
duration: 50’
premiere: Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni, Modena, 2022
dancers: Emiliana Campo, Lorenzo Fiorito, Mario Genovese, Matilde Gherardi, Fabiana Lonardo, Alice Ruspaggiari, Rossana Samele, Nicola Stasi, Giuseppe Villarosa, Leonardo Zannella
Bigonzetti’s new creation is intended as a tribute, a choral story, a full-fledged portrait of the Eighties, a decade that has now lost its temporal boundaries to become a symbol of an era. A narration through musical images that recovers the sensations of a generation and it’s "dreams thrown into the sea", but which at the same time also rediscovers the lifestyle of those years, the scents of its vitality and the dense experimental artistic creativity that characterized a rapidly evolving society, which was gradually transforming itself in step with the impulses of sharing and the anxiety of change. A piece that draws on various authors protagonists of that period, from Prince to the anarchic genius of Frank Zappa, to the profound poetry of Leonard Cohen, up to the punk and existential aesthetics of the group CCCP. Through an abstract narrative, the choreographic score gives life to a space of memory and feeling where the man, by stripping off his shell and the armor that accompanies him, finds his body alive and vulnerable. A journey that leads us to discover pain, love, abandonment... A symbolic journey in the relentless search for a new collective rebirth where beauty enriches and guides our path.
Mauro Bigonzetti trained at the ballet school of Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and entered their company in 1979. In 1983 he joined the Reggio Emilia’s Aterballetto, renowned for its contemporary repertory. He first began to choreograph for Aterballetto in 1990. In 1993 he joined Balletto di Toscana as resident choreographer and in 1997 returned to Aterballetto as company’s artistic director. All through his choreographic career has always maintained a close relationship with Aterballetto, his works became part of the repertory of some of the major ballet and dance companies around the globe, such as: English National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballett, New York City Ballet, Ballet du Capitol in Toulouse, Gauthier Dance Stuttgart, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet of La Scala Theater, Staatsballett Berlin, Semperoper Ballett Dresden, Ballet of Opera in Rome, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballet Basel, Staatsoper Ballet Hannover, Balè da Cidade Sao Paolo, Bolshoi Ballet, Gulbenkian Ballet, Ballett Jazz Montreal, National Ballet of China, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballett Dortmund, Ballet Zurich, Swedish Royal Ballet, Prague National Ballet, Estonian National Ballet, Ankara National Ballet, Linz State Ballet, Pennyslavia Ballet, Ballet of Croatian National Theatre, Introdans, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Ardani Production, Gulbenkian Foundation… He has served as a director of La Scala Ballet in 2016.
Based in Reggio Emilia MM Contemporary Dance Company was created in 1999 by choreographer Michele Merola. The company repertoire includes a range of styles: Merola’s works, and those of international and Italian choreographers such as Maguy Marin, Mats Ek, Mauro Bigonzetti, Thomas Noone, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Karl Alfred Schreiner, Eugenio Scigliano, Emanuele Soavi, Enrico Morelli, Daniele Ninarello, Ginevra Panzetti ed Enrico Ticconi, Roberto Tedesco, Camilla Monga, Adriano Bolognino, Silvia Gribaudi… In 2010 Company won the Danza&Danza Award as the Best Emerging Italian Dance Company and in 2017 the Europaindanza - Merit Award to Choreography for the performance “Bolero” by Michele Merola. Today, it is an outstanding ensemble of Italian dance talents, performing all over the Italy and abroad. In January 2021 and January 2022 the Company was presented on TV RAI 1 as part of the program “Danza con me” by Roberto Bolle. In 2023 Company received the Danza&Danza Award for the production Ballad. The MM Contemporary Dance Company is supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Region of Emilia-Romagna and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia.
Bigonzetti is... Bigonzetti: challenging, provocative, sensual, brilliant, undoubtedly one of the most appreciated Italian choreographers in the world. His “Ballad”, which gives the title to the entire evening, is the photograph of a very specific era: the late 70s and early 80s. Ballade is a kaleidoscope of emotions!
© dancehallnews.it
“Elegia” by Morelli… a movement that is colored with pure romanticism with Chopin's piano and the black background that becomes a starry sky.
© La Stampa
