biennale college
danza 2013

Venezia, 28 - 30 giugno

di Lisanne Sanders

For the theme of PRIMA DANZA - translated as ‘the first dance’ - Virgilio Sieni, new artistic director of Biennale Danza, selected a divergent set of creations. Each performance retains a kind of fundamental human trait, a perspective on the body in motion. One more creative and spectacular than the other, but all of them interesting additions to this short version of the Biennale Dance, this introduction to the world of Virgilio Sieni.  

For the theme of PRIMA DANZA - translated as ‘the first dance’ - Virgilio Sieni, new artistic director of Biennale Danza, selected a divergent set of creations. Each performance retains a kind of fundamental human trait, a perspective on the body in motion. One more creative and spectacular than the other, but all of them interesting additions to this short version of the Biennale Dance, this introduction to the world of Virgilio Sieni.  

Down on her hands and feet, dressed in merely black knickers and an iPhone strapped on her back, choreographer and dancer Lorena Dozio travels in slow pulsating movements through the space. Her body seems to stay in the in-between of things, never really finishing a movement but always articulating into the extreme. Dozio’s slender and toned body gives the choreography an alienating effect, in the twilight of the space seemingly transforming her into a kind of lizard. Alibi is based on the intriguing concept of the body in suspension during the fall or the acceleration before striking the blow. But what makes this performance even more exciting, is its technological side in the shape of the strapped on iPhone. Through various algorithms and special software, created in collaboration with sound designer Carlo Cicero, Dozio is able to manipulate the sound, its effects and intensity, through the different axes measured from her back. Dozio's passionate movements are extended as well as intensified by the monotone soundscapes resulting in a harmonic, hypnotizing and imaginative solo performance. 5

28.06 h. 20.30 Arsenale - Teatro alle Tese Venezia. ALibi I Concezione, coreografia e interpretazione Lorena Dozio I composizione musicale e dispositivo sonoro Daniel Zea I diffusione e interpretazione Carlo Ciceri con il sostegno di Istituto Svizzero di Venezia, Mains d’Oeuvres-Saint Ouen (F), ADC - Ginevra
produzione Crile e Bagacera grazie a M. Lefkowitz, J. Vincenot

After Alibi, also set in the Teatro alle Tese in the Arsenale of Venice, the audience becomes acquainted with Scarcagnizzu, a solo choreographed and performed by Stefania Rossetti. With her long hair swaying around her head Rossetti runs towards a dangling rope swing. The audience holds its breath, when she pushes herself with great force off the wall. Inspired by the phenomenon of downwards wind movement, the meaning of solo’s title Scarcagnizzu, Rossetti creates an explosive and mesmerizing choreography. Dávila’s colorful light design on the floor at the start of the performance is breathtaking, whereas the stroboscopic light in the second part is merely distracting, almost painful to the eyes and, most of all, redundant in the whole. 3

28.06 h. 20.30 Arsenale - Teatro alle Tese Venezia. Scarcagnizzu I Coreografia e interpretazione Stefania Rossetti composizione sonora Andrés Dávila

Biennale Danza’s last two PRIMA DANZA creations were presented in the magnificent Sala delle Colonne at the historical headquarters Ca’ Giustinian. At first sight dancer Onofrio Zummo, dressed in a black suit without shirt, seems to merely introduce the performance LuoghiNonluoghi by welcoming everyone in multiple languages and reminding the audience to switch of their mobile phone. But then, like a jammed talking machine, he starts to repeat, accelerate and fragment his phrases, while adding short powerful arm gestures. “Nicht Rauchen!” he screams over and over, as the audience gets carried away in this immersive episode. Suddenly he collapses, while maintaining his frightened facial expression. With this action he makes room for the hysterical, almost manic Tiziana Passoni, also the choreographer of the piece. Her well-articulated, virtuosic dance phrases are mesmerizing as well as humoristic. At one moment the audience chuckles when she childishly grabs the small pieces of torn paper, left behind by Zummo, from the floor. All and all, LuoghiNonluoghi is energetic, humoristic, manic but above all fantastic! 4

30 06 2013 h. 17 00 Ca’ Giustinian – Sala delle Colonne, Venezia.

As with the first two PRIMA DANZA performances, here too one can find two opposing choreographies. Where in Dozio’s Alibi slow motion movement works wonderfully, in Elisa Romagnani’s Tandem-Repeats it results in a merely dull and monotonous choreography. The start is promising; with their bodies the two women settle on and around one of the columns, becoming one with the site. However, the excitement ends right then and there, for the movement vocabulary of the following slow duets, to which also a male dancer is added, lack creativity. Even though the theme of mutual dependency is quite literally visible and the dancers express themselves beautifully, the performance shows no highlights. In the end, Tandem-Repeats leaves the spectator unsatisfied. 2

30 06 2013 h. 17 00 Ca’ Giustinian – Sala delle Colonne, Venezia. I Tandem – Repeats I Coreografia Elisa Romagnani con Madora Del Canto, Fernando Pasquini, Elisa Romagnani

biennale college
danza 2013

Venezia, 28 / 30 giugno 2013