Retour en Avant / Past Forward Biennale de la Danse Lyon - France

Primo toccare / Création 2008À une époque où même la mort et le désespoir,dans notre dimension « médiatique »,prennent des allures cinématographiques ;à une époque où la perception artistiqueconcerne aussi les faits réels les plus violents,le sens esthétique évolue et crée de nouveauxidéaux de « beauté ».C’est pourquoi, je pense qu’aujourd’hui lapremière démarche dans la création d’unballet, son ébauche, ne se situe pas parrapport à quelque chose – ou tout au moinsà quelque chose de précis dans le domainede la danse – mais naît plutôt d’un jeu de séduction,dans le sens d’une déviation de cequi existe déjà, du positif et du concret, uneréalité « autre ».De là naissent les fondements de la créationchorégraphique qui voit l’irréel comme leseul domaine possible pour la représentationd’un idéal de beauté.Dans une ambiance glaciale, gazeuse etrecherchée se déploient des danses quijouent avec les sensations que l’on éprouveen regardant et en touchant : quand on saitque si l’on touche un objet, celui-ci désormaisnous appartient.Tout se résout à la première touche, aupremier regard, comme à vouloir mettrel’accent sur la fugacité de la vie et del’œuvre d’art elle-même. Dans un jeud’images évanescentes, entre immobilitéet fluidité, se succèdent des ensembles, desduos et des trios construits sur la base dumatériau de la technique dite classique,mais avançant dans un champ d’action trèscontemporain, qui finit par produire, plutôtqu’une soirée de danse, une expérience dedanses. Le duo d’artistes visuels corpicrudi(Samantha Stella et Sergio Frazzingaro)procède aussi de cette orientation esthétiquepour réaliser des projets hybridesentre art contemporain, musique et mode ;ils abordent ici l’espace scénique où ilstraduisent architecturalement l’élégancede la composition et la recherche formelle.La danse et le décor se déploient toutefoissur deux binaires distincts, se rencontrant,à la limite, par l’effet du hasard, commele conçoit Merce Cunningham. Ces danses,transparentes comme le verre et la lumièreblanche, veulent incarner la fugacité del’œuvre d’art elle-même.Matteo LevaggiComment le passé peut-il dessiner le futur ?J’ai toujours pensé qu’un travail artistique libre etcréatif ne peut pas se limiter à une recherche acharnéede trouvailles théâtrales «nouvelles» qui visent àétonner le spectateur. Il faut rester en équilibre sur ceque l’histoire nous a laissé, et de là, avancer librement.Je songe à Balanchine et à Cunningham et à leurregard audacieux mais sans préjugés vers le passé ; àmon tour, je ressens la nécessité de monter sur leursépaules pour chercher à regarder plus loin.Matteo LevaggiInfo +Première mondialeCoproduction Biennalewww.ballettoteatroditorino.itBalletto Teatro di TorinoThe company was founded in Turin in the 1970sand headed by Loredana Furno, principal dancerwith the Teatro Regio, with the aim of offeringan alternative to the dance shows of theperiod and an artistic approach that embracedother performance disciplines. In its early yearsthe company staged new works, often set tooriginal music, by important figures of the timesuch as Vittorio Biagi, Roberto Fascilla, LorisGai and Milorad Miskovitch. Then in the ’80sand ’90s, continuing its search for new ideas, itincreasingly opened up to contemporary dance,performing work by choreographers includingJob Sanders, Roberto Castello, Bertrand d’At,Charles Vodoz and Jozsef Tari. The José LimónDance Foundation in New York even entrustedit with There Is a Time, one of the Americanchoreographer’s masterpieces.Its research and historical memory departmenthas enabled the realisation of major monographicprojects on José Limón (1995), SergeLifar (1997), Aurel Milloss (1999) and KaroleArmitage (2000); each show was linked withexhibitions, colloquia and masterclasses. But thecompany’s main focus remains contemporarydance: it has premièred works by Luca Veggetti,Loris Petrillo, Gigi Caciuleanu and Karole Armitage.In 2001, Balletto Teatro di Torino redefinedits artistic profile with the appointment of MatteoLevaggi as resident dancer/choreographer;under his leadership, the company has renewedits image. Over the years, the company hasstaged some 60 productions and performed allover the world.Matteo LevaggiHe trained at the Balletto Teatro di Torino schoolunder Loredana Furno. From 1993-96 he cameto notice in various competitions including theConcours International de Danse in Paris. Afterjoining the company, he distinguished himselfas a soloist, through its artistic personality andthrough the exceptional quality of his movement.Several choreographers have since chosenhim to perform their work. In 1997-98 he wasa member of Aterballetto, the company led bychoreographer Mauro Bigonzetti; and then wentfreelance, dancing in several productions such asLes Mémoires d’Hadrien, alongside Italian actorGiorgio Albertazzi.In 2000 he featured in an important new workby American choreographer Karole Armitage:Io Giacomo Casanova, presented at the AthensFestival. In the same year, he was invited tothe Cuba International Ballet Festival run byAlicia Alonso. After the success of his first pieceSalomè (1999), for Balletto Teatro di Torino,Loredana Furno appointed him as the company’sresident choreographer. With the creative andpersonal directions he has since taken, focusedon creating choreography and on his everydaywork with the dancers, Levaggi has nurtured an“auteur company”. It is increasingly making itsmark as one of Italy’s leading companies.In just a few years, he has created several piecesfor his company: Gee, Andy! (2001), Slippery-Friction-Skipped and stretch (2003), Ray Man(2004), Jeu d’écarts (2005), Differentia (2005),Off Again (2006) and Surrogate Cites (2007);but also Caravaggio (2004) for the Teatro CarloFelice in Genoa, Drowning by Numbers (2005)and La Boutique fantasque (2006) for the BallettoDell’Arena in Verona. At the 2006 VeniceDance Biennale (director: Ismael Ivo) he premièredCanto bianco in un momento di orizzonteverticale. In 2007 the Zagreb Music Biennale(Croatia) commissioned from Levaggi a piece setto music by Heiner Goebbels, a major contemporarycomposer, with whom the Italian hadalready collaborated on a “Goebbels Project”with the BTT as part of a season at the TeatroStabile in Turin. Much of Matteo Levaggi’s successhas come with the Balletto Teatro di Torino,and Italian critics now consider him an originaland inventive choreographer. His dynamic andintoxicating dance, with its deliberate “formality”,has captured the public’s enthusiasm.Primo toccare / 2008 creationIn an age when, in our “media dimension”,even death and despair acquire the look of cinematography;and in an age when artistic perceptionalso covers the most violent of actual facts,the aesthetic sense is evolving and creating newideals of “beauty”. This is why I now think thatthe first step in creating a ballet – the roughsketching – does not relate to anything, or atleast not to any precise thing, in the domain ofdance; rather, it stems from a game of seduction,in the sense of being a diversion from whatalready exists, from the positive and concrete;some “other” reality. This yields the foundationsof choreographic creation, which sees unrealityas the only possible realm in which to portray anideal of beauty. In an icy, gaseous and studiedatmosphere, dances unfold that play with thesensations we feel when we watch and touch;when we know that if we touch an object, thenit belongs to us. Everything hinges on the firsttouch, the first glance; on the wish to emphasisethe fleetingness of life and of the work of artitself. In a play of evanescent images, hoveringbetween stillness and fluidity, a sequence of ensembles,duos and trios is performed, based onthe material of the so-called classical techniquebut in a highly contemporary field of action; thisultimately produces an experience of dancesrather than an evening of dance. Corpicrudi, aduo of visual artists (Samantha Stella and SergioFrazzingaro), also take this aesthetic stance inorder to execute projects blending contemporaryart, music and fashion; here they addressthe scenic space, rendering architecturally theelegance of the composition and its explorationof form. However, dance and decor fit twodistinct binary systems; they might almost besaid to meet by chance, as in Merce Cunningham’sconception. These dances, as transparentas glass and white light, seek to embody thefleetingness of the work itself.How can the past shape the future?I have always felt that free, creative, artistic activitycannot just be a relentless search for “new“ theatricalelements intended to amaze the spectator. There mustbe a balance between what history has handed us andour own free progress. I think of Balanchine and Cunningham,who looked at the past boldly and withoutprejudice; now, in turn, I feel the need to “climb ontheir shoulders“, trying to look further ahead.Matteo LevaggiExtra info:World premiereCo-produced by the Biennalewww.ballettoteatroditorino.it41