English page 2012

The 2012 programme provides an all-round panorama of the generations and geographies of creation, mixing the energy of youthful language with the talent of great choreographers, who have never been guests of Torinodanza before. The inauguration proposes the second step of a long-term joint project with Philippe Decouflé, the great enchanter of dance: Panorama is a choice of his best work, which is eagerly awaited all over Europe. This year he embarks on a period of collaboration with a New York company, now considered at the peak of technical excellence, and one of the most original around: the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. On two different evenings, we will see works by a Moroccan who has settled in Belgium, the great Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, by an Israeli who lives in London, Hofesh Shechter, by the Swede Alexander Ekman and by Canadian Crystal Pite. The journey starts before the Focus programme Sguardi distanti, which will be inaugurated on September 25 with an evening that draws together some extraordinary Japanese hip hop groups. The hip hop choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj, the great master of neoclassical style is entirely different and might seem to be diametrically opposed to that young language. The work acquires the cultural value of a successful collaboration between “high” and “low”, between a well-known teacher and unknown dancers, in addition to its intrinsic value. It is performed with another visionary exploration of the expressive possibilities of hip hop, from the British Champloo Dance Company. The “distance” of the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company, directed by Ohad Naharin and one of the world’s most interesting dance companies, is an entirely different matter. The Focus continues with various geographical digressions: the Portuguese dancers Miguel Moreira and Romeu Runa, in the first of two co-productions with Ballets C de la B, or the Algerian Nacera Belaza, who works all over Europe and knows how to guide us through the fascinating territories of Arab culture. The two artists will also be present at this year’s Avignon Festival. Koen Augustijnen returns to Turin for the third time, in a much awaited production by Ballets C de la B which examines… the Afterworld. The triumph of the 2012 festival ends with Michèle Anne De Mey’s “nanodances”, a performance that has been a success everywhere for its originality and appeal.
The vision of the future that characterises this year’s Torinodanza is best expressed in the Focus Domani: works for a young audience, but also works with young performers. It is a sweeping production that allows parents and their children to enjoy the same work, possibly produced in Turin with young students from the city (as in the case of La linea d’ombra, created for Torinodanza by Virgilio Sieni). The other two works on the programme feature Carlotta Sagna and Phia Menard. The latter has created two similar works, capable of making objects dance, addressing an audience of children and of adults respectively. Both will be in Turin and, together with Kiss & Cry, they will offer a glimpse of the “hybrid” dance that plays such an important role in European programmes.

PANORAMA – Compagnie DCA / Philippe Decouflé

The Torinodanza Festival opens with an extraordinary production by the great Philippe Decouflé: a selection of the “best of” his well-known choreographies, a glance in the kaleidoscope of his artistic genius. A number of pieces taken from his masterpieces help us to reconstruct the world of one of the most talented and inventive choreographers.

ORBO NOVO

The best American contemporary dance company combines the talent of sixteen dancers with the creations of the best choreographers of the moment. Orbo Novo marks the return to Turin of Belgian-Moroccan Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and his ability to instil a poetic dimension in the overpowering force of movement.

VIOLET KID

Violet Kid by Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter, underlines the artist’s sensitivity for the creation of collective dances. A construction worthy of a film with a relentless rhythm, underlined by the score of robust rock music that he wrote himself.

TUPLET

Tuplet was created by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman for the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet; it is an energetic feat for six dancers, that is fast and rhythmical. The score is constructed around a series of harmonious impulses that the dancers develop using their own bodies as percussion instruments.

GRACE ENGINE

Crystal Pite has created Grace Engine using a film structure, alternating moments of great dramatic tension with pauses of emotional relaxation. A highly original visual and choreographic creation for one of the world’s emerging choreographers.

MADE IN JAPAN – Mortal Combat, Repoll:FX, Former Aktion

These masters of Japanese hip hop dance, winners of the famous Dance Delight contest, inaugurate the window that Torinodanza opens onto this artistic genre. Mortal Combat drives the audience mad with the dynamism of the choreography, the ability to blend “street and theatre” and the capacity to express themselves through very different styles of breakdance. Repoll:FX are the creators of the Entertainment Be-Bop style, an original new look at British Jazz Dance that blends Be-Bop, Fusione and Northern Jazz. The evening concludes with Former Aktion, a group that is well known in the hip-hop world for its mechanical groove, a conclusion that is an explosion of pure free style.

AU-DELÀ – les ballets C de la B

The cult company created by Alain Platel faces a new challenge. Augustijnen is an artist who throws himself into life, inducing wild, impetuous, deformed, contorted movements and bringing them into line with an energetic, exciting choreographic score. This new creation, which is co-produced by the festival and makes its Italian debut, picks up the theme of Ashes, which was acclaimed by critics and audiences at Torinodanza 2009, in a suggestive but impassioned exploration of life after death.

LE CRI – Compagnie Nacera Belaza

Nacera Belaza is a French-Algerian artist who develops her elegant work in an almost spiritual dimension. Her dancing is pure and abstract, leaving little space for narrative, and trying to give a subtle emotional force, comparable to that of music, back to movement.

ISLAND OF NO MEMORIES – FormART

Kaori Ito is one of Alain Platel’s symbolic dancers, who is now making her way as a choreographer. She describes her work as “baroque”, a definition that hints at the many links between the shintoist culture of her roots and the West, where she has established herself as an artist.

THE OLD KING – les ballets C de la B

In a festival that opens its doors to the young and to new discoveries, here is another artist who has developed from the exuberant chorus of the Ballets CdelaB. Miguel Moreira and Romeu Runa, who were unknown until now as creators, now come to Torinodanza after the prestigious baptism of the Avignon Festival.

L’APRÈS – MIDI D’UN FOEHN (* for children)

Two twin performances, that are performed in the same structure and on the same days, but address different audiences. L’après-midi d’un foehn is also for adults (as well as children), while Vortex is only for adults. The first evolves from juggling… but in a magical, surprising dimension, accompanied by the notes of Claude Debussy’s music.

VORTEX

Phia Menard’s story narrates his search for his own personal and artistic identity. His research challenges convention, through the genres, looking not only for an original, curious form of expression that is difficult to define, but also a femininity that has been hidden for a long time.

CUISSES DE GRENOUILLE – Compagnie Caterina & Carlotta Sagna (*for children)

In the rarefied atmospheres created by the great Italian choreographer, a young girl becomes a ballerina, thanks in part to an encounter with unlikely characters, who reveal the magic of the stage to her: an Aikikai teacher who is afraid that his weapon will rebel against him, an old danseur who loses his toupee on his pirouettes, a female tango dancer who smokes cigars…

ROYAUME UNI – Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar (pared with White Caps)

Angelin Preljocaj is today’s greatest neoclassical choreographer, and his works are included in the repertoire of La Scala and the Paris Opéra. For the same time, he puts four hip hop dancers on stage, and the result is a harmonious meeting of different worlds that we might have thought unreconcilable.

WHITE CAPS – Champloo Dance Company (paired with Royaume Uni)

A young British group that mixes cinema and dance in its performances, creating imaginary worlds in which the expressive force of hip hop blends with the visionary complexity of an adventure experienced in a video that is memory, or perhaps a dream.

CERBIATTI DEL NOSTRO FUTURO – Compagnia Virgilio Sieni (* for children)

Is it possible to create contemporary choreography with very young performers, for an audience (also) of children? It is a challenge that looks forward to Domani, which is the title of the Torinodanza Focus. The Cerbiatti del nostro futuro project presented in Turin will comprise four different works: Silenzio e Volo are the result of the experiments with students from the schools directed by Loredana Furno and Susanna Egri; In ascolto and Fuga were created for the trio of dancers from Livorno, who are behind the entire project.

SADEH21

The Batsheva Dance Company was founded in Tel Aviv, with the artistic supervision of Martha Graham and directed by the brilliant Ohad Naharin. It has become one of the most extraordinary companies on the international choreographic scene. Sadeh21, its latest masterpiece, is full of surprises, leaving the audience with a sense of luminous creative freedom.

DECA DANCE

Two unmissable works brought to Italy by the Batsheva company, to Torinodanza and Romaeuropa: after Sadeh 21, we now have Deca Dance, a celebration of ten years of work by the Israeli choreographer. After Panorama, another “best of” show at Torinodanza, with extracts or sections from previous works by Naharin, reworked and combined to give audiences a strong impression of his work.

KISS & CRY – Compagnie NanoDanses

Kiss & Cry, by the Belgian Charleroi Danses, is an unrepeatable ballet, the fruit of exceptional collaboration between different languages in terms of artistic affinity and cross-fertilisation. Cinema and dance compete to invent new forms of narrative, in which fingers can be the stars. A real surprise, that concludes Torinodanza 2012.