Aterballetto
National Choreographic Center of Italy

  Wednesday 30 Apr
  19:30 h
  27 y 29€
MUN Theatre

The National Choreographic Center of Italy presents a new triple bill that brings out the nuances of its 16 dancers: Rhapsody in Blue by Iratxe Ansa & Igor Bacovich, Solo Echo by Crystal Pite and Glory Hall by Diego Tortelli.

Solo Echo by multi-award winning Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite invokes winter, music and the moving body to express feelings of acceptance and loss. In contrast, fluidity defines Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich's Rhapsody in Blue, a delicate piece that bends the dancers' bodies to the rhythm of Gershwin's music. A fresco of sensuality and overwhelming vitality is Glory Hall by Diego Tortelli, one of the most creative choreographers on the Italian scene. 

This triple program is in turn a true concert for dance, beginning with the famous notes of George Gershwin and ending with the post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, interspersed with Brahms sonatas.

PROGRAM

Rhapsody in Blue

(16 dancers, 25 minutes)

Rhapsody in blue, by Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, plays with Gershwin's rhapsody. The dancers feel what the music wants to convey. It is a work so powerful, so fun, so lively, sprinkled with constant variations of form, it is like crossing an enchanted forest: in the space of a few steps, of a few minutes, you encounter a magical being, a dreamy sky that changes color above you. Rhapsody offers a musical space where everything is possible, where new elements emerge from every corner and you are constantly surprised. Bodies react to fast and ever-changing stimuli.

Choreography: Iratxe Ansa & Igor Bacovich
Music: George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue; Bessie Jones, Beggin' the Blues
Set and costume design: Fabio Cherstich
Lighting design: Eric Soyer
Production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto
Co-production: Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma
With the support of Etxepare Euskal Institutua

Echo only

(7 dancers, 20 minutes)

"Solo Echo is inspired by two sonatas for cello and piano by Johannes Brahmns and Mark Strand's poem Lines for Winter. Like Strand's poem, Solo Echo invokes winter, music and the movement of bodies to express something essential about acceptance and loss." Crystal Pite

Choreography: Crystal Pite
Music: Johannes Brahms
Sonata for Cello and Piano in E Minor, Op. 38: I. Allegro non troppo
Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major, Op. 99: II. Adagio Affettuoso
Scene design: Jay Gower Taylor
Costume Design: Crystal Pite & Joke Visser
Lighting Design: Tom Visser
Stager: Eric Beauchesne
Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater (9.2.2012, The Hague). Re-staged for CCN/Aterballetto.
Production Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto
Coproduction Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Glory Hall

(16 dancers, 30 minutes)

Diego Tortelli's new creation for the 16 dancers of Aterballetto is a sensory and rebellious journey through an in-between space, suspended between light and darkness. The dance defies narrative and constantly regenerates itself, allowing fleeting emotions to emerge, destined to fade and be reborn, mixing rock sounds with symphonic melodies.

Choreography: Diego Tortelli
Music: Godspeed You! Black Emperor; Oneohtrix Point Never
Costume design: Sportmax
Lighting design: Matthias Singer
Assistant Choreographer: Hélias Tur Dorvault
Production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto
Coproduction: Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Bologna
World premiere: 6-7/02/2025, Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Spanish premiere: 30/04/2025, Teatro del Museo Universidad de Navarra

ARTISTIC FILE

General and artistic director: Gigi Cristoforetti
Company Director: Sveva Berti
Dancers: Ana Patrícia Alves Tavares, Elias Boersma, Estelle Bovay, Emiliana Campo, Albert Carol Perdiguer, Sara De Greef, Leonardo Farina, Matteo Fiorani, Matteo Fogli, Arianna Ganassi, Clément Haenen, Arianna Kob, Federica Lamonaca, Giovanni Leone, Ivana Mastroviti and Nolan Millioud.
Founding Members Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Reggio Emilia
With the support of the Ministero della Cultura, Italy

ATERBALLETTO

Centro Coreografico Nazionale/Aterballetto is Italy's first National Choreographic Center, founded in 2022 on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and located in Reggio Emilia. It is a place of creation, reception and conception that embraces all aspects of contemporary dance and its connection with other art forms. The CCN considers dance as an opportunity for personal and social growth and offers unique experiences to the public.

The CCN/Aterballetto, which grew out of the historic Aterballetto company founded in 1977, is currently composed of sixteen dancers working mainly on new productions by internationally renowned choreographers (Johan Inger, Angelin Preljocaj, Marcos Morau, Philippe Kratz, Francesca Lattuada, Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, Eyal Dadon, Diego Tortelli) and on the repetition of a selected repertoire of signature works (Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Hofesh Shechter, Crystal Pite).

CCN/Aterballetto is also dedicated to innovative and wide-ranging artistic development. Through projects with dancers who do not conform to norms of age, gender, and ability, it paves the way for accessible dance that raises questions and identifies new standards of virtuosity and beauty. Today, the focus of CCN/Aterballetto is on the plurality of styles and the research of new digital technologies, always trying to be cosmopolitan and dynamic.
 

 IRATXE ANSA & IGOR BACOVICH

Iratxe Ansa, Basque choreographer, director and dancer trained at the Jhon Cranko School, has worked for more than 20 years in some of the most relevant contemporary dance companies on the international scene, such as the Basel Ballet, the Gulbenkian Ballet, the National Dance Company, etc., becoming a benchmark in contemporary dance. In 2020 she received the National Dance Award in the category of Interpretation.

Her collaboration with Igor Bacovich began in 2013, and in 2019 they formed their own company: Metamorphosis Dance. Both coincide in the interest and passion for working in the studio with other dancers, which motivates them to create and develop tools that make the dancer's work more effective, a research that has evolved in methodology. In parallel, they have worked as choreographers and dancers in a long journey through theaters, galas, festivals and companies around the world.

CRYSTAL PITE

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite is a former member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt. Since 2002 she has directed her own company, Kidd Pivot. She has received numerous awards and recognitions.

In a choreographic career spanning 35 years, Pite has created more than sixty works for companies such as the Royal Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Paris Opera Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. She is an associate artist at three institutions: Nederlands Dans Theater, Sadler's Wells (London) and the National Arts Centre of Canada. She holds an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is a member of the Order of Canada.

DIEGO TORTELLI

Diego Tortelli studied first at STUDIO 76 in Brescia, then at the National Academy of Dance in Rome and finally at the Academy of the Teatro alla Scala. He began his career in Valencia with the Ballet de Teatres de la Generalitat, and then was invited by Gustavo Ramirez to join the company Luna Negra Chicago. In 2012 he joined the Ballet National de Marseille/Fréderic Flamand. Since 2015 he has been working as a freelancer for the Munich Opera, BOD/Richard Siegal, Korzo Theater or La Veronal. He founded Kor'sia together with Mattia Russo, Antonio de Rosa and Giuseppe Dagostino.

Diego Tortelli is resident choreographer at the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto and associate choreographer of the MILANOLTRE festival and the Tanzburo Munchen production center. In 2021 he is the winner of the first call for Italian artists launched by the Venice Biennale with the Dance Sector, directed by Wayne McGregor, for the creation of a new and original choreographic project.

The performance in Pamplona is in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture in Madrid and the Directorate General for Cultural and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation(Direzione Generale per la diplomazia pubblica e culturale del MAECI).