As always at the end of July, the Tanz Bozen/ Bolzano Danza festival unfolds a broad and curious look at what is happening not only in old Europe. Large and attentive public because here culture and entertainment go hand in hand. Performances always followed by meetings with the artists led by the director of the festival Emanuele Masi who entitled this edition “Microcosmo”.
Not just Europe then. For example, he comes from Benin, and his dance smacks a lot of voodoo rituals, Koffi Koko. African choreographer and performer performs in a European black jacket and trousers, but his movements are rooted in the ancient traditions of his land and the piece is titled “The third body”. In the spaces of the Dalle Nogare Foundation the performer moves slowly, with his eyes closed or wide open on the void accompanied by the percussive music of Manos Tsingaris, German but with a name that denounces other Mediterranean roots.
The protagonists of “Demain, c’est loin” with the Groupe Grenade are a large group of young people brought together by the French Josette Baiz: children on stage are always an easy guarantee. On the other hand, two world-renowned stars and principals of the Hamburg Ballet are Silvia Azzoni and Oleksandr Ryabko, both, as well as the choreographer of “Reflections of the mind”, Kristina Paulin, who came out of the John Neumeier nursery. Paulin was inspired by Mozart’s sentimental relationship with his wife Constanze. There are precise narrative elements that take us back to the second half of the 18th century, the performers wear black masks, they move to music by Mozart and Philip Glass performed by a string quartet.
Not only the municipal theater, but also the Museion, the city’s contemporary art museum, is a place for entertainment. There, for example, the performer and choreographer Moriah Evans performed together with three other dancers in an installation entitled “Out of and into: Plot”. A large hall of the museum was completely covered with barren earth, straw, stones (conception of Asad Raza) and there the four performers moved, like animal beings with first slow gestures, often on the ground, and then angry on all fours and screaming,
It was Canadian Eric Gauthier and his Stuttgart company who scored another highlight at the end of the festival. Stuttgart is an important city in the history of dance: the Stuttgart Ballet was born in 1609. Gauthier’s company, on the other hand, is only fifteen years old, but it is a fierce team and open to collaborations with important authors thanks to the diplomatic skills of its director and is Principal Guest company of Bolzano Danza
The evening, significantly entitled “15 years alive”, opened with “Pression” a pas de deux of strong intensity by Mauro Bigonzetti created in 1994 for the Balletto di Toscana. Films followed (made by Hofesh Shechter and Marco Goecke,) and live pieces such as “ABC” where the dancer Shori Yamamoto interpreted the infinite positions of the dance, dictated by a voice-over, Gauthier himself.
Final with “Minus 16” an overwhelming piece by the Israeli Ohad Naharin which has at the center a scene dotted with 16 chairs in a semicircle with the dancers who repeat a short haunting sequence of steps on the song “Echad mi Yodea”, a Passover song , here in a very rhythmic version. Superfinale with the dancers inviting spectators to dance with them in the hall and on stage. Found not new and maybe a little kitsch but certainly pop effect.