To argue that the terrace of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome is a superlocation is trivial. How trivial it is to remember that Cavaradossi is shot on that terrace in Puccini’s “Tosca” and desperate Floria Tosca throws herself from the stands. And again: isn’t it on the bridge below that the enraged people throw Paul IX’s coffin into the Tiber in the sub-finale of Bellocchio’s film “Kidnapped”? Organizing a dance performance for us at sunset is “malin” as the French would say: if you get distracted from the dance, your gaze ranges from San Pietro, to the gasometer (the one in Ozpetek’s films) to the Gianicolo.
Double show then for Fuori Programma Festival. Starring Thomas Bradley and Michele Di Stefano. Thomas Bradley begins. He is a performer with multiple backgrounds, he danced with Emanuel Gat, for whom he created the sumptuous costumes of “Love Train”, he approached butoh and other techniques.
All this is summarized in “Characters” with which he ranges among the tourists who visit the fatal terrace. He wears a blue overcoat that leaves a good part of his body uncovered. His movements have no precise logic. He rolls on the ground, is perched in precarious balance on certain small masonry reliefs assisted by a pair of shoes that guarantee his stability. The costume is inspired by the fluttering robes of the angel who draws his sword and stands menacingly on top of the Castle’s roof, a few meters above the terrace. The relationship between the almost naked body and wavy and dancing costume generates continuous unexpected perspectives that fascinate and capture the viewer. Despite a pool of Iberian tourists who repeat insensitive and ducky. “mira, me gusta, precioso”, speaking of the panorama.
The piece is repeated in the afternoon and alternates with “Veduta>Roma” by Michele di Stefano. It is a well-known piece that Di Stefano adapts to the nature where it is made. We have seen it in Bolzano, Fenestrelle (in Piedmont) and now in Rome.
It takes place in a first area where, in the middle of the audience, Bagio Caravano, Di Stefano’s fetish performer, moves according to the well-known pattern of his technique. The dance is led on the microphone by Michele who we hear through headphones. The game lies in the fact that at a certain point Caravano disappears from view and suddenly here he is running down the bridge of the castle: sudden dislocation due to the intervention of a double obviously.
The program continues in various spaces, for example in Parco Tor Tre Teste where on the 6th and 7th Silvia Gribaudi and the Swiss of the Krassen Krastev company will perform from 7pm.