21st Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival - Italy

One hundred and seventy-five years have passed since the première of Giselle, a masterpiece of romantic classical ballet created for the Parisian debut of Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi. Since then, Giselle has continued to evolve with such continuity that theatre audiences of the 21st 21st century can no longer expect an emblematic performance of 19th 19th century European classical ballet: Giselle has assumed a global citizenship; Giselle has its roots embedded in the present.

Having commissioned Itamar Serussi Sahar and Chris Haring | Liquid Loft to choreograph Act 1 and Act 2 respectively, Balletto di Roma does not merely present a new version of the traditional story of Giselle. Instead, the new Giselle offers a profound exploration of the madness of a young girl betrayed by her lover (Act 1) and the sepulchral result of her suffering in the underworld (Act 2). The Giselle, which premiéredpremiered on 16th 16th July 2016 – as a result of the a partnership between Liquid Loft, Operaestate Festival and Civitanova Danza, – is far more than an exploration of the juxtaposition of life and death within the personality of the title role; the new choreography expresses the multifaceted mood of the whole community of bodies on stage. Giselle’s identity is no longer incarnated in a single role, but serves as a lens through which we are all invited to observe the world around us. The focus of the dancers of Balletto di Roma has been to embody the spirit of Giselle in their improvisations, not by analyzing her personality and identifying its individual parts, but rather by deconstructing Théophile Gautier’s libretto and exploring the possibilities offered to bodies and sensitivities of the present.

For the first time, Giselle involves an international team of artists and associates, with different artistic identities and original creative approaches, coordinated by Peggy Olislaegers, former artistic director of the Dutch Dance Festival, dramaturg for many companies like Rambert and artists ad such as Alessandro Sciarroni. Richard Van Kruysdijk and Andreas Berger’s profound rearrangement of the music of Adolphe Adam underlies both acts of the ballet, enabling the dancers to generate new rhythmic and gestural evocations, which let each spectator create his or her own story.

Itamar Serussi Sahar’s choreography of the first act expresses a strongly physical, almost erotic power: the bodies are stripped off the pantomime dress, which traditionally characterizes the opening scenes of the ballet, enabling the dancers to offer themselves to the audience in a way that reveals the true objective of their dance, the original intention of their movements. The earthly setting of the 19th 19th century architypearchetype is expressed by the humanity of the dancers and the way in which they are changed by reality, moved and shaken by vital pulses as they explore the spaces offered by the set, expressing a sense of belonging to both life and death. In contrast with the way in which the vitality of the first act underlines the individuality of each of the dancers, Chris Haring’s choreography of Act 2 presents a more collective approach, reminding us that nothing is more common to all humans than death.

The idea that revenge can lessen the pain of loss offers a last twitch of human sensitivity, a last absurd hypothesis, to Giselle before the bodies confront one another in a definitive clash. Interrupted only by a number of incursions into the real world, this confrontation is pervaded by a gradual decrease in visual density until, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the performers and the audience are brought back to life.

The Austrian choreographer Chris Haring has worked with choreographers and companies such as DV8 Physical Theatre (London), Nikolais/Luis Dance Cie (USA), man act (GB), Nigel Charnock (GB), pilottanzt and others., a.o.. Together with the multimedia artist and composer Klaus Obermaier he created the video-dance performances D.A.V.E. and VIVISECTOR, which have been successfully performed all over the world. Some of his main sources of inspiration for the performances, such as Fremdkorper (awarded as the best performance at the Dance Biennale in Lyons in 2004), are science fiction and the human body seen as a cybernetic landscape. Since 2005 he has been the artistic director of Liquid Loft. He choreographed performances such as Kind of Heroes, Running Sushi, Talking Head and The Perfect Garden series. In 2007 he created the Posing Project Series and his Posing Project B – The Art of Seduction won the Leone d’Oro for best performance at Biennale di Venezia. In 2010 he was awarded withreceived the “Oustanding Artists Award” for performing arts by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Culture (BMUKK). He was the responsible for the opening performance of the Austrian Pavillion at the Universal Expo in Zaragoza (2008) with Liquid Loft. He also created choreographies for international companies such as Jin Xing Dance Theatre (Shanghai), Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo (F), Dialogue Dance (RU), Staatstheater Kassel (GER) and Ballett Moskau (RU).

An Amsterdam resident, Itamar Serussi Sahar (Israel, 1978) began his dance training at the age of fifteen at the Israel Arts High School and School of Bat-Dor Dance Company. In 1998 he became a part of the Batsheva Dance Company. From 2006 he has been working on developing his own personal style, as well as experimenting with physical boundaries through humour and improvisation, thus tryingin an attempt to go beyond traditional dance. His work is playful, light and elegant and his choreographies are the result of a synergy between his surroundingswith what is around him and his dancers. Between 2010 and 2012 he was the resident choreographer for Danshuis Station Zuid (Tilburg, NL), where. As such, he created a number of short works, such as “Phenomena”, “Undo”, “Ferrum”, “Lust” and the long performance “Mono”. The latter was nominated as “Best dance production – season 2011-2012″ for at the Swan Award‘s “Best dance production – season 2011-2012″ in Nederlandse Dansdagen, Maastricht. Itamar’s choreographies are striking both for the audience and for the performers’ and are regularly performed all across Europe (Czech Republic, France, Slovenia). Itamar also creates for dance companies in the U.K., Austria, United States, France, Denmark and Belgium and, since the summer of 2014, he has also been the resident choreographer for theof Scapino Ballet (Rotterdam, NL).

Balletto di Roma
Title: Giselle
Duration of the show: 90 minutes with interval
Choreography: Chris Haring, Itamar Serussi Sahar
Concept Development: Peggy Olislaegers
Original music: Adolphe Adam Musical (re-working: Richard Van Kruysdijk, Andreas Berger)
with the dancers of: Balletto di Roma

Organisers: Ministry of Education and Culture – Rialto Theatre

Duration: 90'