The first of two work periods scheduled by Movimento Danza within “NU.DA. Live! – Contemporary Choreographic Experiences” project took place in Croatia from February 24 to March 2, hosted by the TRAFIK-Transitional-fictional Theater, organization directed by Branko Valenta and Elda Capan with local coordination by dancer and choreographer Toni Flego, along with Italian partners AlphaZTL – Compagnia d’Arte Dinamica, directed by Vito Alfarano, and gruppo nanou, a contemporary dance and performing arts company.
Italian choreographers in Rijeka and Zagreb
Protagonists of the networking meetings with the cultural realities of Rijeka and Zagreb (institutional and independent realities dedicated to dance, performing arts and contemporary visual arts) were the works of young choreographers presented by the Italian associations.
Matteo Vignali, representing the Vidavé duo with Noemi Della Vecchia, presented Choreographic Figures for Movimento Danza, which was present with artistic director and choreographer Gabriella Stazio and Eleonora Tempesta for coordination and promotion. The Vidavé were winners of the Residanza – The Home of New Choreography 2022 call.
Aurelio Di Virgilio presented Jeplane supported by nanou group, represented by choreographer Marco Valerio Amico for artistic direction and Domenico Garofalo for artistic co-direction and promotion.
Francesco Biasi brought Shut up! Toxic Love, a diptych produced by AlphaZTL, an association present with Vito Alfarano, its artistic director and choreographer, and Giancarlo Quaranta for promotion.
Special reception was also made by local Italian institutions, especially the Italian Community of the city of Rijeka at the Institute of Culture in Zagreb.
Remarks on the project
Before leaving for the 2nd stage of the project that will take place at the end of March in Georgia (this one, organized locally by the Arts Research Institute directed by Levan Khetaguri and the Regional Theatres Network directed by Iuri Mgebrishvili), some remarks on the value of such a project were collected from its direct protagonists who have just returned to Italy.
“The importance of triggering opportunities for the future”
Marco Valerio Amico stresses the value of being able to “trigger together opportunities for the future” that come directly from the possibility of, not only presenting one’s work, but of having time to “explore a territory and get to know other realities, meet them,” “time […] fundamental for confrontation, for discovery and thus for the fine-tuning of a cultural strategy that, with more stringent timeframes, would be reduced to cultural consumption.”
Vito Alfarano agrees with Marco: AlphaZtl was happy “to meet referents of local associations with whom we could establish bases for possible future joint projects, also using the levers of European funding for international mobility and co-production.” In addition, “viewing private and public cultural spaces and containers in Rijeka and Zagreb allowed us […] to better visualize the venue of our dreams, which we do not have yet, but to get to which we are constantly moving.”
Comparison with different models open the mind to other realities, and it is a comparison to which we should all expose ourselves, as Vito Alfarano again indicates: “for young choreographers it is really an exceptional fact to have the opportunity to measure themselves with foreign interlocutors, in different cultural contexts, in which to propose themselves […].”
Matteo Vignali confirms the importance of this, recounting that, “as a young choreographer, I am often looking for opportunities that put me in contact with networks even outside the national one, so experiences like these are really valuable for the growth of the choreographic project on which I work. I notice that Croatia seems to have a good balance between number of partners/institutional venues.”
The importance of moving within institutional and independent contexts
“The kind of setting of the project allowed us to move nimbly within some Croatian contexts, from the most institutional to the most independent: the perspective in this sense is to be able to start thinking about collaborations with some of the spaces that can be good contexts for the works for each. I am thinking of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rijeka or the Zagreb Dance Center,” writes Aurelio Di Virgilio, who was impressed by the quality of listening found in the Croatian counterpart, meeting after meeting.
Another very interesting aspect that the very nature of the project was able to trigger is that of internal knowledge and collaboration within the Italian partnership network, another unique and special factor of the “Nu.Da. Live!” experience.
Francesco Biasi focuses it through pointed questions, “What happens if you put multiple thinking minds, conscious bodies and a single purpose in the same room? How you, as a cell can say you are an active part of an organism? Or rather, how can you, as a dancer, say you are part of a group moving in becoming? If you put thinking dancers, choreographers, organizers, technicians, producers, artistic directors in a room, they will write their progress, discover themselves and evolve, together, into new forms.” It was very valuable for him to “share a space, a place, different realities, new perspectives with different people, same people, passionate people, people who have consistency in wanting to improve.”
Finally, let us use Aurelio Di Virgilio‘s words to conclude, stretching a bridge between the intense experience just ended and the future ones to be built together once again:
“I think about the days spent together and I think about these three things:
– the encounter with each other
– the heterogeneity of voices
– the discovery.”
author | Eleonora Tempesta