Bente Bulens & Beata Rekemova, «Attracted by repulsion»
Elena Cattardico, «In the Country of Last Things»
Adriano Bolognino, «Come Neve»

13^th Dance Days Chania
International contemporary dance festival | July 22^nd - August 2^nd

1st performance

Bente Bulens & Beata Rekemova
"Attracted by repulsion" (Belgium/Slovakia)

August 1st| 21:30 | "Mikis Theodorakis" theatre

Two similar bodies are trying to connect with each other. With the magnetic space around them, they are attracted by the opposite repulsion-the feeling of repugnance toward something with a desire to be pulled toward it. The relationship between them is continually evolving. Listen, follow and acknowledge when to lead and hold back to gain trust. Moved by the ongoing soft energy in the space, and even when it stops, it continues within the space around the audience. Here, the force resists relatively to the motion between two bodies in contact. Can you see them separately? The first one depends on the other, however, the second one always keeps going. With whom do you empathize? In the end, they meet at the point of their similarity.

Created & Performed by: Bente Bulens & Beata Rekemova

Music: Roc Gomez Mongay (ES) - artistic name: Years Astray

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/kV0jFChVLq0

2nd performance

Elena Cattardico
"In the Country of Last Things" (Italy/Germany)

August 1st| 21:45 | "Mikis Theodorakis" theatre

"In the Country of Last Things" stems from a hilarious anecdote involving a shopping cart, a sleeping child and a mother without a stroller...

All that remained of the anecdote is the shopping cart: my aesthetic imagination brought flowers to it and my emotional memory a statute of existence. These assumptions were the pretext for investigating the multiple uses and meanings associated with the cart: most commonly we know it as a mobile container, where to collect basic necessities; for many 'outsiders' it is even a home, an "ark" for the few assets still in their possession, as for the protagonists of Paul Auster's book to which this 'piece' owes its title; in this choreographic work, the cart assumed the meaning of transient tomb of the soul, a painful and transitory condition of existence but from which man cannot escape.

The shopping cart maneuvered in space, traces the battlefield in which the incommunicability of the two protagonists is consumed: the one who witnesses other's pain, after numerous and vain attempts to shake the other person, identifies in the acceptance of his impotence as the only possible solution. "Armistice" then, surrender, turns out to be the only possible way to pull themselves to safety and preserve the residual love that unites them. The two acts of strength that the dancers perform at the end of the piece - solitary but complementary - unpredictably give a new physiognomy to the cart, sanctioning the truce and a new, matured, self-awareness.

This "transformism" concerns the material as much as the souls that trigger it and symbolizes "krisis" not only in the sense of ongoing disruption, but in the Greek sense of "choice" and "separation": accepting the disintegration of the self, admitting separation from obsolete versions of us, as the caterpillar does when it leaves its chrysalis, is sometimes "the last thing" left to do in order to be reborn into the most majestic form of us. What for the chrysalis is the end of the world, the world calls the butterfly, after all.

"Siamo solo conchiglie, sparse sulla sabbia. Niente potrà tornare, a quando il mare era calmo".

"We are only shells, scattered on the sand. Nothing can go back to when the sea was calm", sings a voice in the background of their own...

Those who assist grief are not immune to change, however: all that is left for them to do is to offer a "watch over you" and wait patiently for the pain to bloom. Blossoming with it themselves...

Dancers and co-creators: Chiara Alessandro and Francisco Ladrón de Guevara

Soundtrack: Edoardo Nocco, Andrea Laszlo De Simone (track "Conchiglie" - 2019)

Video shooting: Nicolò Uzzauto

Video editing: Mirko Ingrao

Space kindly offered by Alessandra Schirripa & Stefano Falco (Centro Danza Savona)

Special Thanks: My family, Simone Pastrengo, Alessia Casadei & Nora Rose, Silvia Uras, Francesca Stella

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/FPySPOVt7zc

3rd performance

Adriano Bolognino, "Come Neve" (Italy)

August 1st| 22:15 | "Mikis Theodorakis" theatre

Come Neve wants to translate a personal idea of well-being into dance.

The starting image is a snow falling outside the window. The feeling of comfort that comes from the sense of protection and warmth inside, combined with the magic of contemplating the whiteness outside.

Before beginning the work, I involved a group of women in the project who gathered in a "Crochet Club" during the pandemic. This ancient art served as an opportunity not only for collaboration and connection for these women, but also an opportunity for renaissance.

It is said that crochet was born from the ability and imagination of a woman who, fascinated by the beauty and perfection of the snowflakes, decided to reproduce their wonder with a simple hooked needle and a cotton thread.

Interweaving these elements, I wants to invade the spectator with a sudden snowfall of bodies in movement, causing time to pause in a state of serene contemplation. A piece composed as a crochet work: an intricate yet sophisticated plot, a conscious weaving that generates new forms.

Choreography: Adriano Bolognino

Dancers: Rosaria Di Maro and Noemi Caricchia

Co-Production: Körper - Centro Nazionale di Produzione della danza / Fondazione Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza - Festival Danza in Rete

Partners: Orsolina28, Nitja Senter samtidskunst, Italian Institute of Culture in Oslo, and the Italian Embassy in Norway.

Music: Olafur Arnalds/Josin

Costumes: Club dell'uncinetto, Napoli

Text: Rosa Coppola

With the support of KOMM TANZ/PASSO NORD

Residency project of Compagnia Abbondanza/Bertoni in collaboration with il Comune di Rovereto

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/gaqaJX6UqQA

- Tickets: 15€ regular - 12€ student, unemployed

- Triple bill.

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