Under the title BALLADE, the MM Contemporary Dance Company, directed by Michele Merola, presents a new show featuring two original choreographies by two Italian creators, Mauro Bigonzetti and Enrico Morelli. The pieces, performed by the MMCDC dancers, will take the audience on a journey through different generations: BALLADE by Bigonzetti is a comprehensive portrait of the 1980s, a decade that has lost its temporal boundaries to become a symbol of an era, while ELEGIA by Morelli is set in and tells the story of our current age, a time that, more than ever, brings vertigo and confusion, but also the renewed hope for a new beginning.
World Premiere: Theatre Comunale di Modena – Saturday, November 19, 2022
Production: MM Contemporary Dance Company
Co-production: Teatro Comunale di Modena
With the support of ATER Fondazione, Municipality of Correggio / Centro di Documentazione Pier Vittorio Tondelli – CorreggioMinistry of Culture / Emilia-Romagna Region / Municipality of Reggio Emilia / Centro Permanente Danza – Reggio Emilia
The performance BALLADE won the Danza & Danza 2022 Award for Best Italian Production.
Choreography: Enrico Morelli
Music: Frédéric Chopin, Giuseppe Villarosa
Lighting Design: Carlo Cerri
Costumes: Nuvia Valestri
Narrating Voice: Isidora Balberini
Choreographic Assistant: Paolo Lauri
Dancers: Lorenzo Fiorito, Mario Genovese, Matilde Gherardi, Fabiana Lonardo, Alice Ruspaggiari, Nicola Stasi, Giuseppe Villarosa
Duration: 35 minutes
People searching for their own path and identity, united by the same inclusion in a historical period, in an era like the present one, which brings vertigo and confusion. Individuals tracing new trajectories and seeking new paths to regain their direction, in a moment of exile from normality. A story of lost moments and relationships, along with a search in one’s memory for familiar and comforting images and landscapes. A dreamlike journey to rediscover one’s lost self. A collective dance that immerses us in a vortex of lines and trajectories that intersect and intertwine, in an apparent primordial chaos until the return of calm, which carries the choice to surrender to newfound hope, looking forward to a new rebirth. A tribute to care and attention to others, amplified by words from the poetry of Mariangela Gualtieri.
Choreography and Direction: Mauro Bigonzetti
Music: Nick Cave, CCCP – Fedeli alla linea, Leonard Cohen, Arvo Pärt, Prince, Nina Simone, Frank Zappa
Lighting Design: Carlo Cerri
Costumes: Silvia Califano
Choreographic Assistant: Roberto Zamorano
Repetiteurs: Paolo Lauri, Enrico Morelli
Dancers: Lorenzo Fiorito, Mario Genovese, Matilde Gherardi, Fabiana Lonardo, Alice Ruspaggiari, Rossana Samele, Nicola Stasi, Giuseppe Villarosa, Leonardo Zannella
Duration: 50 minutes
Mauro Bigonzetti’s new creation for the MM Contemporary Dance Company aims to be a tribute, a collective narrative, a comprehensive portrait of the 1980s, a decade that has lost its temporal boundaries to become a symbol of an era.
A musical image narrative that recovers the sensations of a generation, its erased euphoria, collective absurdities, “dreams cast away,” but at the same time also reclaims the lifestyle of those years, the scents of vitality, and the dense experimental artistic creativity that characterized a rapidly evolving society, transforming in step with the impulses of sharing and the anxiety of change.
A work staged without artifices, performed by the MMCDC dancers, and tailored to a musical dramaturgy structured around the tensions and visions of those years, drawing from various authors who were prominent during that period, from Prince to the anarchic genius of Frank Zappa, to the profound poetry of Leonard Cohen, and the punk and existential aesthetic of CCCP.
The choreography is also inspired by one of the most significant literary voices of the time: it aims to pay homage to the writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli, who in those years created and produced his major masterpieces. Through an abstract narrative, the choreographic score brings to life a space of memory and feeling where man, shedding his shell and armor, rediscovers his living and vulnerable body. A journey that leads us to uncover pain, love, abandonment, and rebirth. A symbolic journey in the incessant search for a new collective rebirth where beauty enriches and guides our path.
The MM Contemporary Dance Company is a contemporary dance company directed by choreographer Michele Merola. It was founded in 1999 as a center for producing events and performances and as a promoter of festivals and workshops with the goal of fostering exchanges and alliances between Italian and international artists, witnesses and spokespersons of contemporary culture.
The company, based in Reggio Emilia, has a rich and varied repertoire, thanks to the works of Michele Merola and creations by European and Italian choreographers such as Maguy Marin, Mats Ek, Mauro Bigonzetti, Thomas Noone, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Karl Alfred Schreiner, Eugenio Scigliano, Emanuele Soavi, Enrico Morelli, Daniele Ninarello, Ginevra Panzetti, Enrico Ticconi, Camilla Monga, and Roberto Tedesco.
In 2010, the MM Contemporary Dance Company won the prestigious Danza&Danza Award as the Best Emerging Company, and today, it is, in all respects, an excellence in Italian dance, with a well-established activity of performances throughout the national territory. In recent years, it has conquered an international market with performances in European and non-European countries (South Korea, Colombia, Canada, Germany, Russia, Morocco, Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Finland, Serbia…). In 2017, the MM Contemporary Dance Company won the Europaindanza 2017 Award – Merit Award for Choreography for the performance Bolero by Michele Merola.
Since 2018, the MM Contemporary Dance Company has been an associated company of the InDanza Circuit of Trentino Alto Adige.
The MMCDC is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Emilia-Romagna Region, Municipality of Reggio Emilia, National Dance Foundation/Aterballetto, Permanent Dance Center/Reggio Emilia.
TICKETS
Full price: 10 euros
Discounted under 30, dance schools, Matilde di Canossa High School, over 65, CRAL members of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia: 6 euros
Discounted under 8: 3 euros
TICKET PURCHASE
- ONLINE: https://www.biglietteriafonderia39.it/home.aspx
- Box Office at Fonderia: The box office opens one hour before the start of the performance (via della Costituzione 39, Reggio Emilia).
Tickets are not numbered.
CONTACTS FOR RESERVATIONS Cell and WhatsApp: 3341023554 Email biglietteria@aterballetto.it
