RHAPSODY IN BLUE
In 2024, Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich begin their collaboration with CCN/Aterballetto and present Rhapsody in Blue, a piece for sixteen dancers based on George Gershwin’s famous rhapsody, exactly one hundred years after its first performance. The show premiered at the Teatro Regio di Parma on February 17, opening the ParmaDanza 2024 Season.
RHAPSODY IN BLUE: A FANTASTIC TOY
The initial idea of this work was to play with Gershwin’s rhapsody, to rewrite it through a different imagination. In Rhapsody in Blue, the interesting thing is not only to bring our perspective, shaped by our experience, international comparison, and style developed over the years, but above all to offer the audience a more universal vision, less tied to the New York context or the spirit of that era. We tried to transport, to rethink Gershwin on a historical level, trying to decontextualize it to further enhance the universality of his masterpiece.
Closing our eyes, feeling what that music wants to tell us, and representing it today through our poetic, expressing it with our approach to movement and the scenic body.
Rhapsody in Blue is a fantastic toy for a choreographer, for a creative. Being so powerful, so cheerful, so sparkling, it is characterized by constant variations of form and seems to traverse an enchanted forest: in a few steps, you encounter a magical being, an unreal sky that changes color above you. You move in this fantastic world, where the rhapsody offers a sound space where everything is possible, where new elements constantly peek out from every corner and you are continuously surprised. Bodies react to agitated and always different inputs. We played with all this, closing our eyes and dreaming of new worlds every time we encountered a new theme.
Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich
Choreographers
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Set and Costumes: Beyond Blue
The set design and costumes I designed for Rhapsody in Blue are inspired by the minimalism and abstract expressionism of the American second half of the 20th century and the European environmental art, particularly the work of Ólafur Elíasson, an artist whom I greatly admired for the realization of this project.
The set design is characterized by a single geometric element, a suspended disc at the center of the stage space, which through meticulous play of lights and shadows, aided by light designer Eric Soyer, can change color, thus evoking an abstract yet evocative atmosphere. This “worldly” shape is a reference on one hand to the rituals of origins, and on the other hand to the installations of American minimalist art by James Turrell, where simple forms and vibrant colors of spaces, lights, and shadows create a powerful and encompassing visual impact. The dancers’ bodies are illuminated thanks to this element, becoming silhouettes, abstractions.
The costumes, conceived as gender-neutral and rich in vibrant colors, are designed to avoid specific historical or temporal connotations, but rather to create a continuously transforming pattern on the stage. This approach perfectly complements the richness and complexity of Gershwin’s music.
In summary, my vision for Rhapsody in Blue aims to translate the beauty of Gershwin’s music into image and color, but also to offer a spectacle that, beyond blue, tells the nuances and many chromaticities of our contemporary.
Fabio Cherstich
Set and Costume Designer
Creation for 16 dancers
Choreography Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich
Music George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue; Bessie Jones, Beggin’ the blues
Set and costume design Fabio Cherstich
Lighting design Eric Soyer
Production Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto
Co-production Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma
With the support of Etxepare Euskal Institutua
Premiere 17 February 2024, Teatro Regio di Parma
Duration 20′
