The new season of Körper, the National Dance Production Center active in Italy and abroad for many years, is underway. Founded in 2003 by Gennaro Cimmino, today Körper is a Production Center that explores the multitude of expressive languages in the performing arts, combining the production and promotion of dance with programming in its ninety-nine-seat theater in via Vannella Gaetani (P.zza Vittoria), the first and only theater space in Campania entirely dedicated to contemporary dance.
After the great public success of the last two years, Körper – the only Center in the regional territory recognized by the Italian Ministry of Culture – closes the first three years of activity by consolidating the Körper meets project, an initiative to support the sustainability of tours and a unique meeting opportunity for spectators: the companies, guests for an entire weekend, have the opportunity to stage more works, thus optimizing the economies, the presence in the territory and the permanence of the artists in the city.
“As a National Production Center – declares the artistic director Gennaro Cimmino – we feel the responsibility to support artists in their circuit. In fact, more and more often contemporary dance finds hospitality only for a single date in theater seasons or in festivals crowded with proposals. We intend to enhance the work and identity of the guest companies, giving greater visibility to the artists. In the same way, the public has the opportunity to come into contact with the company in its entirety, thus developing a critical and attentive look at the contemporary scene. The attention is directed above all to the students of the numerous dance schools present in our territory who in this way have the opportunity to come into direct contact with the artists and to approach the professional world that awaits them”.
The stage of the Spazio Körper will feature companies and production companies from all over the country: Fattoria Vittadini (Milan), Fabbrica Europa (Florence), PinDoc (Rome), Nexus (Bologna), Sosta Palmizi (Arezzo), Fuori Margine (Cagliari), Michele Merola Contemporary Dance Company. It starts on January 21 with Un'andatura un pò storta ed esuberante. Emersione n.1, an Index and Muta Imago production. The protagonist of the show is the author, director and performer Antonio Tagliarini, an extraordinary and eclectic artist – winner of numerous awards – who brings the languages of contemporaneity to the stage through a new research path: to what extent can we follow what we really desire? And why does what we desire sometimes lead to our annihilation? Questions that encompass the human, its opacity, mystery, madness and even the unpredictable; a performance that triggers a short circuit on reality, in a constant dialogue between fiction and autobiography, in which everything could be true or invented.
The works of the Fattoria Vittadini company (KörpermeetsFattoria Vittadini) follow, an artistic collective that has been involved in production and research in the performance field since 2009, with a particular focus on multidisciplinary work. On February 2, Flux by Maura di Vietri will be performed, an immersive short performance that involves the use of a VR viewer and allows the spectator to be at the center of the action: a 360° experience of their own body and that of the performer, in the digital environment and then in real space. The same day will involve some students from the Liceo Coreutico Palizzi in Naples, a constant dialogue built through matinees and meetings dedicated to young people and a precious opportunity to address the issue of the use of new technologies in the artistic field.
Also scheduled are Lingua and Please,Come! by choreographer Chiara Ameglio; Lingua (February 3) questions the primary task of performance, placing emphasis on the dialogue between performer and audience, that invisible thread between performative action and observation of the same. Please, Come! (February 4) instead investigates the phenomenon of contemporary slavery understood as a request for help, hyperalert, an invitation to enter and witness the act of liberation of a body that in abandonment, disarmed and dominated, becomes a symbol of struggle and resistance.
The program will be enriched by the final performance of the Dancing Together Again project, created by the National Institute of Music and Dance with the support of the Creative Europe program. A wonderful opportunity for dancers, choreographers, researchers and curators – from Poland, Croatia, Georgia and Italy – to meet, share and create a new creative network. On March 16 and 17, the final restitution of the project will take place by the Neapolitan company Movimento Danza and the winning artists of the competition.
Among the events of the month of March, the Fuorimargine company (KörpermeetsFuorimargine) with two very different works. The choreographer and dancer Cristina Kristal Rizzo presents Erwartung (March 23), a performance on the concept of melancholy, on the figure of a female double that evolves on the borders of abstraction and figuration; followed by Neverstopsscrollingbaby (March 23) by the Collettivo Vitamina composed of Alessandra Ferreri, Joshua Vanhaverbeke and Matteo Sedda, a reflection on our present that arises from the mechanism of scrolling and Oh my gad! by Chiara Aru, a show on the dynamics of mood disorders.
With the aim of interconnecting the arts, this year Körper will also host artists with disabilities in its spaces, thus broadening its view of the scene with a view to stimulating a critical vision and developing new strategies for training the public. The Nexus company (KörpermeetsNexus) presents Alexis 2.0, Black Eye Black (6 April) and Lampyris Noctiluca (7 April) by Aristide Rontini, co-founder of Al.Di.Qua Artists, the first European trade association that promotes the rights of people with disabilities in live performance. Among the artistic projects of the PinDoc company (KörpermeetsPinDoc), Brave by choreographer Paola Bianchi (4 May), a show about the mutual relationship and acceptance of the insurmountable limits of bodies with different abilities and Autobiografia by Giovanna Velardi (5 May), a reflection on the concept of autobiography in relation to the artist's body, the only generator of its own vocabulary. The collaboration with Anghiari Dance Hub, a project dedicated to young choreographers and directed by Gerarda Ventura, is also renewed; the works that debuted in November 2023 in Anghiari (Arezzo), will therefore be hosted during the rich programming in the months of April and May.
The season continues with the show Agata (June 8) by the company Sosta Palmizi (KörpermeetsSostaPalmizi), a fascinating acoustic and visual experience in which the choreographer/dancer Giorgio Rossi meets with Gennaro Lauro and the pianist Livio Minafra. Also on stage are Dodi by Sofia Nappi (June 9) and Mondo by Gennaro Lauro (June 9), two performances on the meaning of human existence and the “earth” we inhabit.
The broad proposal aims to create and support a mixed community of audiences and artists that can renew and meet throughout the year in the activity of the Center, thus becoming a point of reference for the development of cultural policies for our region. To strengthen the bond with the territory and the fruitful collaborations with the Teatro Pubblico Campano, the review scheduled for October at the Teatro Nuovo that features the choreographer Michele Merola with repertoire works of his company MM Contemporary Dance Company (KörpermeetsMM Contemporary Dance Company).
Night Stories (October 8) by Merola and Adriano Bolognino involves the dancing bodies in a continuous design built on repetitions and differences, a succession of short stories punctuated by the live music of Natalia Abbascià. Ballade (October 10) by Mauro Bigonzetti wants to be a tribute, a choral tale, a well-rounded portrait of the 10s, a decade that has now lost its temporal boundaries to become the symbol of an era. The following shows on the bill are Dov'è più profondo by Irene Russolillo (November 16) – produced by Orbita and Spellbound – Danze Americane by Fabrizio Favale (November 16), Simbiosi by Roberto Tedesco (November 17) and Winter Forrest by Fabrizio Favale (November XNUMX), productions by Klm – Kinkaleri / Le Supplici / mk (Körper meets Le Supplici).
The 2024 season of Spazio Körper ends with the contemporary dance festival Körperformer at the Sala Assoli of Casa del Contemporaneo (Naples). The project, a historic national showcase of dance, hosts young authors from the area who have been arriving on the Italian and European scene for years and intends to be a focus on the Campania region, an open space attentive to artistic research; the protagonists of the festival - after having spent a long period of training abroad or having worked far from "home" - will have the opportunity to return to their land, to perform on a stage in their region, sharing and returning the experiences acquired over the years.
Speaking of new generations, Körper continues to support the emergence of young artists and does so by proposing a series of initiatives aimed at young people from Campania, giving them the opportunity to experiment and acquire new tools: 2024 includes the continuation of the Körper Young project, a free stage introduction course aimed at young talents.
Among the countless activities of the Center, the central focus is dedicated to the production and promotion of dance, as an art of the body and a privileged and universal communicative language, in a perspective of exchange and comparison with other European and international artistic realities. Among the productions of this 2024 it is worth mentioning the Tournée in India by Francesco Marilungo with Stuporosa, the Debut by Roberto Tedesco (emerging choreographer 2024 according to the magazine Danza&Danza) in co-production with Aterballetto, the Tournéé Fragili Film, which is part of the larger PROGETTO RIC.CI – Reconstruction Italian Contemporary Choreography Anni '80/'90 curated by Marinella Guatterini and the new production Samia by Adriano Bolognino which has already debuted in Sweden.
Article published on 18 January 2024 - 11:32
