13 october 2023

GRAN BOLERO
EN-KNAP Productions & Zagreb Dance Company /
Jesús Rubio Gamo

Friday 13 october 2023, 10.00 PM
GORIZIA, “GIUSEPPE VERDI” CITY THEATRE

EN-KNAP Productions & Zagreb Dance Company / Jesús Rubio Gamo

GRAN BOLERO

National Premiere


by Jesús Rubio Gamo   
with Nuria Capella Florensa, Mattia Cason, Tina Habun, Davide Lafabiana, Tamás Tuza, Carolina Alessandra Valentini, Luna Lilek, Nika Lilek, Silvija Musić, Endi Schrötter, Linda Tarnovski, Karlo Topolovec
music José Pablo Polo, based on the music “Boléro” by Maurice Ravel
choreography assistants Alicia Cabrero, Clara Pampyn
Lighting design Leon Curk, David Picazo
Sound editing Gal Škrjanec Skaberne
Costumes Katarina Markov (Atelje d.o.o.)
Rehearsal directors Ana Štefanec Knez, Luke Thomas Dunne, Petra Valentić
Co-production EN-KNAP Productions, Zagreb Dance Company
Duration 60’

On the choreography of the Spaniard Jesús Rubio Gamo, six dancers from the Ljubljana EN-KNAP Group and six dancers from the Zagreb Dance Ensemble return to Ravel's 1928 score. Boléro is a classical composition that is anything but classical. All instruments of the orchestra are in synchrony for a grand crescendo in C major.
Gran Bolero is an orchestration of groups, of relationships between groups, and within a group itself, of repetitions that create a crescendo until the audience emerges in the tension of that “encore!”, of that persistence, of that exhaustion that never winds down.

Jesús Rubio Gamo (1982) is an independent dancer and choreographer based in Madrid. After studying ballet, contemporary dance, theatre and literature, Jesús was awarded with a MAE-AECI grant to continue his dance studies abroad. He moved to London where he completed an MA in choreography at London Contemporary Dance School (Distinction). Jesús was selected two years in a row (2017 and 2018) by the Platform Aerowaves as one of the most relevant 20 young choreographers in Europe. His works have been presented in the most important festivals of Paris, London, Athens, and Rome.

interview

Mattia Cason, dancer & and a part of artistic direction of En–Knap Group
Petra Glad Mažar, head of the Zagreb Dance Company

Have you been to Gorizia before? If you have, one thing that surprised you. If you haven’t, one thing that you dream of finding.
Mattia: Yes, I have been in Gorizia many times; the thing that has fascinated me the most up to now is the Jewish cemetery just out of town, in Rožna Dolina, with the simple, undecorated and down to earth tomb of Carlo Michelstaedter - the famous philosopher and a point of reference in my life.
Petra: No, never been there. We hope to meet new people, discover artists that we haven't had a chance to see before and find an audience that will love and embrace our Gran Bolero.

According to your personal experience, a border is:
Mattia:  A place where differences meet. The most "European" of all the places on earth. I crossed the Italian-Slovenian border many times, in Gorizia as well as elsewhere, and I have always been fascinated about how the continuity of natural landscape was accompanied by slight, gradual changes in the cultural landscape(s)… coming from Italy you feel abroad already while climbing the first foothills, coming from Slovenia, Venezia is present so quickly when descending the upper Vipava valley…
Petra: A border is a limit. And limits need to be crossed in order to explore, experience and learn.

As if you should explain it to a child: why have you started dancing?
Mattia: Because when I ran, when I jumped, I felt happy, as simple as that! Much more than being an art, dance is an existential experience, a physical, sensorial, irrational mode of existing which allows us to go beyond Plato’s law of non-contradiction, to experience the world as it really is: contradictory, wonderfully pointless and always moving, moving, moving.
Petra: I am not a professional dancer but sometimes I do dance.  When dancing, I feel myself again, it's a way to make me feel real.  And as a producer and curator, I am in love with contemporary dance for almost two decades now. Why? I enjoy the breadth of experience that contemporary dance gives me, the opportunities to insert meanings and emotions into performances I watch and the processes I am a part of. This is also the reason why, long time ago, I switched from drama to dance; the openness and frankness I feel in dance.

A piece of advice to a starting company:
Mattia: To think about content, not about form. To try to focus on what is really important and then say, share it through the body or through whatever might come – only not to get stuck into a school, a style, whatsoever ready-made pattern; to keep on being yourself and try to share yourself with others, explore the body inside and through the body the outside world, the landscapes, the people… form will come by itself, if one keeps keep focusing on whatever feels like life - like truth. Quoting Ludwig Wittgenstein: »Keep focusing on whatever sounds like ‘was der Fall ist’.
Petra: Surround yourself with smart people and create from the heart!

This new version of “Gran Bolero” will be presented for the first time in Italy during the Visavì Gorizia Dance Festival. Defined as a classical composition that is anything but classical, in this national premiere what do you most want to convey/tell the audience?
Mattia: To sit, relax, and if you feel like it... enjoy! And if you truly enjoy, feel free to stand up, to come on stage, to join the never-ending going 'round and 'round!
Petra: We are delighted to present Gran Bolero in Italy. The template from which everything started is Maurice Ravel's Bolero, music that we consider classical. We want the audience to rediscover the composition with the shifts woven by José Pablo Polo and the movements so cleverly thought out by Jesus Rubio Gamo. You will think you know what to expect, but then again, contemporary dance is here to surprise you.

Tell us why we should come and see it.
Mattia: Because it can be a truly collective experience, where the genius of Ravel and his Boléro might help us all to feel a bit closer, a bit better.
Petra: If you love theatre, if you fancy contemporary dance or if you need time for yourself, come - I strongly believe you will enjoy it. For me, it's like good therapy.

A project by:

In partnership with:
SNG Teatro Nazionale Sloveno di Nova Gorica

With the support of:
Ministero della Cultura / Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia / Io sono FVG
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia

In collaboration with:
Comune di Gorizia / Comune di Cormons / Comune di Gradisca d’Isonzo / ERPAC / APT / Ente Regionale Teatrale del FVG / Fondazione Palazzo Coronini Cronberg onlus Goriški Muzej / Confcommercio Imprese per l'Italia Gorizia Kulturni Dom Gorica / Kulturni Center Lojze Bratuž Palazzo del Cinema-Hiša Filma di Gorizia / PAN ADRIA network / TIARE Shopping

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