Aterballetto
National Choreographic Center of Italy

  Wednesday, April 30
  7:30 p.m.
  €27 and €29
MUN Theater

The National Choreographic Center of Italy presents a new triple bill that showcases the talents of its 16 dancers:Rhapsody in Blueby Iratxe Ansa & Igor Bacovich,Solo Echo byCrystal Pite, andGlory Hall byDiego Tortelli.

Solo Echoby multi-award-winning Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite invokes winter, music, and the body in motion to express feelings of acceptance and loss. In contrast, fluidity definesRhapsody in Blueby Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, a delicate piece that curves the dancers' bodies to the rhythm of Gershwin's music. A fresco of sensuality and overwhelming vitality isGlory Hallby Diego Tortelli, one of the most creative choreographers on the Italian scene. 

This triple program is also a true concert for dance, beginning with the famous notes of George Gershwin and ending with the post-rock of the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, interspersed with Brahms' sonatas.

PROGRAM

Rhapsody in Blue

(16 dancers, 25 minutes)

Rhapsody in Blue, by Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, plays with Gershwin's rhapsody. The dancers feel what the music wants to convey. It is such a powerful, fun, lively work, peppered with constant variations in form, it is like crossing an enchanted forest: in the space of a few steps, a few minutes, you encounter a magical being, a dreamlike sky that changes color above you. The rhapsody offers a musical space where anything is possible, where new elements emerge from every corner and you are constantly surprised. The bodies react to rapid and ever-changing stimuli.

Choreography: Iratxe Ansa & 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

Just Echo

(7 dancers, 20 minutes)

Solo Echois inspired by two sonatas for cello and piano by Johannes Brahms and the poem Lines for Winter by Mark Strand. Like Strand's poem, Solo Echo invokes winter, music, and the movement of bodies to express something essential about acceptance and loss. Crystal Pite

Choreography: Crystal Pite
Music: Johannes Brahms
Sonata for Cello and Piano in E Minor, Op. 38: I. Allegro non troppo
Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major, Op. 99: II. Adagio Affettuoso
Set design: Jay Gower Taylor
Costume design: Crystal Pite & Joke Visser
Lighting design: Tom Visser
Stager: Eric Beauchesne
Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater (February 9, 2012, The Hague). Re-staged for CCN/Aterballetto
Production Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto
Co-production Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Glory Hall

(16 dancers, 30 minutes)

Diego Tortelli's new creation for the 16 dancers of Aterballetto is a sensory and rebellious journey through an intermediate space, suspended between light and darkness. The dance defies narrative and constantly regenerates itself, allowing fleeting emotions to arise, destined to fade and be reborn, mixing rock sounds with symphonic melodies.

Choreography: Diego Tortelli
Music: Godspeed You! Black Emperor; Oneohtrix Point Never
Costume design: Sportmax
Lighting design: Matthias Singer
Assistant choreographer: Hélias Tur Dorvault
Production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto
Co-production: Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Bologna
World premiere: February 6-7, 2025, Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Spanish premiere: April 30, 2025, Teatro del Museo Universidad de Navarra

ARTISTIC CREDITS

General and Artistic Director: Gigi Cristoforetti
Company Director: Sveva Berti
Dancers: Ana Patrícia Alves Tavares, Elias Boersma, Estelle Bovay, Emiliana Campo, Albert Carol Perdiguer, Sara De Greef, Leonardo Farina, Matteo Fiorani, Matteo Fogli, Arianna Ganassi, Clément Haenen, Arianna Kob, Federica Lamonaca, Giovanni Leone, Ivana Mastroviti, and Nolan Millioud.
Founding members Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Reggio Emilia
With the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture

ATERBALLETTO

The Centro Coreografico Nazionale/Aterballetto is Italy's first National Choreographic Center, founded in 2022 on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and located in Reggio Emilia. It is a place of creation, hospitality, and conception that encompasses all aspects of contemporary dance and its connection to other art forms. The CCN considers dance as an opportunity for personal and social growth and offers unique experiences to the public.

CCN/Aterballetto, which emerged from the historic Aterballetto company founded in 1977, currently consists of sixteen dancers who work mainly on new productions by internationally renowned choreographers (Johan Inger, Angelin Preljocaj, Marcos Morau, Philippe Kratz, Francesca Lattuada, Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, Eyal Dadon, Diego Tortelli) and in the repetition of a select repertoire of works by authors (Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Hofesh Shechter, Crystal Pite).

CCN/Aterballetto is also dedicated to innovative and wide-ranging artistic development. Through projects with dancers who do not conform to norms of age, gender, and ability, it paves the way for accessible dance that raises questions and identifies new standards of virtuosity and beauty. Today, CCN/Aterballetto focuses on a plurality of styles and research into new digital technologies, always striving to be cosmopolitan and dynamic. 
 

 IRATXE ANSA & IGOR BACOVICH

Iratxe Ansa, a Basque choreographer, director, and dancer trained at the John Cranko School, has worked for more than 20 years in some of the most important contemporary dance companies on the international scene, such as the Basel Ballet, the Gulbenkian Ballet, the National Dance Company, etc., becoming a leading figure in contemporary dance. In 2020, she received the National Dance Award in the Performance category.

Their collaboration with Igor Bacovich began in 2013, and in 2019 they formed their own company: Metamorphosis Dance. Both share an interest and passion for working in the studio with other dancers, which motivates them to create and develop tools that make the dancer's work more effective, a research project that has evolved into a methodology. At the same time, they have worked as choreographers and dancers in a long journey through theaters, galas, festivals, and companies around the world.

CRYSTAL PITE

Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite is a former member of Ballet British Columbia and William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt. Since 2002, she has directed her own company, Kidd Pivot. She has received numerous awards and honors.

In a choreographic career spanning 35 years, Pite has created more than sixty works for companies such as the Royal Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Paris Opera Ballet, and the National Ballet of Canada. She is an associate artist at three institutions: Nederlands Dans Theater, Sadler’s Wells (London), and the National Arts Centre in Canada. She holds an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is a member of the Order of Canada.

DIEGO TORTELLI

Diego Tortelli first studied at STUDIO 76 in Brescia, then at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, and finally at the Academy of the Teatro alla Scala. He began his career in Valencia with the Ballet de Teatres de la Generalitat, and was then invited by Gustavo Ramírez to join the Luna Negra Chicago company. In 2012, he joined the Ballet National de Marseille/Fréderic Flamand. Since 2015, he has been working as a freelancer for the Munich Opera, BOD/Richard Siegal, Teatro Korzo, and La Veronal. He founded Kor'sia together with Mattia Russo, Antonio de Rosa, and Giuseppe Dagostino.

Diego Tortelli is resident choreographer at the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto and associate choreographer at the MILANOLTRE festival and the Tanzburo Munchen production center. In 2021, he won the first call for Italian artists launched by the Venice Biennale with the Dance Sector, directed by Wayne McGregor, for the creation of a new and original choreographic project.

The performance in Pamplona is in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid and the Directorate General for Cultural and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (Direzione Generale per la diplomazia pubblica e culturale del MAECI).