Carla Rizzu and Paola Vezzosi
Carla Rizzu and Paola Vezzosi are the joint winners of the 2009 edition of Danz’è, the choreographic competition organized by Oriente Occidente, aimed at promoting young Italian dance. This initiative aligns with the attention to Italian creators that the Festival has consistently upheld throughout its thirty-year history. Together with director Eugenio Sideri, Rizzu won last year with Nome di battaglia. The jury’s motivation was: “for the relevance of the theme focused on civil engagement, for the intensity of the performance, the content, and for the appropriateness of the stage design.” Vezzosi won the joint prize in 2009 with the solo Penelope. Canti d’attesa, awarded “for the coherence between the chosen theme and its treatment, and for the compelling strength of the author-performer.”
The Festival co-produces a creation by the winners of Danz’è to be presented the following year, Eat 26 for Carla Rizzu, Alter for Paola Vezzosi.
Paola Vezzosi, the place of encounter
Paola Vezzosi, a Tuscan dancer and choreographer, like Rizzu, has chosen the form of a female duo for her new show titled Alter, produced by Danz’è. The work, with original music by Marco Melia, explores a change in the relationship between two people who meet, a possibility of vision driven by the desire for sharing and unity. These are the choreographer's notes:
Empty space: distinct paths that intersect by chance... and here occurs the 'accident' of the meeting: a place of misunderstanding, of formal and mechanical greeting, of superficial contact. In a parallel dimension, perhaps dreamlike, hoped for, or imagined, what could have been emerges: the crossroads of moving bodies gives way to shared journeys, the crossing of other worlds where distinct beings stand before each other, able to see and, in their otherness, recognize themselves.
Another space: a full, cohabited place, dedicated to the encounter which, in stillness, provides an opportunity for observation and confrontation. The undeniable desire to relate emerges, the urge to communicate or, at the very least, to hold onto that reciprocal appearance, those moments of sharing.
In the end, the bodies return to their irreducible singularity. What remains is the place, emptied, but bearing witness to and remembering those moments of unity.
Paola Vezzosi’s journey is linked to the artistic lineage starting with Alwin Nikolais, a master celebrated this year in Rovereto on the centenary of his birth. Vezzosi trained with Simona Bucci, an Italian choreographer and pedagogue, who danced for many years in New York with Nikolais. Vezzosi has also worked repeatedly with Carolyn Carlson, an undisputed master of late 20th-century dance, and an iconic figure of Nikolais’ in the 1960s. At the same time, Vezzosi refined her training in German tanztheater, working as a dancer with Susanne Linke. Among the creations of this young Italian author, co-founder of the Adarte association of choreographers in Tuscany, are the visionary Frida Kahlo, Pulcinella, created for the Ballet Company of the Arena di Verona, and the previously mentioned solo Penelope. Canti d’attesa, winner of Danz’è 2009.
