A show featuring the audience as the main attraction, dancing. Thus, Sanpapié and Teatro della Contraddizione have brought Balerhaus to life, which has become a cult event in Milan over three seasons. What is it about? A dance night with a live orchestra, a happening where ballroom dancing, contemporary dance, and theater intersect, retracing the history of a place—the balera—that has shaped the customs and practices of entire generations.
Through this project, the affinities between the poetics of the two Milanese companies take shape. Sanpapié—founded in 2007 by choreographer and dancer Lara Guidetti, playwright Sarah Chiarcos, musician and playwright Marcello Gori, and theater organizer Fabio Ferretti—explores the potential of the body, encountering disparate content universes and different containers through the synergy of dramaturgical and musical experimentation and choreographic writing.
Teatro della Contraddizione—established as a company in 1991 from the meeting of director Marco Maria Linzi and actresses Sabrina Faroldi and Micaela Brignone, and becoming a theater with the opening of its venue on Via della Braida in 2000—serves as a vibrant hub for contemporary arts, constantly searching for new languages in which to bring dramaturgy to life.
Balerhaus is a tribute to ballroom dancing, balancing tradition and modernity. It is a return to a place of the past, the balera, revisited through today's eyes and the spirit of the present. An hybrid event that alternates a waltz with a contemporary dance solo, a rumba with a poetic performance. In this new balera, there is a strong emphasis on returning to couple dancing, dancing with strangers, and group dancing in a wild intersection of generations and their respective languages.
Welcomed by Admiral Marco Maria Linzi and accompanied by tutors and performers from the company, the audience is guided to discover the basic steps of the main ballroom dances—from the waltz to the polka to the cha-cha-cha—learning about the origins of these dances, listening to live re-orchestrated music, and encountering performers and their interventions throughout the evening. A revival of the 1950s and 60s is completed with the projection of films that highlight the dynamics of dance and introduce elements of social customs.
A night-show, as the authors declare, “For those who don’t know a step, for those who know them all. For those who stumble, for those who soar. Or for those who can only jump.”
sanpapie.com
teatrodellacontraddizione.it
