Three years ago, when Oriente Occidente dedicated a section of its programming to Spain, flamenco and “nueva dansa”, hosting Carmen Cortes, Cesc Galabert and the Ananda Dansa group, Vicente Saez was mentioned among the most interesting figures in the contemporary sector, present in Rovereto this year with the show “Rapta”. Born in 1962 in Elx, Saez trained in Barcelona. Here he studied academic technique with the Heura group, attended Gilberto Ruiz-Lang’s classes at the Theatre Institute. Avelina Argüellas, Neus López and Nuria Candela, followed Lydia Azzopardi and Cesc Gelabert’s classes at La Fabbrica. He danced with Marcia Plein, Ramòn Oller, Lisa Kraus, Cesc Gelabert, Lydia Azzopardi and the Flemish Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. Of his first creation “The Lorry”, made in the season ‘84/’85, a video was recorded for the television show “Estoc de pop”. “The Lorry” was also selected for the Amsterdam Video-tape Festival. Known not only at a national level, Saez has presented his creations in many European cities in recent years: “Eliminacion” (‘85/’86) at the French Festival of Aix en Provence: “Ens” (‘86/’87) at the Klapstuck Festival in Louvain and, in Holland, in Rotterdam and Ultrecht, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Paris, Lisbon, Turin, Reggio Emilia, Munster. “Rapta”, presented in ’89 at the Beursschowburg in Brussels, is a curious duo danced by Saez and Francisco Lloberas, a dancer trained with Ana Maleros at the Institut du Theatre and at La Fabbrica in Barcelona. In “Rapta” the two protagonists proceed along separate choreographic trajectories, without an apparent initial contact. However, the two dancers seek each other, developing in time and space a contrasting gesture that admits a relationship between their individual tensions. The strength of the show is created through the relationship between the different energies of the two subjects of the action, personification, as stated in Saez’s presentation, of two specific elements: “Matter and movement are these two characters with opposing dynamics that confront each other to impose themselves on each other and find the answer to their own becoming”. The music for the show is by Eric Sleichim, a composer belonging to the “Maximalist” group and co-founder of the Blindman quartet.
