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Sep 09 2021 - 18:30

Teatro Zandonai, Rovereto

The Fifth Winter | Bach

ITALIAN PREMIERE

The relationship between two people in a white space, waiting for the last winter to pass. In the heart of The Fifth Winter, the profoundly “dense” bodies of Maria Muñoz and Pep Ramis construct their own geography of waiting, crossed by the breath of the words of the Neapolitan poet Erri de Luca, who freely inspired the texts of the performance. One of the songs reads: «A cold wind, like the one you come from/ that tingles on your face. Thousands of stars. They seem to try creating a line, chasing each other to form this line/ And you, who are you?».

After last year's success at the Festival with the solo piece The Mountain, the Truth & the ParadisePep Ramis now returns with this duet, performed with María Muñoz, his partner of over thirty years, with whom he founded the Mal Pelo dance company to complete a research into movement, which always features original texts and soundtracks. In a continuous eclipsis of the scars of life, which – for Pep and María – is permeated with failure, like a vital body fluid, their poetics revolves around three key words: absence, hope, loss.

Created in 2015 for the Biennale de la Val de Marne and then hosted on tour in Europe and Canada, but never presented in Italy, The Fifth Winter envelops two bodies in a meditative and rarefied atmosphere, aided by the acting (with voice off) and the spatial rendering of sound. In a time that seems not to flow, María and Pep implement a series of waiting strategies, like a ritual vigil to commemorate something that is never revealed to us, with a background composition by Fanny Thollot punctuated by the voices of the Tunisian Alia Sellami and the flamenco singing of Niño de Elche.

Linked to pure movement and joyful dialogue with music is the other Mal Pelo title hosted at the Festival this year: Bach. A blockbuster solo created by María Muñoz in 2005, and originally performed by her, on selected preludes and fugues from Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, in the recorded performance by the great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, with his unique style. On stage the intense Italian dancer Federica Porello, a long-time collaborator of Mal Pelo, who inherited the piece from the choreographer in 2016. In, out, on and with the music, the solo follows Bach's gruelling variations, the voices in the counterpoint enhanced by Gould, the expressiveness of the timbre, the performer's hallmark snappy touch. A challenge with two giants of music conducted to the point of exhaustion. Won, in silence, by an obstinate dance.

The Fifth Winter

Direction and performer María Muñoz and Pep Ramis
Co-direction
 Jordi Casanovas
Artistic collaboration
 Leo Castro and Vincent Dunoyer
Rehearsal assistant 
Neus Villà
Texts 
Erri de Luca
Sound design
 Fanny Thollot
Musical collaboration
 Niño De Elche, Israel Galván and Alia Sellami
Voice off 
María Muñoz
Set design 
Pep Aymerich and Pep Ramis      
Light design
 August Viladomat
Costume design​
Carme Puig de Valli Plantés
Sound technician 
Andreu Bramon
Management
 Rita Peré
Lenght
55’
Production 
Mal Pelo
Technical production
 Punt De Fuga
Co-production
 Grec Festival de Barcelona, Théâtre de la Ville - Paris, Mercat de les Flors, La Briqueterie, Théâtre Antoine Vitez, La Villette - Paris, Agora de la Danse de Montreal and Festival Temporada Alta
In collaboration with
 Espaço do Tempo - Montemor-o-Novo and Centre de Creació L’animal a l’esquena - Celrà

Bach

Creation María Muñoz
Dancer 
Federica Porello
Artistic collaboration
​ Cristina Cervià
Assistant to direction
 Leo Castro
Music
 Clave Ben Temprat of Johann Sebastian Bach
On soundtrack 
Glenn Gould
Light design 
August Viladomat
Video images
 Núria Font
Photography 
Jordi Bover
Costume design
 Carme Puig de Valli Plantés and Montserrat Ros
Lenght
20’
Production 
Mal Pelo
In collaboration with
 Teatro Real - Madrid and Teatre Lliure – Barcelona