Pioneer of the professional integration of able-bodied and disabled dancers, Candoco Dance Company was founded in the UK in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin. Acclaimed from its origins by the English public and critics, Candoco immediately drew on leading authors from the international scene to create its works. Celeste Dandeker, director from 1991 to 2007 (the year she passed the baton to Stine Nilsen and Pedro Machado), commissioned thirty new works for the company, entrusting the creation of the repertoire to the talent of Emilyn Claid, Javier de Frutos, Doug Elkins, Siobhan Davies, and Stephen Petronio, among others. This ambitious policy of commissioning original works has yielded significant results, quickly bringing Candoco to international attention. Nilsen and Machado continued the path of the founder, further expanding the repertoire with works by Hofesh Shechter, Nigel Charnock, Wendy Houstoun, Thomas Hauert, Sarah Michelson, and Emanuel Gat, all aimed at enhancing the uniqueness of the group, the spirit of collaboration, and challenging perceptions of ability and art.
The diptych presented at Oriente Occidente reveals two different authorial signatures. The transgressive Venezuelan choreographer Javier de Frutos created a passionate duet for Candoco, Two for C, inspired by Tennessee Williams' play Camino Real, featuring music from the Ranchera tradition, where the protagonists hide behind unsettling Mexican wrestling masks an intimate domestic world. Notturnino, on the other hand, is a structured improvisation piece created by Belgian Thomas Hauert for the entire company, inspired by the documentary film Il Bacio di Tosca, with a soundtrack of Puccini arias and voices of former opera singers.
