| Il Valore di una vita - The Value of a Lifetime Danced Tale by Alberto Testa
narrator Alberto Testa "A mother accompanies her seven-year-old son to a ballet. The child is enraptured by the ethereal image of the dancer Anna Pavlova in the famous "The Dying Swan" many, many years ago" In the words of Prof. Testa "The boy is not a child prodigy but has enough sensitivity to be moved and struck by the vision. He asks his mother who she is, what that unreal apparition represents and we understand that he can not believe that she is a woman. The mother replies: "It isn′t a ghost. It ´s a woman, an artist who has the power to transform herself ". This is how the story begins. So the show begins. As the boy and his mother cross the stage as in a duet, transmitting the emotion of that walk towards destiny, the backdrop screen shows the "history": a virtual set and narrative plan for dreamy images, fragments of memory, "visions". Using archival materials (Teche Rai, Istituto Luce and newsreels of the time) a parallel story is told that already contextualizes,Turin at the end of the ′20s, our boy′s birthplace. The narrative evolves interacting with the dancers on stage: this creates the common bond that gives the show a kind of live narration, where reality and imagination interweave and sometimes blend together without solving the real issue: Where does the boy′s dream start and where does the reality that renders "the value of a life" begin. The images of the Video Artist Massimiliano Siccardi accompanied by the clever direction of Paolo Cardinali lead the viewer on this journey that pays homage to "Professor Alberto Testa" as a performer, scholar and dance critic. Thus outlining the story of a life time from ballet to modern dance, as in a "Gala of Stars". In the words of Prof. Testa The boy feels sadness for the death of the utmost symbol of beauty. It is in fact due to the "swan song" that metaphorically speaking he makes a pact with his mother and decides to dedicate his life to the dance and take up the profession. He will become a dancer! Through the study, and the rehearsals the neo dancer will embark on the bitter journey. From this moment on the shows of a lifetime from the classic-romantic to the newest and most adventurous conquests, will follow. The Mother, like a good Fairy, will accompany him in this hard and tiring process and never leave him. The boy realizes that everything is, as said by Stravinsky, a matter of renovating old ships, to adapt what has been done, to transform, sublimate the past. Most of the knowledge of choreography and the art of dancing passes through the stage. Only much later, our little hero, grown up, having gone through the tangles and the exaltation of the dance, the excitement and disappointments, the hopes and illusions is aware of a new world and way of being an artist. The time goes on, flies like "jetes" of dancers who wound the space.One must confront the many-sidedness of the genres to realize that " the dance is one". | Back to the idea of the beginning, of the enchanted discovery of himself and like a small Pan, the unforgettable elf who discovers his own nature, shakes a pile of debris, soil, sod, "music of dead leaves," and sees the sky above him. Thus, certainly alive, he unveils, opens up to the movement, life, confronts himself, he identifies with everything that surrounds him, he measures himself and is convinced he is made of that dancing matter, and in the end he cheers and releases a hymn of joy and thanks to Nature. Eventually the boy, in the fullness of his means, is once again led by his mother in the background of the scene with whirling couples dancing the waltz of the film "Il Gattopardo", emblematic of a long journey and of a lifetime. (Prof. Testa was in charge of the choreography for Luchino Visconti´s film and here too staged fresh materials of "Editing Cuts" courtesy of the Lucana Film Archive and the Film Library of Bologna.) The scene is filled with magic and myths of men and women during these 40 years of life, dedicated to Dance, Our Man has been treading the boards of the largest and most prestigious theaters in the world, with a special tribute to Spoleto and its Festival which hosted him for 40 years first with the "Marathon" and then with the "International Dance Week" still today.
The Company CORPS DE BALLET The show will be staged by the Spoleto Ballet, the newly formed company created by the Eventart Cultural Association. This is another opportunity that the Association, the Town of Spoleto and the Foundation Carispo offers the young people participating in the International Ballet Competition Town of Spoleto. The corps is in fact composed of 10 dancers selected from among the most deserving participants of the competition. The most intense and important roles will be assigned from time to time to 2 couples of professional dancers, preferably from the major theaters and academies of Russia. ARTISTIC STAFF from an idea by Alberto Testa text and adaptation Alberto Testa, Paolo Cardinali and Massimiliano Siccardi directors Paolo Cardinali and Massimiliano Siccardi multivision Massimiliano Siccardi stage movements and choreography adaptations Irina Kashkova and Piero Martelletta stage coordinator Piero Martelletta production Associazione Culturale EventArt and Zonafrancaspettacolo organizational manager Paolo Boncompagni secretary Nicoletta Balduzzi |
