For some time now, I have considered the disciplined physicality of a codified technique, even a contemporary dance technique that aims for versatility, as a way of homogenising dancers, often depriving them of their individualities. But Onde (Waves), a well-crafted work by Italian choreographer Simona Bertozzi, made me rethink what contemporary dance technique can be and how training may reinforce individuality and choreograph presence.
Onde is a journey during which all that happens on stage is amplified by the dancers’ acute attention to sensing each other and to the abstract space receiving opaque coordinates. As the performance unfolds, the stage becomes rich with imagery: floor rolls with a trailing cloth transport us to the edge of a disquiet sea; disappearing beneath it leaves impressions of haunting ghosts, or children playing under a tent. Lifting the cloth opens an abstract landscape suggestive of distant mountains; a small orange ball evokes the sunset.
Influenced by Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, the work actualises a non-linear present entangled with memory, dream and desire. The three young dancers, Arianna Brugiolo, Rafael Candela and Valentina Foschi, are both disciplined into precision and courageous enough to abandon it, replacing it with idiosyncratic expressive movements and passing effortlessly from form to flow and back again. With an alert gaze, they do not expose their training but rather channel it as a medium to connect with each other. When the dancers suspend their movement and breath, time freezes, giving space for our own imaginary immersions. Extended human chains that dissolve in solos and synchronised duets or trios recall the coming and going of people in our lives, entering our orbit or moving tangentially to leave us in solitude, in the shadow of their absence.
Sound designer Luca Perciballi accompanies the dancers on this journey through his sound and vocal composition, created and performed live on stage. In an active exchange of energy with the dancers, dynamic crescendos increase the impetus to move while diminuendos let us perceive the subtle noise of the dancers’ movement. Under the choreographic guidance of Bertozzi, the quartet construct a time-dilating experience that undulates with dynamic sensoriality.
https://vimeo.com/815221045
