romeo and juliet 1.1 – (blurred bodies)
choreography and direction: Roberto Zappalà
music: Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, Luigi Tenco, José Altafini, Mirageman, John Cage,
Sergei Prokofiev
performers: Fernando Roldan Ferrer, Valeria Zampardi
text by: Nello Calabrò | lights and costumes Roberto Zappalà
technical direction: Sammy Torrisi
management Vittorio Stasi | production assistant Federica Cincotti
general management Maria Inguscio
a production by Scenario Pubblico/Compagnia Zappalà Danza Centro di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale in coproduction with Orizzonti Festival Fondazione
in collaboration with “Le Mouvement Mons” Festival (Belgio)
with the support of MIC Ministero della Cultura and Regione Siciliana Ass.to del Turismo, Sport e Spettacolo
To mark the quarter of a century and long years of intense production, Roberto Zappalà gave start some year ago to the project Antologia. Antologia harks back to some of Zappalà’s most fascinating works that left a mark on his choreographical ensemble. This project not only aims to ‘preserve’ and ‘revisit’ these works, it wishes to innovate and yield new perspectives by pursuing new forms of ‘contact’: the ‘mere’ succession of dancers lends new mobility to the choreographer’s work and reveals new forms of creativity. It leads to a reflection of the past but also and inevitably a reflexion about the future.
“Blurred bodies” was the title Roberto Zappalà gave his 2006 Romeo and Juliet production, which has been retaken after ten years for Antologia, with the title Romeo and Juliet 1.1
What makes us blurry, when we feel blurry? Technically speaking (in optics, photography, cinema), blurriness is all a matter of distance. It is the focal length, or distance from the centre of the lens to the focal point, or ‘object’ of interest. If this distance is inferior or superior to a given point, the object will become blurry.
Returning to the two lovers in Verona, we feel blurry when we ‘perceive’ that the distance between us and the world, us and the loved one isn’t right; when the distance separating us from our beloved is conditioned by us being in the world; when we are, feel or believe we are, too close or too far, we become Romeo and Juliet.
The choreographer changes his focus in 1.1, turning it away from the two lovers together onto them individually, as they live with a deep sense of unease within society. The famous couple’s plight culminates in love sublimed through death (or the opposite). It offers a reflexion and at the same time the possibility of a rebellion at a historical moment in time (the present) where the impulse of death is sublimed in and of itself, where passion and respect are healthy tributes to life.
It innovates Romeo and Juliet, it no longer ‘discusses’ love but becomes a loving ode to life.
