DUO D’EDEN
- Production: MM Contemporary Dance Company
- Co-production Duo D’Eden: Fondazione I Teatri
- Supporters: Ministry of Culture, Emilia-Romagna Region, Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Permanent Dance Center – Reggio Emilia
- Choreography and soundtrack: Maguy Marin
- Restaged by: Cathy Polo and Ennio Sammarco
- Costumes: Montserrat Casanova
- Lighting: Alexandre Béneteaud
- Rehearsal directors: Paolo Lauri, Enrico Morelli
- Performers: Lorenzo Fiorito, Fabiana Lonardo
World premiere (Compagnie Maguy Marin): December 12, 1986 – Angers
First performance with MM Contemporary Dance Company: October 21, 2020 – Teatro Sociale di Trento
“Two bodies, seemingly nude, advance on stage, entwined with each other, never letting go. A man and a woman whose bodies attract and cling to one another, bound together until they become inseparable. She is a vine that wraps and twists. He holds her, restrains her, and supports her. There is something mythical in their dance, in this total fusion of two beings who become one, never to part again.”
— Yasmine Tigoe
In Duo d’Eden, the dancers of MMCDC deliver a masterful interpretation of a piece of rare beauty and complexity, created by Maguy Marin in 1986. A man and a woman, clad in skin-toned bodysuits that emphasize their nudity, remain entwined for the entire duration of the performance. With continuous movements, the woman evolves upon the man’s body, portraying an Adam and Eve immersed in a journey of sensuality, eros, defense, and confrontation, in a world far from tranquil or idyllic. The result is a poetic and intense work.
GROSSE FUGUE
- Production: MM Contemporary Dance Company
- Co-production Grosse Fugue: Reggio Parma Festival, Bolzano Danza Festival/Fondazione Haydn of Bolzano and Trento, MilanOltre Festival
- Supporters: Ministry of Culture, Emilia-Romagna Region, Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Permanent Dance Center – Reggio Emilia
- Choreography: Maguy Marin
- Restaged by: Dorothée Delabie
- Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, Die Grosse Fuge, Op. 133
- Costumes: Chantal Cloupet
- Lighting: François Renard
- Rehearsal director: Enrico Morelli
- Performers: Matilde Gherardi, Fabiana Lonardo, Giorgia Raffetto, Alice Ruspaggiari
World premiere (Compagnie Maguy Marin): 2001 – Espace Jean Poperen, Meyzieu
National preview with MM Contemporary Dance Company: December 16, 2023 – Reggio Parma Festival, Teatro Ariosto, Reggio Emilia
National premiere with MM Contemporary Dance Company: July 16, 2024 – Bolzano Danza Festival
In Grosse Fugue, Maguy Marin presents a personal interpretation of Beethoven’s extraordinary composition. Four female dancers embody the intimate dialogue between dance and music, creating a profound connection between the two art forms. Originally choreographed in 2001 for Compagnie Maguy Marin, the work is revived through the interpretation of MM Contemporary Dance Company’s dancers.
The encounter between these four women and Beethoven’s music gives rise to a dynamic tension between the growing vitality of the feminine spirit and the fluctuating states of exhilaration and despair within the score. The dance explodes in euphoric bursts of energy, with the performers—dressed in red—leaping, running, collapsing, and rising again in a frenzied, life-affirming whirlwind. This is a metaphor for life itself, a thrilling race against death, where the vertigo of the inevitable end compels us to live every moment as if it were the last. The result is a powerful, moving work—a moment of pure emotion.
MM Contemporary Dance Company
MM Contemporary Dance Company is a contemporary dance company directed by choreographer Michele Merola. Founded in 1999, it is a production center for performances and events and a promoter of festivals and workshops. Its goal is to foster exchanges and collaborations between Italian and international artists, key figures, and ambassadors of contemporary culture.
Based in Reggio Emilia, the company boasts a rich and diverse repertoire, featuring works by Michele Merola alongside creations by renowned European and Italian choreographers such as Maguy Marin, Mats Ek, Mauro Bigonzetti, Thomas Noone, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Karl Alfred Schreiner, Silvia Gribaudi, Eugenio Scigliano, Emanuele Soavi, Enrico Morelli, Daniele Ninarello, Ginevra Panzetti and Enrico Ticconi, Roberto Tedesco, Camilla Monga, and Adriano Bolognino.
In 2010, MM Contemporary Dance Company was honored with the prestigious Danza&Danza Prize as Best Emerging Dance Company. Today, the organization is recognized as a leading force in Italian contemporary dance and renowned for its extensive national touring activities. Over the years, the company has expanded its reach internationally, performing across Europe and beyond, including in South Korea, Colombia, Canada, Germany, Russia, Morocco, Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Finland, Serbia, and Norway.
The company’s achievements include the Europaindanza 2017 Award for Choreographic Merit for Bolero by Michele Merola. In 2022, MMCDC received the Danza&Danza Award for Best Italian Production for Ballade (choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti and Enrico Morelli), and in 2024, it was honored with the Danza&Danza Award for Repertoire Enhancement for Grosse Fugue by Maguy Marin.
MMCDC has also made notable appearances on national television, performing in Roberto Bolle’s RAI 1 broadcasts Danza con me and Viva la danza in 2021, 2022, and 2024, with choreographies by Mauro Bigonzetti and Lorca Massine.
From 2018 to 2020, in 2021, and again from 2022 to 2024, the company was an associate company of the InDanza Circuit of Trentino-Alto Adige.
MM Contemporary Dance Company receives support from the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, and the Centro Permanente Danza /Reggio Emilia.
