Russia - “The Rite of Spring / Bolero” by MM Contemporary Dance Company
MM Contemporary Dance Company, directed by choreographer Michele Merola, was established in 1999 as a production center for events and performances and to promote festivals and workshops with the aim of fostering exchanges and alliances among Italian and international artists.
The company's repertory is rich and varied thanks to Michele Merola’s works and the creations by European and Italian choreographers, and MM has often been the only Italian company guest of important festivals, as the Festival Internacional de Ballet of Cali in Colombia, the Tanzfestival Bielefeld in Germany, the Chutzpah! Festival of Vancouver in Canada.
In Russia, too MM is the only Italian guest of the 10th International Ballet Festival “In honor of Ekaterina Maximova” in Chelyabinsk, where the company presents the double bill "The Rite of Spring / Bolero".
The interpretation of “Le Sacre du Printemps” by the choreographer Enrico Morelli approaches Igor Stravinsky’s score respectfully. The result reflects the troubled dynamism of our times. The profound meaning of the choreography is that until human beings go on in sacrificing their own kind to the blind violence of cannibalism, without respecting each other, culture glare and plainness of reason can never take over.
Michele Merola creates a new version of Ravel’s “Bolero” after a deep and long study on this obsessive and repetitive music. The choreographer’s inspiration focuses on the inexhaustible range of human relations, especially those related to couple relationship, in which we often note the mutual and irreconcilable distance between man and woman.
Composer Stefano Corrias intervened on Ravel’s music creating his own musical score, freely based on the "Bolero" but perfectly integrated with it, fitting in three different moments of choreography. The three fragments emphasize the more intimate -and sincere- moments of each of us, when we are far from the gaze of others and from the deafening noise of the world.
MM Contemporary Dance Company's tour in Russia is supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Moscow, the Italian honorary consulate in Chelyabinsk, the Culture Department of Emilia-Romagna Region.
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