Slovenia – Special night at the Primorski Poletni Festival with MM Contemporary Dance Company
A special appointment with dance at the Primorski Poletni Festival – Festival estivo del litorale, the summer festival taking place from June to August in different cities of the Adriatic coast: on July 19, in Martinc Square in Koper, MM Contemporary Dance Company is on stage with Bolero Soirée, a performance composed of two choreographies by Michele Merola – Bolero and La metà dell’ombra.
Thanks to the choreography Bolero, Michele Merola won the Europaindanza Award – 'Award for distinguished achievement in the choreography', in 2017. Merola interacted with Ravel's Bolero obsessive and repetitive music trying to understand its identity, reason, and function, in order to arrive at his own interpretation. At the end of this path, the choreographer focused on the inexhaustible range of human relationships, in particular those of couples, within which we often note the mutual and irreconcilable distances between men and women.
Composer Stefano Corrias intervened on that same music, and created his own score freely inspired by the original version, which is integrated within the choreographic composing in three "fragments" that underline the most intimate moments of each of us, when we are out of sight and far from the deafening noise of the world.
In Merola’s new version of Bolero, dance, in close symbiosis with music, conveys a sort of abstract bitter fairy tale, an allegory of the pain of living and of the misunderstanding between human beings.
In the second choreography, La metà dell’ombra, Merola stages an ideal and intangible journey into sacredness. The gestures and the music suggest a ritual, an allusion to an archaic world, lost forever. The dancers alternate the physicality of the 'dancing body' with an intimate interpretation of the most spiritual part of man. On the music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Geert Hendrix, and Senking, the choreography moves in a continuous tension, expressing conflicting feelings. Touching frames and dynamic choral dances exalt the human presence.
"By these choices, the choreographer gains a new dance language that conquers us with strength and evocation.” (Ermanno Romanelli - Dance News)
The Primorski Poletni Festival – that takes place in Izola, Piran, Ankaran, Sezana, Pula, besides Koper –, with its rich cultural offer has not only revitalized hidden places, squares, streets, ancient buildings and other historically important spaces of historic centres, increasing the attractiveness of the seaside cities, but has taken advantage of the proximity of two borders to create collaborations and creative exchanges, establishing a true intercultural dialogue with neighbouring regions and countries.
Like other events of the Festival international programme, the show Bolero Soirée was organized by the Comunità degli Italiani “Santorio Santorio” in Koper.
Primorski Poletni Festival