BRAVE

Paola Bianchi/PinDoc - 31 August 7:00 PM - Teatro Doglio via Logudoro, 32

concept, choreography and scenes Paola Bianchi

original music Davide Fabbri, Giacomo Calli and Luca Giovagnoli
title music Brave
performers Valentina Bravetti and Paola Bianchi
lights Paolo Pollo Rodighiero
costumes Paola Bianchi, made by Liana Gervasi
artistic collaboration Roberta Nicolai
stage photography Gianluca Camporesi
production Città di Ebla / Festival Ipercorpo, co-production PinDoc, artistic residency Santarcangelo dei Teatri, thanks to Societas, Teatro Comandini
with contributions from MiC, Sicily Region, Emilia Romagna Region, Municipality of Forlì
duration: 45 minutes

The result of long research around the theme of the co-presence of two bodies differing in ability and perception, an in-depth investigation into relationships, mutual support, and the acceptance of impassable limits while tending to overcome them, BRAVE was born from a strong desire that not only puts into action the bodies in the scene but also a small community that welcomes and protects. There is no showing off, there is no being brave. There is determination and desire. Two bodies meet: one returning to the stage after a nine-year absence, and the other seeking a new mode of being on the stage.

Starting in May 2019 with a long-distance dialogue between the choreographer and the dancer and continued in person since 2021, the performance is part of Paola Bianchi’s ELP choreographic research project, an investigation into the relationship between descriptive word and dance through audio transmission of posture archives. The descriptions of Paola Bianchi’s body postures in the act of embodying the images in ELP’s archives generated the states of Valentina Bravetti’s body, leading her to take on personal forms, tensions and rhythms, untethered from the visual model of the choreographer’s body. The shape of the red carpet where the action takes place and the guiding lines of the space in a choreographic sense were determined by Rosso Fiorentino’s Deposizione, a painting preserved at the Pinacoteca of Volterra. The analysis of the postures of the figures surrounding the Christ in a ballet of hands and glances became the backbone of part of the choreographic work.

Concept, choreography and scenes
Performers
Paola Bianchi, a choreographer and dancer, has been active on the contemporary dance scene since the late 1980s. She has participated in national and international festivals with her performances. Attentive to the theorisation of bodily practices, in 2014 she wrote “Corpo Politico. Distopia del gesto, utopia del movimento” (Editoria&Spettacolo). In 2020, she won the Premio Rete critica 9 e ¾ with ELP, a detailed research project related to an in-depth investigation of the body, the relationships between bodies and the cultural imaginaries of which bodies are repositories. In the same year, Teatro Akropolis produced “La parte maledetta. Viaggio ai confini del teatro. Paola Bianchi”, a film project that presents the choreographer’s artistic journey in the form of an interview.   Valentina Bravetti studied ballet for eight years and in 2002-2003 trained with Cesare Ronconi and Mariangela Gualtieri. In 2004 she founded the company Città di Ebla with Claudio Angelini, taking part in stage productions as a dancer; since 2006 she has been in charge of the artistic co-direction of the Festival Ipercorpo. Since 2014 Valentina has had paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome, which kept her away from the stage until 2021, when her collaboration with choreographer Paola Bianchi began.