Save the Last Dance for Me, by Alessandro Siarroni
Within the programming of
ÍDEM 2022. International Performing Arts Festival
This piece revisits and retrieves an old tradition in danger of extinction: polka chinata, a courtship dance performed by men only that originated in the early 1900s in Bologna. In 2018 it was practised by only five people in the world.
| Duration: | 30 minutes |
Moving to the rhythm of a techno beat, two dancers spin round and round while staring at each other. Sometimes they crouch like wrestlers and perform a traditional Italian ballroom dance until they drop. The representation of this ritual becomes athletic, magnetic, visceral. The two men come together in a tender embrace, demonstrating their skill in a moving display of trust and collaboration.
Alessandro Sciarroni works together with dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini on the steps of this Bolognese dance.
The work was created in collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a Filuzziani dance master who revived this ancient tradition thanks to the rediscovery and study of some documentation videos dating back to the 1960s. Sciarroni discovered this dance in December 2018 when it was practised in Italy by only five people in total.
The project consists of a performance and a workshop aimed at spreading and reviving this popular tradition in danger of extinction.
Alessandro Sciarroni (San Benedetto del Tronto) creates works that encourage the emotional interaction between the artists and spectators. In Save the Last Dance for Me he pursues his research into the repetition of actions to the limits of performers’ physical endurance, building an empathic relationship with the audience. Folk dancing becomes a vector of memory, an intermediary between living heritage and contemporary art. With his theatrical training, the Italian artist approaches dance from a visual art perspective, an unusual approach in which he involves experts from different disciplines and physical practices. He makes use of a theatrical framework to establish a dialogue with other forms, especially dance, the circus arts and sport, creating pieces that transcend traditional genre definitions.
His works have been performed worldwide at major dance and contemporary theatre festivals, museums and art galleries, as well as at non-conventional venues: in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia. The Venice Biennale, which organised a retrospective of his work in 2017, awarded him the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance in 2019.
Show and artist information
- Creation: Alessandro Sciarroni
- Dancers: Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini
- Artistic collaboration:Giancarlo Stagni
- Music: Aurora Bauzà and Pere Jou (Telemann Records)
- Styling: Ettore Lombardi
- Technical direction: Valeria Fotti
- Curator, promotion and consulting: Lisa Gilardino
- Administration, executive production: Chiara Fava
- Communication: Damien Modolo
- Produced by: Corpoceleste_C.C.00#, MARCHE TEATRO Teatro di Rilevante Interesse Culturale
- Co-produced by: Santarcangelo Festival. B.Motion, Festival Danza Urbana
Duration: 20 minutes
With the support of: Ministero della Cultura - Direzione Generale Spettacolo
