Aterballeto

An evening of modern and contemporary dance [6th March, Esplanade] with the Italian Dance Company Compaigna Aterballeto with the internationally renowned Artistic Director Mauro Bigonzetti brings to mind dance forms and contortions only possible in digital animations.

His chereography is mainly drawn from inspirations from the music of Bach with some variations and slight modifications to the forms of expressions after working with the dancers on each individual piece for different ranging periods of 1 - 6 years.

The evening opens with the highly acclaimed dancers in Omaggio a Bach, a homage to Johann Sebastian Bach. This bleakly beautiful interpretation of Bach's musical universe explores the geometric and structural perfection of Bach's compositions.

An exuberant second half features Cantata, a powerful piece where Bigonzetti fully exploits his dancers' agility and strength through raw physical expression. Traditional Italian folk songs sung by live musicians provide a perfect setting for an exuberant end to the evening.

There was a Question and Answer session after the performance with the Artistic Director Mr Mauro himself on how his inspirations for these 2 pieces were drawn. Due to his lack of familiarity with English a translater was present to act as the communicating medium. It's interesting how his movements - looking strikingly similar to a certain Japanese Dance called Butoh - were present in some of his movements. It pleased him to referenced to this dance for Butoh, translated as Dance of Darkness in Japanese dance theatre lingo, was actually believed to have some origins from European dance theatres when a lot of Japanese dancers went to Germany in the 1920s to study ballet and later returned home to set up ballet schools but infused the two dances into what we know as Butoh today. For more details on the dance you might want to check out this article here.

Of how his inspirations for the movements were drawn, it would be interesting to note that these movements can be present in our everday lives. Like the pattern of a falling leaf, the ripple of tides under a full moon even just the leaves whirling around each other reminise of a twister in micro-form.

I feel humbled.