Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto starts 2021 with a new creation full of interest and originality. Choreographer Norge Cedeño Raffo, a charming and charismatic artist who has come to Italy for his first major production experience, deals with a famous and fascinating piece of music. And he literally stages not only the three dancers, but also the three musicians and the three singers.
This is a co-design and co-production of the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza with the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, a research and an adventure that the two institutions share, and not for the first time, with the aim of “combining” choreographic and musical components in a new and significant way. Also Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia and Festspiele Ludwigshafen support the production. The choreography is created on Arvo Pärt’s Stabat Mater, a score for three singers and three musicians, which feature three dancers from the Aterballetto company. Musicians and singers are from the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “Achille Peri – Claudio Merulo” for the preview at Teatro Asioli in Correggio (Reggio Emilia) on 6 March 2021, whereas from the Fondazione Toscanini for the world premiere in Ludwigshafen during 2022-2023 season. Three bodies, as many voices and instruments, in an innovative research on their scenic relationship.
STABAT MATER
work in progress
Choreography: Norge Cedeño Raffo
Set and lighting design: Fabiana Piccioli
Music: Stabat Mater by Arvo Pärt
Costume design: Norge Cedeño Raffo and Fabiana Piccioli
Assistant to the choreographer: Thais Suàrez Fernàndez
Dancers: Saul Daniele Ardillo, Martina Forioso, Serena Vinzio
Co-design and co-production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto, Reggio Emilia and Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, Parma
Co-production: Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Festspiele Ludwigshafen
Preview: 6 March 2021 Teatro Asioli, Correggio (Reggio Emilia) in partnership with Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali ‘Peri-Merulo’, Reggio Emilia
Conductor: Marco Fiorini
Singers: Anna Capiluppi (soprano), Marco Guidorizzi (tenore), Loredana Ferrante (contralto)
Musicians: Angelica Cristofari (viola), Marta Premoli (cello), Mostafa Saad (violin)
Extras: Filippo Cosso, Federica Lamonaca, Melissa Venturi Degli Esposti
Norge Cedeño Raffo (1987) was principal dancer for ten years at Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, the first contemporary dance company in Havana (1959) combining an American-influenced contemporary style with an Afro-Cuban style and Cuban tradition. He is currently choreographer, dancer and artistic director of the company OtroLado. He stands out on the national creative scene for his quality and long list of awards, including the Premio Villanueva de la Crítica (2019) and the Distinción por la Cultura Nacional (2018).
He was a finalist in the 33rd International Choreography Competition in Hannover (2019), and a winner on several occasions of the Ramiro Guerra Prize in Interpretación Masculina, awarded by the Hermanos Saíz Association (Cuba). In 2019, he was invited to create a short choreography for some dancers from Gauthier Dance // Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart for the Meet the Talents showcase within the Colours Dance Festival. It was on this occasion that the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto began to know and appreciate the artistic work of Norge Cedeño Raffo so much that they invested in his talent, commissioning him a new choreography to be included in their repertoire.
This is an artistic challenge with which the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto, on the one hand, presents to the Italian and international scene an artist who is essentially unknown in Europe; on the other hand, it faces the Cuban choreographic universe for the first time.
Moreover, the research approach of Norge Cedeño Raffo fits perfectly with the assumptions of this new production, as he says: “I like dance for the dialogue. I look for artists from other disciplines who can enhance the artistic act, the creative result or the staging itself; this seems more attractive to me than predetermining it to a concept or a physical form.”
Arvo Pärt composed the Stabat Mater in 1985 with the idea of using two trios in his work: an instrumental trio (violin, viola, cello) and a vocal trio (soprano, contralto, tenore). This is an emotionally intense work, thanks also to the combination of a particularly slow writing with the tintinnabulare technique, characterised by two types of voice, the first of which arpeggiates the tonic triad and the second moves diatonically in a gradual movement.
The number 3, a fascinating number for its philosophical and mystical meanings, is one of the main compositional elements of this Stabat Mater, which also guided the choice to involve three dancers in the choreography.
On stage, 3 bodies, 3 voices, 3 instruments meet, dialoguing together to highlight the beauty of the piece and the melodic constructive wisdom.
This new creation promises to be a curious and exciting adventure in many respects, not only from a choreographic and musical point of view. First of all, the artistic encounter between a Cuban choreographer and an Italian dance company with an international scope, including dancers, musicians and singers. Multi-directional exchanges of different theatrical languages, and a search for points of contact between European and Cuban culture. In the background, the figure of Arvo Pärt and his fascination with the number 3.
Inspiring elements that stimulated Rai5 to make a very interesting docufilm, able to tell about characters, ideas and new visual and sound fascinations. To tell from close up the artistic and human experience of a young talented choreographer, for the first time in Italy, and to show the creative process of an ambitious and unusual new production, in the setting of the Teatro Asioli in Correggio, a small Italian-style theatre immersed in the Po Valley, one of the most fascinating and suggestive. The ideal set for filming.
A docufilm that for the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto is a further step towards the realisation of works in which all languages harmoniously merge, and all audiences can recognise themselves.
The filming of the docufilm (directed by Alessandro D’Onghia) starts on 29 January 2021 (the first day of the choreographer’s work with the three dancers) and ends on 6 March 2021 (the day of the preview). The broadcasting of the docufilm on Rai5 is scheduled for spring 2021.
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