Dance, New Ballet of Tuscany in Vicenza with ‘Bayadère’ reread by Michele di Stefano

It is one of the most important Italian contemporary dance company, the one expected in the coming days at Danza in Rete Festival | Vicenza – Schio. The Nuovo Balletto di Toscana (artistic direction of Cristina Bozzolini) debuts with the brand new show, ‘Bayadère – il Regno delle ombre’, one act ballet for twelve dancers, choreography by Michele Di Stefano, music by Ludwing Minkus and original music by Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, costumes by Santi Rinciari, lights by Giuia Broggi, scheduled for a regional premiere, 15 July at 8.00 pm, at the Teatro Comunale di Vicenza, in the Sala Maggiore. The show was selected for the Nid Platform 2021 (the New Italian Dance Platform). It is a very welcome return, for the Tuscan training that expresses excellence in the made in Italy dance genre, thanks to a repertoire built over decades of activity, with its young and talented dancers, guided by the experience and strength of Cristina Bozzolini, an ensemble always engaged in new works signed by great names of national and international choreography. At the Festival they will present Michele Di Stefano’s latest creation, ‘Bayadère – the kingdom of shadows’, a great classic revisited in a contemporary key. The Salerno choreographer, founder of the Roman group mk, has been awarded prestigious prizes such as the Silver Lion for innovation at the Biennale Danza in 2014 and the Ubu Award as best dance show, with ‘Bermudas’ in 2019, an original creation presented in the Municipal dance programming of past seasons. Therefore, the Shows in the Sala Maggiore are back (there are still tickets for the Thursday evening appointment), the section of the Festival that best represents the mainstream trends and inspirations of the national contemporary dance; dedicated this year to the rebirth of the arts after the emergency, with the emblematic title “A New Life”, the Festival, promoted by the Municipal Theater Foundation of Vicenza and the Civic Theater Foundation of Schio, is presented as a widespread event, designed with the goal of consolidating the innovative cultural offer of the area through a national dance project, increasing its attractiveness and disseminating spectacular art and creativity in the symbolic places of the two cities that promote it. Dance on the Net Festival | Vicenza – Schio (artistic direction of Pier Giacomo Cirella in collaboration with Loredana Bernardi), recognized by the Ministry of Culture, is also realized with the contributions of the Vicenza Chamber of Commerce, which intervenes with special economic support for cultural activities carried out online. ‘Bayadère’ is a ballet steeped in idealized exoticism, both in the melodramatic plot and in the aesthetics of the whole; in tradition his most famous scene, the Kingdom of Shadows, appears at the limit between the real and the afterlife, a place where the shadows appear as if frozen in their tragic condition and the movements that perform pure rituals, both projected towards the total abstraction of forms. Michele di Stefano in his contemporary ‘Bayadère’, light years away from the late nineteenth-century oriental stereotypes, captures the timelessness of the classic of the third act (The kingdom of shadows, hence the subtitle) and thus the impalpable souls who appeared to the warrior in a dream Solor in the classic version of the tradition, become an enchanting vision, a white act of amazement that translates into a psychedelic and very contemporary projection, accompanied by the scene music of Ludwing Minkus, with some interactive forays by Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch. The choreographer Michele di Stefano introduces the new creation: “Conceived for an ensemble of very young talents, this new Kingdom of Shadows so mysteriously full of suggestions, belongs to the exceptional times we are experiencing, because it refers to something lost and something possible at the same time, something that concerns the presence of bodies and the intertwining of their trajectories, in a space that is no longer just a beyond, but is a present that wishes to be reinvented with delicacy and passion “.