Dancing into December - An Interview with Bigi & Paoletti

On 3rd December 2024, Attakkalari played host to renowned Italian artists Alessandra Paoletti and Damiano Ottavio Bigi and the artists in residency - Gayatri Shetty, Pallavi Verma, Seher Noor Mehra, Harshal Vyas, R Chandiran, R Sai. After the meet-and-greet we were able to have a short chat with Alessandra and Damiano. 

Here is what they have to say:

 

Good evening. Thank you for joining us today. Before we begin I would like to know more about the both of you.

Damiano: Good evening. Hello. I am Damiano Ottavio Bigi. I'm a dancer and choreographer from Rome, but I lived long time in France, Germany, Greece. Yes, working there mostly.

 

Alessandra: I'm Alexandra Paoletti. I am an actress and a theatre director and I'm also from Rome. I worked um around Europe a lot in Rome in Italy in general and in Istanbul as a foreigner director.

 

Is this your first collaboration together or have you previously worked together as well?

 

D: We have been working previously together in Istanbul. I join a production of Alessandra and then different workshops or smaller projects. But since 2020 we start this company and this is the second production with the company, which I'm always on also on stage and Alexandra is always outside.

 

A: until now

 

D: Yes we wanted to. We are free to experiment different path, and also technique-wise. I mean it's dance theatre, the first duet was mostly dance. This one is more also theatre inside. And yes we are open to really explore different path.

 

Will you tell me a little bit more about when you started and how you started your company?

 

A: Well, it was during the pandemic and we really had time to face each other and asking to ourselves what was our goal, what we wanted to explore. And we had the space for doing that. and we had the time.

 

D: The time. During the pandemic. It was this emptiness that give us the opportunity to have.

 

A: And exactly the emptiness was the subject of the first piece and from there we started to develop our language that we are in a process, discovering in this process and we want to develop this work that we are doing in a trilogy. We already made the first two chapters and then we have in mind the third one.

 

Before we proceed, I want to quickly ask you about both of your training and entry in performance.

 

D: So, I come from ballet from classical dance in the Rome Opera house. Then when I moved to France, I discovered contemporary dance and I worked there with a different contemporary company, but then most importantly I moved to Wuppertal in Germany and I worked with Pina Bausch for many years with her, and then unfortunately without her. And so, I discovered dance theatre and yeah, all this different path of dance theatre in Germany. And then let's say finally the most important thing is that I worked with Dimitris Papaioannou, the Greek choreographer. I mean he also went through different periods but lately is more like visual theatre. So, you don't dance much but you do need to be a dancer because he wants a consciousness of the body really specific. So yeah, of course these are also my influences. I don't want to copy them, but they are of course in my path and my art and yeah especially Pina, Dimitris and Claude Brumaschon, a French choreographer that I worked in France. Let's say these are the three people who were more influence for me

 

A:  Yes, I come from theatre. I studied at the National Academy of Drama Silvio D'Amico in Rome. But I previously met the work of some pedagogues from GITIS of Moscow and from Guildhall of London and from the Institute of Barcelona and then in Leon. All of these people before, during and after the academy really gave me the different points of view that I tried during my work to put together. And as Dami said with his influences, his experiences all of them are inside and is a guide that I then transformed and translated in my own point of view in my own path. I think the one of the most important person for me, encounter it was the one with Jose Sanchis Sinisterra. He is a Spanish dramaturg, playwright and director. And I think the biggest thing that he I explored with him is this approach to structural systems that are for the dramatology of actors and also for writing itself. This approach that comes from science which follows some complex systems from and through which you can develop the work, the relations, the speech. We try to also bring this work in our own work in our research in dance.

 

Thank you for elaborating. Let’s head on to That's All Folks!

 

A: The title, comes from Looney Tunes, but it refers to the structure of Looney Tunes. But we see it in a different way because That's All Folks! means also this is the end of something.

In the first play in the first piece we wanted to research around the beginning of the universe. In this piece, we started from the ending, but the ending that can be also a new starting. And so it’s about a fall, a fall in something unknown. Everything is played on a liminal point. What does it mean to be on a liminal point? What does it mean to really experiment a physical vertigo when you are placed on a liminal point in terms of time, in terms of space, and in terms also of uh conscious and unconscious.

So what does it mean to change a point of view? And it's of course we don't have any answer to that is a provocation that we made to ourselves, and yes, and to the dancer and also the technical collaborators and with them we had the same approach. We asked questions and we work together on discovering all of this.

 

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Has this piece been premiered before?

 

D: Yes, we did the premiere in Rome in February at the Festival Equilibrio. And then we performed twice in Firenze with our co-producer the Fabbrica Europa Festival. Then in Vicenza in the NID Platform which is a Italian dance platform. The piece was selected from the NID Platform.

So actually also the title for us is not that the piece is about the Looney Tunes or the cartoon but the title bring us two points. One point is this in consciousness like when we are kids, and also bring this idea of folks, folkloric movement. We wanted to work with not just the dancer but also the technical team from people coming from different culture. So we have for example the sound designer is David Blouin is a Canadian living in Greece. Lucien Laborderie did the lights. It's from France. Tzela Christopoulou from Greece help us to do the scenography and also costumes.

And then the dancer. So we have Issue Park. Unfortunately, he will not be in India. He come from Korea and is a break dancer. So he also come from a different path dance-wise.

 

A: And he comes also from traditional Korean Dance.

 

D: But he will be replaced by Dylan Phillips who is an Australian dancer. So but the people who did the creation is Issue Park from Korea, Ching-Ying Chien from Taiwan, Faith Prendergast from the United States but she was born in Italy and lived in Germany, England etc. And myself. Yes. And myself from Italy.

So it's a really different place, different background.

 

A: Faith Prendergast here will be replaced by Daisy Ransom Phillips also from United States.

 

D: So, during the creation we really wanted to work on folkloric dance, mythology that are of course different even if with many similarities from each culture. And then translate this meeting with the time we had to go to this full world of consciousness. So yes it was really a difficult task because we were a completely new group, different culture, different language, different background movement-wise, not so much time for contemporary creation in Italy. But it was very interesting. And we still are now actually discovering the piece when we meet in so short time how to build it back. Because it's always different when you are in creation you are inside the work but then when you meet after 6 months you have just two days to bring it back. Yes and we of course we have some crash but we enjoyed very much working with this team completely it was an enrichment.

 

A: Yeah. Absolutely. And uh we work also on as Dami was saying on their some specific from their culture from their own landscapes. And in the piece this is very present. Also the title is very related to the presence of a person from the United States from a frontier culture like some in the United States. Yeah, we put a really together very strong western culture with a different aspects from very strong Asian culture from and it came out this word which is That's All Folks! 

 

A: Yes. We rehearse this piece in four different countries in Italy, in France, in Germany and in Greece. And we rehearse at the Pina Bausch Zentrum, in Greece, the Dimitris Papaioannou Studio. And we are here also thanks to the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Mumbai and Consolato Generale d’Italia here in Bangalore. So we want to thank them.

 

Also this in different places affected our work somehow. Work for us is you know we make a big research in a very good way because the environment where we were visiting was very different and each time gave us something that maybe is in a little sound or in the light. Because our work we use different languages and all of these languages are put together to build a dramaturgy. And there is dance, there is text, there is music, there is soundscape and lighting. So all of this is building the dramaturgy. Maybe the dramaturgy is driven by sometimes by the sound, sometimes by the dance, sometimes by the visual part of the show or the lighting.

 

We want to thank the people in the Italian Institute of Culture in Mumbai, Francesca Amendola and the Consul General of Italy in Bangalore, Alfonso Tagliaferri. For making it possible Maurizia Settembri from Fabbrica Europa Festival, and Antonella Cirigliano from Cross Project.

 

I'm looking forward to it.

Would you also like to quickly talk about Folios of Time.

How are you going to approach it and what are you looking forward to in the residency?

 

D: Well! In general we are looking for something else that just going around and do our show, and then you know have dinner with our team and then go home.
So this kind of project are very great for us to really meet the culture, meet different artists, have time, yeah not just traveling for two days. When Jay proposed this project we were very happy and very excited about it and to also have more time, to be here in India and to be with the culture and discovering. For the moment we we're going to start tomorrow. So for the moment it's mostly from the videos and we were very surprised from the video and and also the text the concepts they send to us they were very interesting very different than that what we used to see in Italy for example.

 

So, we just discovered the six artists that they choose. They are very interesting. Of course, in the video also some show 3 minutes, some show half an hour. So, it's difficult for the moment to judge. And also some stuff are like with a montage which in real life you cannot do like slow motion. You cannot do this kind of thing on stage. So yeah, it's really a meeting because we don't know each artist how much will let us say things which the different techniques and different world they have as how much we want to give our feedback without also manipulating too much what their world and where they have to discover their path.

 

A: Yes, we don't want to push them towards our vision. We would like to be to guide them but in their own work in their own world

 

D: Always with doubt. I mean we're going to share our thoughts and of course dramaturgically, movement-wise, we can give some more artistic ideas sometimes. It also depends on how open is the dialogue with each one of them.

 

A: It’s from both sides, no? Always as a dialogue. So it depends also on what they want to know from us, what they need from us. And in this we are going to discover during these days.

 

D: And also time wise I mean we have also we have one week so it's not you cannot completely rebuild a piece from zero. And that's anyway from what we saw. You don't need to do that because they really have six amazing world, different but very interesting.

 

A: Yeah. Maybe what we will do of course to is to give some tips, be open for some questions for maybe to go deeper in some directions. To do a synthesis in another but yes it's a dialogue. We are very happy to be here yes

 

 

Out of the six videos that you have what is the one common thread or common thing that you have noticed in their works?

 

D: I would I would say that they have really, each one has a very strong path of research. Every research is very deep and is not in the middle of something in a bad way. It's really going for it. For me this is really enjoying to see. okay I take the risk to do my idea and to go for it. Yeah. This is the trait they all have.

 

 

A: Totally. No, this was surprising for us because sometimes you know it's easy to go with what is on fashion especially in contemporary dance. The risk is to stay on the surface, not to be personal.

Really to follow a vision, a path, urgency or a need or for doing something. For us this is the most important things. Yes.

 

I think that concludes it. You are starting tomorrow?

 

D: Yeah. I think it's better to go direct. I mean, everyone tomorrow has four hours and we will be there the second half. Two hours of each group. So, we have really time to see. I think it's better tomorrow we really go for it and then maybe if they need more time alone, it's going to be after. So, we also need to digest what they show us, to discover them. How we going to have a dialogue. I'm also shy sometimes. I need time to get to know some people how we can communicate.

 

A: Yeah. Also to protect the ideas.

 

D: Because I mean it's a complicated because for example some people we saw a lot in the video. Some people really small things. From the concept to what they show on stage why they decide to show compared to what they wrote on the concept. Because a concept can go in very different direction not so concretely. So I'm very interesting to ask them why they went this direction, what they want to achieve, do they want to make a longer piece later because maybe also this is interesting for them. It's not just about now it's then to develop this piece in a different situation. I guess they also come from different place

 

A: And also some of them in the concept they have so many things. So also it's very good to take a choice to follow it, maybe to fail.

 

D: I mean which part of this concept because some concept are research from a lifetime. It's great.

 

A: It's great but sometimes it can be too much. To go toward something very specific otherwise so you can get lost in many different path, with many different issues. Also because it's a 20 minutes performance and we don't have so much time. But for me, for example, it's very useful to go with something very specific because it's important to be specific in the research otherwise, the risk is to get lost in something very generic which is not working so much for an artistic work. And then you write something, you think something but the answer is on stage or in the studio if something is working or not.