Oriente Occidente, a partner of the network of Italian sector operators Anticorpi XL, promotes emerging national author choreography. It opens its 35th edition looking ahead, presenting two gems of the current Italian dance scene to its loyal audience: the Apulian Irene Russolillo and the Piedmontese Andrea Gallo Rosso.
Irene Russolillo boasts a background in classical and contemporary dance, physical theater, vocal research, and a degree in Political Science. Favoring the solo as a compositional form, Russolillo loves to engage with her most intimate space. In her new project A loan (a loan in English, but phonetically it could also mean "alone"), she reinterprets some sonnets by William Shakespeare. “Is it perhaps your spirit that detaches from your body / and sends from afar to spy on my actions / to discover in me frivolous hours and shames?” From these lines of the great English poet arises an isolated body that rummages through its own weaknesses, experienced love, and the solitude that inevitably follows. It wanders through the past and the present, posing questions and attempting to provide answers.
Andrea Gallo Rosso, who has presented four short works in national and international contexts, has a background in contemporary dance and theater, along with musical studies in violin. As a creator, he seeks to express ‘the contemporary being’ through bodies, and in the work proposed for Oriente Occidente, he explores themes of conflict and memory. “Conflict,” he explains, “arises from the possibility or impossibility of affirming one’s identity.” For the performers, rhythm becomes a tool for recognizing or disassociating themselves, a means to enter or exit the group.
From an initial inspiration by the Israeli artist Michal Rovner, the personal memories of the performers are developed—post-produced, borrowing the title from Nicolas Bourriaud’s work—following new modes of production and meaning to arrive at an image that attempts to engage with the collective memory of our society.
