WORLD PREMIERE
CO-PRODUCTION ORIENTE OCCIDENTE
Gran Ballo Excelsior, created in 1881 at La Scala by Luigi Manzotti with music by Romualdo Marenco, is one of the cornerstone works of the late-19th-century Italian ballet repertoire. Conceived during a pivotal time for the establishment of modern identity and the celebration of progress—staged here through depictions of engineering feats such as the construction of the Mont Cenis Tunnel—Gran Ballo Excelsior is described as a “choreographic, historical, allegorical, fantastic action” based on the battle between Light and Obscurantism. In the program notes for the premiere, Manzotti wrote: “It is the titanic struggle of Progress against Regress that I present to the intelligent Milanese audience: it is the grandeur of Civilization that triumphs, subdues, and destroys, for the benefit of nations, the ancient power of Obscurantism that kept them in the darkness of servitude and ignominy.” This was the era of World Expositions, colonial imperialism, and the assertion of national identity and its symbolic framework.
Building on these foundations, Salvo Lombardo—associate artist at the Oriente Occidente Festival for 2017-2018—reimagines Excelsior by questioning the cultural legacy of that 19th-century Western vision. What iconographies and themes from Gran Ballo Excelsior resurface today, albeit in seemingly different forms, in representations of “others,” in portrayals of bodies, and in the dynamics between Europe and the “rest of the world”? Inspired by these questions, Lombardo avoids a re-enactment of Gran Ballo Excelsior, opting instead for a reinterpretation that disperses traces of the original, focusing on the stereotypical imagery that modern media, visual narratives, and linguistic codes continually reproduce.
Breaking away from the tableau structure of the original, Lombardo and his team create a unified contemporary fresco for a large ensemble of dancers, set to an original musical score. Their aim is to critically engage with the past through the expressive mediums of contemporary dance and visual art.
salvolombardo.org
