Corpo devoto (devoted body)

workshop by Roberto Zappalà

 

“to glorify the cult of the image and of the aesthetic is my goal, more than its meaning” [Baudelaire]

Starting from this concept, which has been an important issue in the developing of his creative process, the choreographic reflection of Roberto Zappalà leads to the investigation of the body as an instrument of devotion, not only through his creations but also through a laboratorial work dedicated to young dancers.

The devoted body can be at the same time turned to ground weight (to kneel, to bow down) and to the lightness of high (levitation).

– The ostentation of the devotion is an evidence of the devoted body; you can be devoted inside yourself, in your own silence, but inside the body/through the body it is not possible: the devoted body has to show off itself -.

The body as a communicative tool of emotions, images of life, evocations, remarks, poems, civilization, arrogance, intrusiveness, pain: finally, the choreographer uses it as a tool of aesthetic communication, where the devotion meets the visual pleasure of an image, which could speak under one’s breath and let us reflect on the countless languages that life suggests and offers to us, in every part of the world, in any part of the body.

The workshop on the devotion to the body has been and is going to be the way through which approaching Roberto Zappalà’s language; it will be necessary to plan an analytical, almost monastic path, in order to reach those necessary body listenings, which will be transformed into movement, dynamics.

 

During the workshop some fundamental concepts of Roberto Zappalà’s dance will be deepen:

The most conceptual ones:

perception and knowledge

surprise

instability

unpredictability

honesty

 

 The most strictly physical ones:

running and breathing

centre and periphery

continuous drop

voice and disarticulation

dynamics