On 8 October (8.30 pm) the dance debuts at the Comunale with the Italian premiere of ‘Hands do not touch your precious Me. A dialogue between the universes of Wim Vandekeybus, Olivier de Sagazan and Charo Calvo’, signed by Wim Vandekeybus for the his company Ultima Vez. The Abbado Theater resumes with the same show that was supposed to make its world premiere in Italy a year ago (in October 2020), then suspended for the lockdown.
October 10 (re 16) is the time of Traces. In the endless and overwhelming Romanian nature of the last primordial forests of Europe, the Flemish choreographer looks for more ancient traces of man and his memory to talk about the ‘inner history’. A story that takes place before or beyond language, and can only be told by the pulses of dance and music.
In Hands do not touch your precious Me, however, Wim Vandekeybus weaves a mythical tale of confrontation and transformation, of light and shadow, death and rebirth. This poetic and mysterious title takes up a verse taken from a hymn by the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna to the goddess Inanna. Of all the myths surrounding the deity, his spectacular descent into the underworld is the most intriguing. Innana is the divine embodiment of the paradoxes of human existence and her actions are a reflection of the tensions and contradictions that every person is forced to face in life.
Engraved on clay tablets in cuneiform characters over 4 thousand years ago, these words are among the oldest testimonies of humanity. The Belgian choreographer, director and film-maker, one of those who have most influenced dance in recent decades, collaborates with the arts and working together with other artists creates a world for eight dancers where the body, almost a living sculpture, hangs in the balance between utopia and turmoil, between strength and fragility.
The artistic research with clay is signed by the performer and visual artist Olivier de Sagazan. For the music he chose to collaborate with composer Charo Calvo, with additional original music (Red Dance) by Norbert Pflanzer. Live camera during the performance curated by Wim Vandekeybus, a further mix on stage between the different arts. The show is a Ultima Vez production, in co-production with Kvs Brussels and the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara Foundation.
In Traces, Vandekeybus rethinks the intuitions from which his research began, the drama of drives and instincts, the play of energies and intensities. There is something in nature that the body has forgotten or removed. How much nature still ‘lives’ in man? How much animal is there in the human body? What happens when we are at risk or in danger, when we have to make intuitive decisions to survive? Ten dancers move on a soundtrack composed by Trixie Whitley, Shahzad Ismaily, Ben Perowsky and Daniel Mintseris, recorded with the special participation of Marc Ribot on guitar.