“Every Map Has a Scale”, the Summer Dance Festival in Bergamo

Bergamo. Going into the depths of the perception and sensations of the dancers, to then bring them outside, in comparison with local communities and landscapes. Sensations that emerge from the movement and that seek a relationship with the community in which they find themselves were the protagonists of “Every Map Has a Scale”, performance by the dancers of the Scottish Dance Theatreprotagonist (in the national premiere), Saturday 8 June, of the first day of Summer Dance Festival.

Festival, now in its 36th edition, which continues its exploration of landscapes, focusing this year on Present Landscapesin which to explore the forms of interaction between performers and spectators, bodies that transform themselves into a collective means of listening.

There couldn’t have been a better start then, with “Every Map Has a Scale”, a project conceived and choreographed by Joan Cleville (artistic director of the Scottish Dance Theatre), now in its third chapter, which explores the sensations of the dancers and then makes them explode outwards.

The Spanish choreographer takes as a metaphor the scale of reduction of geographical maps, a normative element that reduces the places we know onto paper and from which, retroactively, one can return to explore a space. A physical reduction that arises from the intent to delve deeply into the dancers’ perceptions, a personal and singular comparison that is then brought back to the public, in unusual spaces that differ from the traditional structures dedicated to dance.

The Sentierone thus becomes a large open-air stage, traditional well-known urban spaces become performance spaces, which directly eliminate the theatrical wings, allowing people to cross them and allow interaction with the public. The dancers take possession of some significant places, a series of small agoras where the meeting is fundamental and becomes the soul of a city, whether in a small square or in front of Donizetti’s monument.

It all begins in medias res, without any kind of soundtrack. The rhythm flows from the sinuous and continuous movements of the performers, in a renewed perception of the body, of the space it inhabits and of which it must regain awareness, as well as of time, almost slowed down compared to the urban frenzy, but decisive in the movements, given the complete absence of external musical rhythm. The dancers of the Scottish Dance Theatre, with their colorful suits with rounded motifs (made by Zephyr Liddell), bring the improvisation to a state of performative poetry of the movement, which relates to the architectural elements present, animating them, and also to the audience present.

A dance as a language, sometimes cryptic and enigmatic, which leaves the public fascinated or amazed as they see their spaces being inhabited in an unconventional way. The dancers start from a perception of their own body to arrive at an understanding of the other, through a practice of inclusive connection. A practice that branches out through different languages, such as the written word that tells about dance and one’s relationship with the city and its stories. A story that is a celebration, listening and rediscovery of known and reanalysed landscapes, towards a rediscovery of everyday life. Dance that from self-analysis becomes listening, centripetal movement that leads the individual to a collective dance, right up to the porticoes.

The natural soundtrack, in the absence of music, comes alive with the electronic trance of “Intro” and “Square People” by Weval, leading from the singular analysis to the relationship of the collective, in a connection of bodies that seems to explode and take complete shape precisely thanks to a first, necessary comparison with the self. Improvisation becomes harmonious movement, in a precise study of space: a place of interpersonal and numerical relationships, a structure that accompanies sensations and the propensity to listen to others.