‘I love dancing’. The 35th edition of the ‘Florence Dance Festival’, under the artistic direction of the founders Marga Nativo and Keith Ferrone, is accompanied by a passionate declaration of love that comes from the heart: “I love dance, you love dance, we all love dance” . And again, “I love Florence Dance!”.
The new edition of the event opens tonight (9.30 pm with repeat tomorrow) with the hyper-realist ‘Peeping Tom’ (character mentioned in the legend of Lady Godiva, which means voyeur), the award-winning contemporary dance theater company of Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, presenting ‘Diptych – The Missing Door & The Lost Room’. It is a production that has toured the most famous theaters in the world with extraordinary success: it blurs the boundary between reality and fiction by animating a disturbing drama, between rooms that hide deceptions and mysterious plots. Since its founding in 2000 in Brussels, the Belgian company ‘Peeping Tom’ has presented its creations everywhere, receiving several major awards, including a Fedora Van Cleef & Arpels Prize for ballet for La Visit, an Olivier Award in the UK, a Patrons Circle Award at the International Arts Festival in Melbourne and numerous selections for Belgian and Dutch theater festivals.
When the lights come on, the audience is immersed in the labyrinth of a man’s mind: his life passes before him like in a film, or perhaps this is the film of lives different from his, some past, others still to be lived. And so, in the cabins and corridors of an ocean liner, the labyrinthine journey that is Diptych begins. Directors and creators Carrizo and Chartier experimented with changing film sets from scene to scene in order to make the transitions unfold autonomously with exceptional dramaturgical force. In Diptych, internal dramaturgy is an intimate part of the labyrinth as wanderings into the past and future. The dance show takes place in the Chiostro Grande Santa Maria Novella given that the ‘Florence Dance Festival’ was created with the dual purpose: to promote the art of dance and contribute to the relaunch, rediscovery and sometimes rebirth of various public places.
On Sunday 23 June (8.30 pm), again at the Chiostro Grande Santa Maria Novella, the festival continues with ‘Life and Dance’, a show curated by the masters and students of the Florence Dance Center, with the artistic direction of Marga Nativo. The evening, entirely dedicated to the young promises of the dance world, will be a succession of dance styles and genres: from classical to contemporary, from jazz to hip-hop.
