MON JOUR! Première October 2020 Torino Danza Festival
Who are today’s mountain visitors?
During her residencies in a village with a population of 239 in Val Germanasca, Prali, choreographer Silvia Gribaudi collected the imagery and anecdotes of ski instructors and hiking guides, which she transferred into visual, poetic, and choreographic actions onto the new mountain visitors.
Ironical visions that talk about the beauty of feeling naively bewildered, enhancing the shades of being human and the relationship with nature, sports, one’s boundaries.
This project is the result of a dialogue between Silvia, the ski instructors and the local hiking guides, who observed how often the mountain is inhabited by tourists or visitors that are unequipped for the challenges that this environment requires.
From comic anecdotes to more dangerous situations, there seems to be a clear recognition of those who are ‘local’ and therefore considered suitable to understand and act in the mountain environment, and those who are not.
Are we integrated or are we strangers? Can we be both at the same time? Why do we give value judgments to the former rather than the latter?
Silvia Gribaudi asks others and herself these questions, creating an imagery that is inhabited by “lost characters” who experience the mountain in a seemingly ironic way, but who actually find themselves forced to reinvent their presence and their role in another context.
These characters can be seen skiing in the meadows or looking for a track in the green. What are they looking for? Why do they insist on their search?
These extreme and paradoxical visions actually present a confused state of mind and a state of not belonging that is common to all, and that is especially visible in this fragile historical period.
The project investigates the value of being a stranger as a moment of creativity and invention of new resources with a view to act in an unfamiliar context.
MON JOUR! Concept and Choreography: Silvia Gribaudi
Dancers: Auditions January 2020
Production: Zebra Coproduction: Torinodanza festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, In the frame of ‘Corpo Links Cluster’
Project realised by Torinodanza / Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Malraux scène nationale Chambéry et Savoie, Associazione Dislivelli e Université Savoie Mont Blanc, supported by the cooperation programme PC INTERREG V A – Italia-Francia (ALCOTRA 2014-2020).
The Cast
The Cast of MON JOUR! is currently being defined. In January 2020 an audition will take place. There will be from 6 to 8 contemporary circus artists and performers on stage, as well as live music with a dj set. On stage the movements will alternate with the choreographic research through circus virtuosities where the words BOUNDARY and GOING BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES will be the choreographic score of the piece.
The language
Silvia Gribaudi’s choreographic language goes through performing arts, dance, and theatre, focusing on the body and on the relationship with the audience. Her poetics resorts to a constant pursuit of exchange and inclusion in the social and cultural fabric where the performances are developed. Her artistic language is spawned by the encounter of dance and irony.
What do they say about her work:
“But the bewilderment provoked through her performances by Silvia Gribaudi, a choreographer and performer from Turin, is the kind of bewilderment that makes you feel good and finally free to laugh about your body. Hers are happy bodies, dancing beyond stereotypes and opening new spaces of beauty.” La rivoluzione del Coro, Francesca De Sanctis, Il Manifesto, Italy
“Silvia is the Italian prophet of free body. Not a tumbling, gymnastic body, which is so connected to strength and muscles, but a truly free body, that has set itself free from the obligations and duties to which so many cultures have forced it.” http://robertocanziani.eu/quantescene/2018/12/31/unwrapping-silvia-gribaudi-la-grazia-e-il-corpo-libero/
Silvia Gribaudi es una artista singular que cultiva el feísmo y un humor ácido; su llamativo físico ya va a contracorriente” Roger Salas – EL PAIS 20-12-2012
Silvia Gribaudi Performing Arts | org@silviagribaudi.com | info@silviagribaudi.com | www.silviagribaudi.com
Project Stages
Production of the show MON JOUR!
- Residences/on-the-spot workshop sessions MON JOUR! LAB in spring-summer 2019 in Prali
- Public sharing of the workshop MON JOUR! LAB, choreographic trekking and meeting with a sportsperson in July 2019 in Prali, within Torinodanza Festival • Presentazione MON JOUR! Primo studio nel settembre 2019 a Torino, all’interno di Torinodanza Festival
- MON JOUR! work in progress, a cycle of workshops and open door events within the context of Teatri di Vetro | arti sceniche contemporanee, Rome
- Audition for circus artists in January 2020
- Residences/on-the-spot workshops MON JOUR! LAB in 2020
- Presentation of MON JOUR! in October 2020, within Torinodanza Festival
