About "CREASPLENDORE" dance solo

Ivrea, 1st of May 2016
About “CREASPLENDORE” my new dance solo – (Italy, London, Brasil and Norway)

(You are more then welcome to use part of this content, as far as you put my credits).

In this work I am integrating many parts of myself.
Lakoff & Johnson talk about “embodied knowledge” and this is what life has done to and through me.
“Human beings are creatures of the flesh. What we can experience and how we make sense of what we experience depend on the kinds of bodies we have and on the ways we interact with the various environments we inhabit. It is through our embodied interactions that we inhabit the world, and it is through our bodies that we are able to understand and act within this world with varying degrees of success.” [Mark Johnson “Embodied reason”].
My passions for dancing, swimming, running, hiking in altitude, mountaineering skiing and the wilderness are the elements of nature that the “Cantico delle Creature” of S. Francesco underlines.
Countries and landscapes visited and soaked in, mountain tops conquered with my own legs…my body is the mean and the instrument I use to be and stay in the world.
The memories of long days in nature are embodied in me and now they flow into my body and nourish my dance, and on stage I feel like a shaman (more or less like those ones that I met in 2010, performing in Pasto-Colombia and in Ecuador).
I remember a quote by the dancer and choreographer Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe which is close to my vision:
“I am Nature
I am a Spirit
I am living Soul
I am you, and you are my reflection!”
Every part of my creative processes has got a moment of my life behind it. I am not part of the cathegory of artists with a lot of fantasy and grounding in one place.
For my creativity to be rich, I need to travel, to meet and get to know new landscapes, cultures, languages, faces, new moments of life and love.
“Creasplendore” is born in Italy, London (UK), Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Norway.
A travel through my dance, poems, paintings, photography and sounds of nature.
The first part of this solo has been composed in ITALY but inspired by an art residency in LONDON in 2015, of 2 months working with some members of the Akram Khan company: TJ Lowe (Theo inside/out methodology), Jose Agudo, Yenn Chin Lin, Nico Monaco and Sade and Christine Alleyne.
The river Thames in me wispering words of relief and serenity.
The second part by my 2 months art residency spent again in BRAZIL, SALVADOR DE BAHIA, which is my home, where I come back to nourish my art and my soul almost every year. In Brazil the choreographer Dejalmir Melo, helped me for my creation as an external eye.
The third part inspired by NORWAY and the Norwegian Fjords and mythology.

A thought for the Legend Nanà Vasconcelos, who died on the 9th of March.
His music in my heart because I had a wonderful chance…on the 27th of February I was present at his last concert at the First Percussion Festival Internacional Nalata, organized in the Kandyall by Carlinhos Brown.
He made us (the public) play, with voice and bodies, the ocean…so touching.
His music will be part of my dance piece, I guess.

Here some notes about my experience in Brazil:

Salvador de Bahia, 29Th of January 2016
An intense month here in Bahia, I am advancing with my creative process of Creasplendore, living for 2 months in the Bahia de Todos os Santos.
As this bay is of all Saints, I can find my referencies about S. Francesco too.
S. Francesco is honoured and venerated with a huge church in the historic centre of the town, Pelourinho. Example of the South American Barroco. Rich of gold, charged and abundant, a reflection of the generosity of nature in this tropical country.
Barroco was the first autochthonous artistic movement that had been well appreciated. So the essence of S. Francesco, whith his religoius order, is here too.
I am working with the help, as an external eye, of the choreographer Dejalmir Melo, the most amazing dancer and collegue I know, his technique, his sensitivity and attention for subtle details and his kindness are just wonderful, and this is boosting my humble work, I feel gratitude.
Besides that I am taking classes of afro brazilian (contemporary and traditional) dance with: Lino Amilton (afro brasilian contemporay dance, inspired by the Orixas), Paco Gomes (afro brasilan contemporary inspired by Orixas), Vania Oliveira, Rosangela Silvestre (traditional Orixas dances), Vera Passos, Tutto Gomes (contemporary dance performance), Leandro de Oliveira (conteporar dance performance). Sometimes it’s good to be a student again, never stop learning and searching.
I live in a favela, Morro da Sereia, in front of a turquoise sea. Sometimes Salvador’s life can be really intense, quick, fast, it can be sharp before finding the smoothiness of the ocean’s waves.
The sky, the wind, the ocean help me to let go and surrender and to accept and be receptive for my dance creation.
Sometimes the tears come like a rapid tropical storm and rain, breaths are bigger, smiles are wider.
Arms are open.
The cultural métissage passes through a fracture; I compare myself to an anthropologist of the dance and “on the field”.
I like how the italian anthropologist Alberto Salza in his book “Niente” describes what happens during his work and life.
“…the anthropoligist is like an earthenware vase, full of air (a bit like a stubborn one) sent abroad. The vase has got his shape, typical of the culture that produced it. When you arrive “sul campo”, “on the field”, local people find your shape pretty ugly. […] They take you rudely and with strenght to see what’s inside the vase. Obviously they break you after a while. So they get scared […] and then they try to fix (you) the pieces together. […] The result is that at the end you get back being a vase, more or less: you keep the air inside (I would not swear about the water), but you have a strange shape now. And when you come back home people tell you, in the best of the cases: “You look different”. […] And then, back home, your kind friends break you into smaller pieces and then they try to fix you once more, in the way they mostly like.
After many missions “on the field” it’s obvious that your psycophysical shape enters on the fuzzy logic […]
The fact is that with this process the pot, fixed together, vaguely resembles to it’s original shape, but it will have typical aspects of who rebuilt it. […]
The anthropologist is the worst thief of the world: beacuse he steals culture. For this reason he’s always escaping, the convex mirror of the travel and journey.” […]
This mechanism is close to mine…
The result after this fracture is an open mind, body and an open heart which are a good, beautiful, void channel for the arts and the muse.
In this way I produce “my own unique” art, but sometimes I put myself so much out of my comfort zone that I risk to get close to being schizofrenic.
Here in Salvador, with the help of Dejalmir, I am trying to find the breath, simplicity, essenciality of my written composition. It’s hard for me to be simple and not overload my dance, as I am an expressionist.
I am not interested in the estetichs, but in the uniqueness and honesty of my gestures and dance.
I am a dancer, I am a traveller, I am a researcher…this journey is interesting and it will be enriched by the Carnival. Let’s see… 🙂

Salvador de Bahia, 10Th of February 2016 – Carnival

Carnival here in Salvador has been an amazing experience thanks to Celso and Shido and Giselle of the Bloco Afro Malê Debalê.
They accepted me to dance in their bloco and made the gift of being for the first time on a trio elétrico. Carnival seen form above. My pictures (see my facebook account) can talk more than my words. Two nights of fire!
The only thing that I can say is that the music and dance inhabites everybody, dancing and smiles are everywhere and the consequence is an intense sense of freedom and union. A clear night sky with stars, the ocean, drums, Farol da Barra seen form above. The connection is total and I felt complete. A human flow behind the trio, a dancing ocean of people who step forward.
Onward humanity, I still believe in the power of beauty, dance, music and the arts.
I believe in my ancestors who lived in Africa and Brazil.
My choice, in this immense street party (4 million people!!!), is to only connect with the positive side; Salvador, town of extremes and of poverty and violence also.
But blossoms of love and beauty, often grow from the mud, like the lotus flower. So next time I will be in the mud, I will try to breathe and to remember this dancing ocean.
My luck was to see and dance in the streets also (a pipoca) by the music of Carlinhos Brown, Daniela Mercury, Saulo, Ivete Sangalo, among others…
And “os Santos” protected me from the dark side of this incredible show.
The result in my body after this experience, is flow, openness and a feeling of gratitude.
Bahia, so generous you are…

Salvador de Bahia, 19th of February 2016

“Can you accept the flow of words, colours and movements?
Honestly, I am a good channel,
The result of it…I couldn’t care less!!!
Welcome creativity. I am free.
I bend my knees
and I say “Obrigada Bahia”…”

Poems, colours, life, photos, flow of Creasplendore.
Back to work with Dejalmir Melo.
So intense.
Can I talk through my dance?
Are my body and soul honest?
Am I here, completely present?
Am I beauty?
Am I life?
I hope that my dance will talk at my place.

Salvador de Bahia, 29Th of February 2016
LECTURE AT THE UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA BAHIA, ESCOLA DE BELAS ARTES

I have been invited by the Professor Wagner Lacerda of the Escola de Belas Artes, Universidade Federal da Bahia to give some lectures about my art and creative process and experiences.
Amazing moments and sharing of knowledge. Always so inspiring working with Lacerda…
Hope that his students will become as poetic and joyful as their Professor’s art and teachings.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.