That’s All Folks!, with a precise reference to the world of cartoons, is the irreverent title of the new creation by Damiano Ottavio Bigi and Alessandra Paoletti / FRITZ Company.

A quartet of international performers, composed of Bigi himself and Ching-Ying Chien, Issue Park and Faith Prendergast, moves in a set design with an incisive and minimalist line, putting dance, science and myth into dialogue.

Inspired by the concept of the “event horizon”, That’s All Folks! tells of the physical vertigo towards the unknown, the fall, the feeling of suddenly being in a time and place where there is no longer an axis or a central perspective, but where everything changes depending on where we look.

concept, direction and choreography: Damiano Ottavio Bigi and Alessandra Paoletti
with Damiano Ottavio Bigi, Ching-Ying Chien, Issue Park, Faith Prendergast
sound design: David Blouin
music: David Blouin, Sarah Neufeld-Colin Stetson, Gary Gary O’slide, Henry Purcell, Hank Williams
light design: Lucien Laborderie
set and costumes in collaboration with Tzela Christopoulou
set construction: Marios Karaolis
co-produced by Fondazione Musica per Roma/Festival Equilibrio, FRITZ Company, Compagnia Simona Bucci/Degli Istanti, Fabbrica Europa / PARC
supported by Pina Bausch Zentrum (Wuppertal), 2 WORKS/Dimitris Papaioannou, Italian Cultural Institute of Cologne
in collaboration with NID Platform, CHATHA Lyon, Centro di Residenza della Toscana (Armunia – CapoTrave/Kilowatt)
Special thanks to Dimitris Papaioannou for his precious and generous support
Thank also to Tina Papanikolau, Nikos Dragonas, Bettina Milz, Aicha M’Barek & Hafiz Dhaou

FRITZ Company Bigi/Paoletti is an artistic project and a dance theatre company founded in 2020 by Damiano Ottavio Bigi, dancer and choreographer, and Alessandra Paoletti, actress and director. Their work is born in a dialogue with languages of different nature, moving between the genres of dance, theatre and visual arts.

From the Rome Opera to Dimitris Papaioannou, Damiano Ottavio Bigi passed through several companies (CNDC d’Angers and CCN Nantes) before becoming a member of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (2005), where he still works as a guest artist. In 2010 he participated in the film “PINA” by Wim Wenders. The encounters of his career led him to confront different experiences and visions, enriching his world and inspiring his path. In 2016 he received the “Premio Capri Danza International” and in 2020 the “Premio Sfera d’Oro per la Danza”.

Alessandra Paoletti is an actress and director who graduated from the National Academy of Drama “Silvio D’Amico” and is active in research theatre, dance theatre and contemporary dance, moving through different languages and visions. Among the most significant encounters and collaborations in her artistic career are those with A. Knapp, J.A. Stanzak, T. Ostermeier, J. Muller/Fura dels Baus, J. Sanchis Sinisterra, R. Garcia and L. De Bei, winning with the latter “Le Maschere del Teatro Prize” and the “Golden Graal Award”. She has long collaborated as a foreign director with the Istanbul Municipal Theater.

Ching-Ying Chien, born in Taiwan, trained at the National Taiwan University of Arts. In 2013 she started working as a dancer in the Akram Khan Company. Her performance in Until the Lions won the Outstanding Female Performance (Modern) at the 2016 National Dance Awards (UK). She currently collaborates with the company also as a rehearsal director. She was a dancer and choreographer in “Stranger”, a music video by hip-hop musician Plan B, and was featured in other videos by British electronic band The Chemical Brothers, directed by Adam Smith. Together with Akram Khan she co-created a duet for “Can We Live with Robots”, a television documentary commissioned by Channel 4. In 2020 she started working with James Thierrée – Compagnie du Hanneton in the works MO’s and ROOM. Her latest work, Vulture, was presented at the Lilian Baylis Studio in Sadler’s Wells and the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and was selected by Aerowaves 2023.

Issue Park (Kwangsuk Park), also known as Bboy Issue, is a professional dancer based in Zurich. He started dancing as a young boy in Suwon, Korea. Mixing breakdance with martial arts, contemporary dance, Korean dance and street dance he soon gained international recognition for his original and experimental style. Working in the space between breakdance and contemporary dance his artistic ambition brought him to theatre-¬stages all over Europe and Asia. He collaborates with Kaori Ito, director-playwright at TJP CDN in Strasbourg, and has worked in the productions ROOM and MO’s by James Thierrée – Compagnie du Hanneton, Morning of owl crew and Ahn Eun Me Company.

Faith Prendergast, born in Colorado, started dancing very early in a local dance school. She continued her training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Over the last ten years she has worked as a freelance in the UK with companies and choreographers including Ballo Arthur Pita, Léa Tirabasso, Protein Dance, Stacked Wonky, Annabel Arden, Russell Maliphant, Sweetshop Revolution, Joel O’donoghue, Leila McMillan, Jodie Cole and Vivi Wood. In 2022 she co-founded the company Barking Trees with Karl Fagerlund Brekke to begin exploring creating her own work collaboratively. Her work with Brekke, Simorgh Soup, was presented in the UK, Denmark and Turkey. She is also one of the founders of the Margate Movement Artists collective.

Calendar

October 17 – 26, 2023 | Fabbrica Europa – PARC, Florence (Italy) | Residency
November 16 – 27, 2023 | CHATHA Studio, Lyon (France) | Residency
December 10 – 21, 2023 | Pina Bausch Zentrum / Schauspielhaus, Wuppertal (Germany) | Residency
December 27, 2023 – January 16, 2024 | Megaron Mousikis, Athens Music Hall, Athens (Greece) | Residency
February 11 – 18, 2024 | Kilowatt, Sansepolcro (Italy) | Residency
February 22, 2024 | Festival Equilibrio – Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome (Italy) | Premiere
September 15, 2024 | Festival Fabbrica Europa – Teatro del Maggio Musicale, Florence (Italy)
October 11, 2024 | NID Platform – Teatro Comunale, Vicenza