Performance also on
May 10, 2014 18:30
Site specific version
Having won Equilibrio Award Rome 2013 for Performer, Francesca Foscarini invited Yasmeen Godder to create a solo for her.
Given this invitation, Godder decided to begin with an already set sequence of performative and physical processes, which didn’t necessarily arise out of Francesca’s body and psyche, and use this extension to expose something about her as a performer.
Within this search for a personal process, using a learned language, the choreography plays with the undressing of a socially aware persona in order to expose instinctual animalistic and primal urges. These two pulling forces in the work trick us by playing with the way we perceive what is authentic and real in this research. Is the process of gutting out her animal counterpart a means of approaching another level of consciousness? Or is it rather just a physical exploration hoping to create a particular effect on the audience? How does the audience’s gaze enhance, feed, close-off or promote these different shifts and transformations of her body and psyche? And how does this particular performance poetry exposes a view of female stereotypes ranging from the hyper- sensitive and emotionally charged to the primal and visceral?
Born in Jerusalem in 1973, Yasmeen Godder moved to New York with her family in 1984. She graduated from the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City, and received her BA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Since 1999, she has been living in Jaffa, Israel, where her company is based. Her works are regularly presented at the Suzanne Dellal Dance Center in Tel Aviv, and extensively throughout the world at renowned venues such as: Lincoln Center Festival in New York, Tokyo International Festival, Hebbel Am Ufer in Berlin, the Place Theater in London, Montpellier Dance Festival in France, Kunstenfestdesarts in Brussels, the Sydney Opera House and many more. Godder is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Bessie Award in New York.
To date she has created ten full evening-length works: Hall (2001), Sudden Birds (2002), Two Playful Pink (2003), Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder (2004), I’m Mean, I Am (2006), Singular Sensation (2008), Love Fire (2009), Storm End Come (2011), See Her Change (2013) and most recently Ghost Exercise, together with her long-term partner and co-artistic director Itzik Giuli. She has also created shorter works, including Under2 (2005) for Matanicola Company, and The Toxic Exotic Disappearance Act (2011) for The Batsheva Dance Company.
Francesca Foscarini is an independent choreographer and dancer. Her personal career was marked by the encounter with important masters of the national and international dance scene.
She started her own professional experience with Aldes Roberto Castello (2000-2003) in the creations Biosculture and Il migliore dei mondi possibili, Ubu Award 2003. In 2013 she is the winner of the Equilibrio Award 2013 for Performers. The jury, chaired by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, acknowledged her highly developed technique, her great emotional sensibility, her strong stage presence and her ability in creating a unique and original embodiment referring to her performance in Grandmother, a pièce created in collaboration with Sara Wiktorowicz. Recently, she won the jury prize of the 17th edition of the Masdanza International Dance Festival – Canary Islands (2012) as Best solo with her choreography Cantando sulle ossa (2011). In 2011, with Marco D’Agostin and Giorgia Nardin, she co-created Spic & Span. This show was awarded with a Special mention at Premio Scenario 2011. In 2009 she created her first choreography, Kalsh, finalist at the GD’A Veneto competition. Currently she is also collaborating as choreographer and performer with Sara Wiktorowicz in the new creation Once Upon a time.
choreography: Yasmeen Godder
created and performed by Francesca Foscarini
dramaturgy: Itzik Giuli
research advisor: Dalia Chaimsky
music: Hajasch
sound design: Tomer Rosenthal
light design: Rocco Giansante
technical care: Matteo Fantoni
costumes: Michal Bassad
images and video: Matteo Maffesanti
promotion and communication: Silvia Albanese
Some material for this work was developed with Dalia Chaimsky in the work Storm End Come.
production: Fondazione Musica per Roma, Premio Equilibrio Roma 2013
co-production: Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Centro per la Scena Contemporanea di Bassano del Grappa, Yasmeen Godder Studio, Jaffa TelAviv
with the support of Uovo and Next Laboratorio per la produzione e la distribuzione dello spettacolo dal vivo lombardo 2013; Israeli Embassy, Cultural Office
in collaboration with: VAN associazione culturale
