From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony,
This universal Frame began:
From Harmony to Harmony
Through all the compass of the Notes it ran,
The Diapason closing full in Man.
J. Dryden, A Song for St.Cecilia’s day, 1687

Un Discreto Protagonista is a story of an instant, an instant of the time that is out of joint, or before the time itself, in which balance and symmetry get broken to let the time start.
No bang, no sound, just a temporary vibration in the air.
Symmetry shatters, and unfocused presences overlap, mingle. They change and turn into a constant expansion.
They are remains and scattered fragments which in a fluid space try to reassemble in shapes dictated by geometric relationships creating always different ones.

Our research came up with a question: what is the void? The void referred to a physical state, but also in existential and creative terms. The void theme, which we were unconsciously interested in and in which we found ourselves immersed during the pandemic, became clearer through a quest of some recent discoveries in physics on the origins of the universe.

We turned our attention to science, which has developed different ideas over the centuries, changing reality from time to time, influencing a worldview, and re-shaping how we perceive, relate to, and tell about ourselves.

This exploration has taken us through two seemingly distant worlds: one more mathematical, linked to scientific aspects, and one more human, connected with a remote culture through founding myths.
We worked on the concepts of time, void and fullness, density, rarefaction. We investigated the possible relationship between two figures in geometric and abstract compositions, which we found to govern the macroscopic as the microscopic.
The story that many of today’s physics tells about the origin of the universe inspired the narrative line of our work, which also comes from other sources linked to different mythologies.
Immersed within a blank page, these two figures develop relationships, then collide, create ratios and paths that constantly unite, separate, or overlap in a reflecting and mirroring interaction that has taken us into the double’s symbolic dimension.

Surprisingly, this work produced a narrative that goes beyond a visible story. Pure dance and narration fragments explode across images related to some of the most ancient stories as if they were bits of a single one.
– Alessandra Paoletti | Damiano Ottavio Bigi –

Damiano Ottavio Bigi and Alessandra Paoletti met in Istanbul in 2013. Here it began their collaboration with the Yuvaya Dönmek, Babam için – Back Home, to my father project for the Istanbul Municipal Theater. Their work is born in a dialogue with languages of different nature, moving between the genres of dance, theater and visual arts. The essential elements of their creations come out from an exploration that leans on structural, dramaturgical and kinaesthetic compositional schemes, often deriving from scientific disciplines. The personal and the emotional are so pressed out from a more analytic creative process that, from time to time, moves new forms of relationships and perspectives on the body articulation in space and time.

Alessandra Paoletti is an Italian actress, director and author, active in the field of research theater, dance theatre and contemporary dance. Graduated from the National Academy of Drama “Silvio D’Amico”, as an interpreter and as a director/choreographer moves through different languages and visions. Among the most significant encounters and collaborations of 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 collaborated for several years with the Istanbul Municipal Theater as a foreign director.

Damiano Ottavio Bigi is an Italian choreographer, dancer and performer. From the Opera of Rome to Dimitris Papaioannou, passing through several French contemporary dance companies before joining the Tanztheater Wuppertal directed by Pina Bausch, where is a member from the 2005 and still works as a guest. He took part in the movie by Wim Wenders “Pina” (2010).
The meetings of his career led him to cross different creative experiences and visions, enriching his world and inspiring him as a choreographer and pedagogue.
In 2016 he is awarded the “Premio Capri Danza International” and in 2020 the “Premio Sfera d’Oro per la Danza”.

by Alessandra Paoletti & Damiano Ottavio Bigi
with Damiano Ottavio Bigi & Lukasz Przytarski
sound composition: David Blouin
collaborative light designers: Evina Vassilakopoulou, Amador Artiga Tuset, David Blouin
music: Antonio Vivaldi, Brian Eno, Antonio Caldara, The Nicholas Brothers and Cab Calloway, David Blouin
co-produced by Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino, One Dance Week Festival – Plovdiv, Compagnia degli Istanti / Compagnia Simona Bucci
with the support of 2WORKS / Dimitris Papaioannou; il Funaro – Pistoia, Fabbrica Europa / PARC Performing Arts Research Centre, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein Westfalen, Teatro-Biblioteca Quarticciolo – Roma

The show is part of the Florence Art Week programme, an initiative dedicated to artistic production and contemporary experimentation within the International Biennial of Antiques.

[photo@velislavvelislav]