(WW) We Women
Sol Picó, Julie Dossavi, Minako Seki, Shantala Shivalingappa
May 5, 2016 21:00
Stazione Leopolda di Firenze | IT
We want to live on Earth, this Earth, but not as manure as it has been the case for four thousand years.
Neither does he know us nor does he want to, but this will be his mortal mistake; locked away in the darkness of his harem and isolated in miserable or luxurious ghettos, we have had time to spy on him, to observe our jailer, our master.
Oh yes, we know who he is. We know everything about you. You are the clown, the Martian. Sisters! Look at him, look how he is hiding!
Federico Fellini, City of Women
In this creation well-known Spanish choreographer and dancer Sol Picó asks herself about the condition of woman, enriching her look with perspectives of women choreographers around the world: French of Beninese descent Julie Dossavi, Japanese Minako Seki and Indian Shantala Shivalingappa.
Starting from the different disciplines practiced by these artists and the origins and inheritance of each one of them, Sol Picó draws a portrait of contemporary woman.
These artists, some of which have had to break the prevailing schemes in their cultures of origin, have different styles, techniques and languages, that can even be unknown to her companions, but they all raise the same questions and seek the same answers.
Innovative, versatile, astonishing, Sol Picó is one of the most interesting protagonists of contemporary Spanish dance. With the company that bears her name, founded in 1994, she has built a creative path characterized by a mixture of genres and apparently irreconcilable elements, from flamenco danced on pointe to warrior costumes that hide feminine archetypes.
In her works, whose titles are often ironic – Bésame el Cactus, Barbi-Superstar, Sirena a la Plancha, El Llac de les Mosques, Memòries d’una puca – Sol Picò raises questions through the senses and the experience, bringing on stage key issues of today’s society in a totally unconventional way.
Julie Dossavi is a French choreographer and dancer of Beninese origin. After completing a degree in Physical & Sports Education, in 2003 she founded in Poitiers the Company Julie Dossavi, developing a very personal, hybrid, powerful, plastic and sensual language, based on variations of shapes and rhythms.
Her works are intimate reflections on the status of women and on belonging to two cultures. Next to group choreographies, as Agbazémé, La nuit les chats the gris_Clubbing, she has created some solos accompanied by live music or singing (Lalaï, with piano and cello ; Adjalin, with a Chadian string instrument ; Cross & Share, with piano and vocals).
Born in Japan, choreographer and dancer Minako Seki lives and works in Berlin since 1986. Thereupon she founded, along with two other members, the group “Tatoeba- Teatre danse grotesque”, one of the first Butoh Dance Groups in Europe. Currently she is leading the project reEnter / Creative Dojo, a holistic centre for dance, art, health, and macrobiotic food. She labels her individual dance approach as Dancing Between, alluding the connection between different points which emerge from her experience and can be assembled of many different materials, such as space, feelings, memories, objects, sounds, images or ideas. In her choreographic compositions, she sets connections within these points creating a sort of cosmos where infinite possibilities of associations become possible.
Shantala Shivalingappa was born in Madras, India. Raised in Paris, she has learned Indian dance, first with her mother and then with guru Vempati Chinna Satyam. She is internationally known as an outstanding interpreter who combines very high technical quality, grace and a particular sensitivity. These qualities have led her to work very young with masters of the international scene such as Maurice Béjart, Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Bartabas.
Today, she shares her time between touring as a soloist or with Tanztheater Wuppertal-Pina Bausch, expanding her choreographic work in the Kuchipudi style, and collaborating with various artists, including the duo Play with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Nineteen Mantras by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. In 2013, she was awarded the prestigious Bessie dance award in New York City for Shiva Ganga, for Outstanding Performance.
