ASCARESA
MUSIC
Tomaso Albinoni, Domenico Gallo, Aldous Harding, Claudio Borgianni |
SET Chiara Bugatti | COSTUMES Mylla Ek | LIGHTS Rüdiger Benz
DANCERS OF THE STUTTGART BALLET Anouk Van Der Weijde, Giulia Diana Frosi, Joana Senra, Aurora De Mori, Ruth Schultz, Daniele Silingardi, Marti Fernandez Paixa, Riccardo Ferlito, Timoor Afshar
TRAILER ︎
ASCARESA
noun, fem,
Emilian dialect for Nostalgia
ASKA
noun, neutrum
Swedish for Ashes
noun, neutrum
Swedish for Ashes
RESA
noun, utrum
Swedish for Travel, Journey
noun, utrum
Swedish for Travel, Journey
My grandfather used to smoke his cigarette with his gaze casted towards a far distance.
As he did that, I would sit silently next to him.
To break that silence, I would joke calling him “old rock” and asking questions like: “Aren’t you afraid of dying?”.
Annoyed he would reply: “I’ll die when I want to”.
And he did.
On a hot summer day as the family was reunited, he fell asleep numbed by morphine.
My brother held his hand.
It was not then but later. Not when we spread his ashes underneath a tree but later: when I was alone in my apartment, sitting silently next to nothing that I realized I had lost him.
It was the realization that nothing ever lasts.
And yet as I was looking back in time, my mind drenched in nostalgia, I felt forced to change. That moment had created a before and after. Like an instrument to measure time, a way to recognize that we are ageing.
That is the loss I have come to know: the constant crumbling of time on our body, through our body, within our body. But it is also release. It is a moment of surrender and peace, as bittersweet as love.
ALESSANDRO GIAQUINTO
There is a large pile of rubble not far from my flat. It's been there for a while, in a place where you wouldn't expect to find such a pile of rubble, surrounded by a fence, surrounded by glass buildings. They cast each other's shape onto the surface and create an echo that surrounds me as I walk past.
An echo is a reflection, typically of sound, which arrives at the listener with a certain delay. The delay is determined by the distance between the reflecting surface to the source and the listener's ears. The echo needs an empty space to exist and a body to perceive it.
Memory works in a similar way. With a delay, it throws back traces of something that is no longer there. Remnants of the past constantly seep into the present, telling us stories.
Just like the pile.
For me, Ascaresa deals with the concept of loss through the echo that is created. What does loss actually consist of? And how can it be told?
The stage was the starting point for developing a space for the dancers to inhabit. Its complete emptiness offered me a way to understand the stage as a naked body and to expose its vulnerability. A stage is usually a vehicle to create illusions, a medium to transport the audience into another fictional space. But what if we stay in the here and now instead? The stage is no longer just a tool. Attention switches to its own materiality. Its fragile concreteness is revealed, activated by moments of presence and absence, by repetitions, delays, slow disappearances and sudden interruptions.
Loss, decay, destruction and construction are not as far apart as we might think. They merge and reveal something about ourselves, our heritage and our deepest desires for the future. What have we lost and how can we deal with the traces? How can we prevent losing what is important to us?
An echo is a reflection, typically of sound, which arrives at the listener with a certain delay. The delay is determined by the distance between the reflecting surface to the source and the listener's ears. The echo needs an empty space to exist and a body to perceive it.
Memory works in a similar way. With a delay, it throws back traces of something that is no longer there. Remnants of the past constantly seep into the present, telling us stories.
Just like the pile.
For me, Ascaresa deals with the concept of loss through the echo that is created. What does loss actually consist of? And how can it be told?
The stage was the starting point for developing a space for the dancers to inhabit. Its complete emptiness offered me a way to understand the stage as a naked body and to expose its vulnerability. A stage is usually a vehicle to create illusions, a medium to transport the audience into another fictional space. But what if we stay in the here and now instead? The stage is no longer just a tool. Attention switches to its own materiality. Its fragile concreteness is revealed, activated by moments of presence and absence, by repetitions, delays, slow disappearances and sudden interruptions.
Loss, decay, destruction and construction are not as far apart as we might think. They merge and reveal something about ourselves, our heritage and our deepest desires for the future. What have we lost and how can we deal with the traces? How can we prevent losing what is important to us?
CHIARA BUGATTI
A generous and rewarding collaboration is
certainly an honour to be part of
What happens within us through Loss of Life
Loss of freedom
Loss of knowledge
Loss of a home Loss of humanity Loss of prestige Loss of oxygen
...
A sister, she was only eleven years Can I describe that loss?
Loss has many faces, future and beyond will tell the influence and the impact of ongoing exits - a dance in many directions
How did we arrive at this point?
By an intuitive compass?
By a chain of selective descriptions?
A collage of textures, colours and of the humbleness of our equal nakedness towards birth and death
The Spirit of our team will always stay within – in opposition to loss
What happens within us through Loss of Life
Loss of freedom
Loss of knowledge
Loss of a home Loss of humanity Loss of prestige Loss of oxygen
...
A sister, she was only eleven years Can I describe that loss?
Loss has many faces, future and beyond will tell the influence and the impact of ongoing exits - a dance in many directions
How did we arrive at this point?
By an intuitive compass?
By a chain of selective descriptions?
A collage of textures, colours and of the humbleness of our equal nakedness towards birth and death
The Spirit of our team will always stay within – in opposition to loss
MYLLA EK
AWARDS
BEST PREMIERE OF THE SEASON 22/23
by Alison Kent from DanceEurope
OUTSTANDING MALE PERFORMANCE
to Timoor Afshar by Alison Kent of DanceEurope
Giaquinto weaves pathos together with hopefulness through
well-contructed passages that heighten and strengthen the narrative.
ALISON KENT (DanceEurope)
well-contructed passages that heighten and strengthen the narrative.
ALISON KENT (DanceEurope)
ph. Roman Novitzky