Another work dedicated to the Dante’s Paradiso, presented at Ravenna Festival was that of the dance group Nanou, which together with Teatro delle Albe and Fanny &Alexander share a residency in the same city of Ravenna, also offered at the Artificerie Almagià their vision inspired by the third Canticle of the Comedy.

Paradiso - gruppo nanou Alfredo Pirri Bruno Dorella
Paradiso - ph. Fabrizio Zani - Dancer: Michele Scappa

A work that has gone through several phases and has seen the group led by Marco Valerio Amico build an interconnected path between choreography and contemporary art through collaboration with one of the most interesting artists of our time: Alfredo Pirri. Already months ago On the occasion of the presentation of the first study the impression was that they were looking at quality work. Since then, the staging has as if leavened, definitely changing its skin and opening up totally to the spectators, who are no longer confined to an orthogonal gaze_ i.e., stalls-stage _ but invited to be an integral part of the installation-choreography itself, where the large silver and gold expanses of Pirri have changed positions and modified the spectacular feedback of the work. "Paradiso," that is, has simultaneously become more prone to a spirituality made up of harmonies of forms, but also closer to the ordinary man who can invade the place as the dancers build figures by acting within the same perimeter. One changes perspective with each shift navigating between upside-down spheres as if they were planets, one is mirrored on the floor to the point of dizziness, almost as if it were the sky. With this work, the Nanou have taken a further step forward in their quest that began many years ago with their complex "Motel" which was divided into three parts (First Room, Second Room and the Waiting Room) and parallel staged dance and passion for cinema, evoked as an expressive language throughout the entire work. Craft tension, research and study. Exactly as in this case with an initially almost cryptic and secretive set-up that in the turn of a year was transformed.

The space has expanded. Dilated. Music has better defined its domains by accompanying and marking the vision. Now "Paradiso" has become a place to pass through. Other dimension: no longer two-dimensional but total. There is less image and more dance: and the dancers are the link between Earth and Heaven.

Spectators occupy and go up and down brushing against the bodies of dancers indifferent to their presence. Almost as if they were from another parallel universe. Spectators watching, walking around, taking pictures of the dancers and the scene. It feels like being inside an Andy Warhol factory where the act of becoming art from a private fact has become public.

The music for Nanou's "Paradiso" is by Bruno Dorella. On stage: Carolina Amoretti, Marina Bertoni, Rhuena Bracci, Andrea Dionisi, Agnese Gabrielli, Marco Maretti, Emanuel Santos, Michele Scappa. Choreography is by Marco Valerio Amico and Rhuena Bracci, who is also responsible for costumes.

07/18/2022 - Walter Porcedda, The States General