by Nicolò Abbattista and Christian Consalvo

co-production FLIC – Festival Lanciano in Contemporanea

In constant search. The need for the other. Avidity for contact, perfumes and flavors. Free from the inhibitory brake of modesty and social conventions, what could happen? Are we all animals? How much can we desire those around us? How much and how many can we love? Two bodies, then one and then suddenly three. Contingencies and probabilities. Rhythms and rituals that strike, intertwine and distort. Nijinsky’s unnatural grace. The predatory instinct belongs to the human beings’ DNA. Marking the territory becomes a game, imagining becomes a need. How much space do we have in our body, in our mind and in our soul? How much can we accommodate within ourselves? Hunger.

"It’s a demonic work on love and its complexity, on triangulation as dynamism and torment, jealousy and rivalry, desire to belong and escape. Until it dissolves."

Vincenzo Sardelli drama critic

"A LOT OF tells, in a transliterated but also concretely alive and in some ways dramaturgically faithful form, the story of the man who marked the dance of the first part of the last century, and of his relationship with the controversial, conscious and perverse figure, of Diaghilev, who was at the same time his impresario, sorcerer and lover."

Renzo Francabandera paneacquaculture.net

A LOT OF is built on the number 3: 3 performers on stage, 3 different authors, 3 musical compositions, 3 historical characters, 3 parts.

It all starts with a duet inspired by L’Après-midi d’un Faune, choreographed by Nijinsky in 1912. In the original work, the author addresses the theme of uncontrollable sexual impulse which gives rise to an enormous sense of guilt. In his Diaries, written seven years after the ballet, it is clear that the choreographer was inspired by his own life with Diaghilev, whose lover he was.

There are no nymphs on stage, in the center only two primitive, in some way mythological, creatures left. The two “creatures” dream, desire, come together for a common goal, try to desire each other but it is only an attempt. The object of their desire is not there with them, but elsewhere. Along the way one creature becomes the obstacle of the other, beloved and hated at the same time, used to achieve his personal goal.

What happens when you can’t satisfy your pulsion? What happens to the body when we fail to get what we crave?

Following in A LOT OF there is solo, a dive into the sacrifice, a ritual aimed at a higher pleasure. Carnal movements that collide with the most sensual of delicacies. A body that observes and scrutinizes. A body that screams and tastes. A body that settles on known melodies, sinking into ancestral memories. Repeat to change, relive to lose, redo and make mistakes, rewind to start again.

Finally we witness a love story that is ancient in origin and contemporary in definition. On stage two bodies that love each other until a third takes the place of one of the two, a new couple is formed but for a short time, they will become a trio; the triangle composed of the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky, the Countess Romola de Pulszky and the impresario Sergej Pavlovič Djagilev takes shape on the stage through tenderness, passion, voyeurism, fun, anger and loneliness. Romola’s strength, Nijinsky’s will, Diaghilev’s fury intertwine in shapes, trajectories, patterns, explosions. Three people who love each other. Is this love too? What moves their souls and bodies?

The music starts from the reworking of two immortal works: L’Après-midi d’un Faune by Debussy and Le Sacre du Printemps by Stravinsky. The themes are reworked and deconstructed with an electro-acoustic approach, the harmonic material reiterated in an almost cathartic manner in order to underline the erotic and crazy nuances of Nijinsky’s tormented poetics. Musical repetition is a fundamental part of the process, the matrix of a primitive feeling which refined itself inside a Modern Man, victim of love and its consequences.

YEAR
2023

CHOREOGRAPHER
NICOLÒ ABBATTISTA

DRAMATURG
CHRISTIAN CONSALVO

MUSIC
FILIPPO RIPAMONTI

COSTUMES
LEONARDO ROSSI

DURATION 40” for 3 DANCERS

ORIGINAL CAST
Giovanni Careccia, Enrico Luly,
Gioele Cosentino

PREVIEW
June 25th, 2023 @ Teatro Elfo Puccini (Milano Pride) – Milano

PREMIERE
November 19th, 2023 @ Teatro F. Fenaroli (FLIC – Festival Lanciano in Contemporanea) – Lanciano (CH)

Locandina A LOT OF Lost Movement

PRESS RELEASE:

OTHER PERFORMANCES:
  • August 1st, 2024 @ Parco della Legnara (Rilievi in Danza) – Cerveteri (RM)
  • June 29th, 2024 @ Spazio Fattoria (QUASI SOLO) – Milan
  • May 15th, 2024 @ CCN Aterballetto – Reggio Emilia
  • November 27th, 2023 @ Teatro Filodrammatici (Sempre Liber3) – Milan (extract)
  • September 29th, 2023 @ Teatro degli Atti (Le Voci dell’Anima) – Rimini (extract)
  • September 17th, 2023 @ Teatro Abeliano (Boarding Pass Plus) – Bari (extract)
  • July 28th, 2023 @ Castello Sforzesco (Estate al Castello) – Milan (extract)
  • July 28th, 2023 @ Castello Sforzesco (Estate al Castello) – Milan (extract)