A dance on the pain of the world. Letter
Abstract
Our latest performance is an open-air piece called La luce del nero. It was meant to be simply a short stilt dance, set to the music of Ravel’s Bolero, lit by small paper lanterns. Slowly, almost without us realizing it, during rehearsals it became a performance about suffering, injustice, and war. A secular, danced prayer on pain. I asked myself what meaning there is – for a theatre, for the theatre – in facing such enormous themes in this way. I can’t think of any answer other than this: to protest. To go out into the streets and raise our fists to the sky. But also, to offer a bit of that sort of comfort and compas-sion that only theatre can give.
Keywords
Teatro tascabile di Bergamo, La luce del nero, Bolero
Ruben Manenti
Ruben Manenti graduated from the DAMS program at the University of Bologna with a thesis on the transmission of knowledge in the work of the Teatro Tascabile di Bergamo – Accademia delle Forme Sceniche, which he joined in 2003. His study of the theatrical art has developed along the three main strands that define the work of the TTB: contemporary research theatre, theatre in open spaces, and the encounter with Eastern performance traditions, which he has pursued continuously over more than twenty years of practice, with direct training in the Kathakali style.