BALLET BY GIORGIO MADIA
MUSIC BY NINO ROTA
Choreography & Stage Direction: Giorgio Madia
Sets: Maarja Meeru
Costumes: Adriana Mortelliti
WORLD PREMIERE
30 April 2014
Teater Vanemuine Estonia
I grew up with Federico Fellini’s films and his fanciful imaginations, which are full of original human portraits and whimsical situations.
These inspired me to create a loose suite of dance scenes, which opens up as a fanfold.
I saw “La Dolce Vita” already as a child with my family, even before I could understand it, but somehow I already did, as the author was himself a big child in the better sense of the term.
The legendary Italian film director created a unique vision about ‘italianità’ as a special state of mind. And one of his most famous movies not only gives the title to my ballet, but, after its world premiere in 1959, also provided a standard term to name this specific world of feelings.
Nino Rota created the music, which is closely connected to Fellini’s world: Sincerely felt emotions are combined with fine irony, and often all the expressed humour and optimism are carrying a slight trait of melancholy inside. I could not wait to choreograph on it.
With the distinctive qualities of dance and the theatrical moment I will undertake a light and sunny stroll through human landscapes to not only explore the Italian way of life as a universal expression of human vitality, but to shake my memories out of my sleeves.
I do not tell a story: is just my genes speaking! ~ Giorgio Madia
“I discovered that what’s really important for a creator isn’t what we vaguely define as inspiration or even what it is we want to say, recall, regret, or rebel against. No, what’s important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It’s not what we say but how we say it that matters.” ~ Federico Fellini
