41st Dance Week Festival – ARA!ARA!

As slipping out of the cloth of constantly fluttering flags, heraldic symbols take form and weight. Chimerical beings and oneiric figures appear, like leafing through an armorial or medieval bestiary. They seem to tell us stories of conflicts which took place in the well delimited perimeter
of an emblematic battlefield. In ancient times, graphic marks and color combinations showed up on the armors in response to the military need to identify opposite factions during fights. Thus arose coats of arms, systems of signs, shapes and colors organized in a form, often that of a shield. They were used to reveal, according to a precise sign alphabet, the identity of a person, a family, a whole community. In the form of vivid colors and fantastic beasts, those emblems hint at political tensions, expressions of belonging, dominance and power.

ARA! ARA! is the designation of a symbol. The symbol of a rising power that chooses a bird to represent itself. Not a majestic and fearsome raptor like the eagle, an animal often used as a heraldic symbol of power. On the contrary, a bird that communicates fun and quietness by becoming, according to a popular western look, an exotic icon: the parrot ARA. It was introduced to the circus for its acrobatic abilities which, together with the bright colours of its plumage and the ability to repeat sounds and words by imitation, made it a perfect animal for entertainment in captivity.
ARA! ARA! represents a seductive power for its friendly and festive appearance that, like the bird, imitates and repeats, bringing back patterns from the past, ignoring contents and effects. Second part of a diptych started with AeReA, ARA! ARA! continues to investigate the symbolic power of the flag, drawing on the folkloristic tradition of flag waving. Present in both titles, the word ARA reveals a second meaning that alludes to the ancient place of sacrifice, here meant as a mechanism generating death, inflicted as a gift to those who were recognized the highest power.

Tickets available on: https://www.entrio.hr/event/41-tjedan-suvremenog-plesa-ara-ara-20996

Choreography, performance, visual conception: Ginevra Panzetti / Enrico Ticconi
Sound design, composition: Demetrio Castellucci
Snare, percussions, recording: Michele Scotti
Light design: Annegret Schalke
Set design realization: Laila Rosato
Costume realization: Julia Didier
Flags design: Ginevra Panzetti
Flag-waving coach: Carlo Lobina / Flag-wavers of Arezzo
Dramaturgical advice: Thomas Schaupp
Technical care: Michele Piazzi, Paolo Tizianel
Company manager: Aurélie Martin
Italian production management: VAN (Federica Giuliano, Eleonora Cavallo)
German production management: Monica Ferrari
Production: Ginevra Panzetti / Enrico Ticconi; Associazione Culturale VAN
Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds (German Cultural Capital Fund)

Supported by: the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès within the framework of the New Settings Program
Co-produced by: PACT Zollverein; La Briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne within the framework of accueil-studio funded by the Ministry of culture / DRAC IDF; KLAP Maison pour la Danse (Residency 2021); Théâtre de Vanves / Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national «Art et création» pour la danse et les écritures contemporaines à travers les arts; Triennale Milano Teatro.
Supported through : Programme Etape Danse, sustained by Institut français d’Allemagne – Bureau du Théâtre et de la Danse, in partnership with Maison CDCN Uzès Gard Occitanie, théâtre de Nîmes-scène conventionnée d’intérêt national – Art et Création – danse contemporaine, Fabrik Potsdam, with the help of DGCA – ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, and the city of Potsdam, Mosaico Danza / Interplay Festival of
Turin in partnership with Lavanderia a Vapore of Collegno; Radialstiftung.
Artistic residency program : NAOcrea – Ariella Vidach AiEP; Teatro Félix Guattari – Masque Teatro; CSC Bassano del Grappa; PACT Zollverein; Armunia; Schaubühne Lindenfels; Sosta Palmizi.

Thanks to: Teatro Comandini – Societas; Anghiari Dance Hub.
Ginevra Panzetti / Enrico Ticconi are supported by DIEHL+RITTER/TANZPAKT RECONNECT, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR initiative

BIOGRAPHY
Ginevra Panzetti and Enrico Ticconi, based in Berlin and Torino, have been working as a duo since 2008. Their artistic research interlaces dance, performance and visual art. Deepening themes related to the historical union between communication, violence and power, they draw on ancient imaginaries, creating hybrid figures or images between history and contemporaneity. Both graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and attended Stoà, School for rhythmic movement and philosophy in Cesena, led by Claudia Castellucci. In 2010 they moved to Germany and delved into individual, but mutually complementary paths: Ginevra studied Media Art at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig and Enrico Dance, Context, Choreography at the Inter-University Centre for Dance (HZT) in Berlin. They gained international recognition with their choreographic work Harleking (2018) that, among some of the most important international festivals, has been presented at the European platform Aerowavers Twenty 19, the New Italian Dance (NID) Platform and by Tanzplatform Deutschland 2020. In 2019 they won the 13th Arte Laguna Prize for the site-specific performance
Jardin/Arsenale, they received the Danza&Danza Prize as emerging choreographers and were nominated “Promising Talent of the Year” by the Jahrbuch Tanz. Their last artistic research investigates the symbolic power of the flag and took shape through the realisation of a dypthic composed by two choreographic works (AeReA, 2019 and Ara! Ara!, 2021) and was concluded with a filmic work (Silver Veiled / 2021). With AeReA they won the first edition of Premio Hermès Danza Triennale Milano, while Ara! Ara! has been supported by the
Fondation d’entreprise Hermès within the framework of the New Settings Program. The filmic work Silver Veiled was commissioned by the Dublin Dance Festival and will be presented at the Torino Film Festival. In 2021 they have been commissioned by the Berlin based Dance On Ensemble to realize their last group piece MARMO, a choreographic response to the work of Lucinda Childs. INSEL their latest choreographic work for 4 performers premiered in 2023 at Tanz Im August Festival in Berlin. They are currently collaborating with the Singapore-based company T.H.E. to create the new work MALEBRANCHE – Harleking Multitude that will debut in June 2024 at the Esplanade
Theatre in Singapore.