EXTRACTS ABOUT THE SPEECH OF LOVE

 

At the theater ‘El Ladrón de Bicicletas’, Dardinac 0163, the dance show ‘De Chile con Amor’ will be presented from January 6 to 28, directed by Gigi Caciuleanu for the Chilean National Ballet, a combination of pieces from his latest works related to Chile, its identity, and its artists regarding love.

 

Gigi Caciuleanu, a Romanian-born French citizen, graduated at the National Superior School of Choreography in Bucharest. Since 2001 until today he has been the Artistic Director of the Chilean National Ballet. He has won several times the APES Award for the best choreographic production for his works "Mozzartísimo" (1997), "París Santiago" (2003) and "Noche Bach" (2005) and he has also won twice the ALTAZOR Award for "Gente" (2002) and "Cuerpos" (2003), as well as the Award to the best international choreographer (2003) and special mention "Premio Bicentenario" to the Chilean National Ballet for his career and contribution to the art and culture of the country (2010), awards granted by the Chilean Circle of Art Critics.

 

His last work, "De Chile con Amor", is a compilation of the best sequences of his five previous works dedicated to Chile, such as "Valparaíso Vals", "Amor Amores", "París Santiago", "Carne de Aire" and "Ángeles", which have paid tribute, respectively, to poets such as Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, the musicians Inti Illimani, Los Jaivas, Los Angeles Negros, and the songwriter Luis Advis.

 

Caciuleanu's new proposal employs a contemporary language, and the choreography is designed in such a way that all the spaces of the theater are used, the dancers are continuously going in and out of different places, using the whole area, they are on the stage as well as between the seats, stairs, a window, etc. It is very interesting that the dancers' dressing rooms are at the main entrance of the theater, breaking with the traditional. As we stand in line as spectators, we can see how the dancers make up, stretch, and talk very naturally, there is no fiction involved, we are accomplices of the intimacy of their persons. The performers, moreover, dance very closely to the audience throughout the show, which helps to notice accurately their emotions and gestures. The work becomes much closer to the people, which helps to stimulate their sensations.

 

Most of the fragments exhibited are duets that narrate diverse stories and poems from Chile about love, heartbreak, love encounters, celebrations, marriage, the love of sailors, etc. With a

dance of great virtuosity and precision that in its language goes according to the rhythms and speed of the music or relating what the words or lyrics of a song say.

 

The dance is composed using different spatial levels and textures of interpretation, highlighting the skills in the takes and turns, whose language emphasizes the distance, closeness, estrangement, eroticism, etc. Some duets use contact while others, depending on the type of love, never look or touch each other.

 

It is extremely interesting the couple where Vivian Romo is only covered with a sheet, her partner takes her in different ways, emphasizing the eroticism in the different scenes that compose this piece in a meticulous and delicate way, where she is, at one point, completely naked.

 

In the play, because of its speech about love and how these scenes are organized, the main characters are women. Carola Alvear, Carolina Bravo, Vivian Romo, Kana Nakao, Natalia Schonffeldt, Paola Moret and Rita Rossi stand out in their performance. On the other hand, the men are like the antagonists of the story, more distant and not appropriating the interpretative role in its entirety.