Borderline Danza (Salerno, Italy)

'Same Tune, Different Worlds'

CREATORS JOURNEYS - CM 2024

Adriana Cristiano, Alessandro Esposito, Antonio Formisano, Giada Ruppo, Alyssa Scocco, Claudio Malangone, Hanka Von Dongen

Driving themes

• Playfulness

• Co-work

Goals

• Make a collective work without single choreographer

• Re-imagine a work from the company repertoire that was created by the company artistic director

• Interpret well-known classical music in different ways

Beginning with

• Known music

• A well-established ensemble of dancers and one guest

• A previous choreographic interpretation of the music

• Humour

• Common performativity in dance-theatre styles

Desires

• To create collective work

• To enjoy creating together

• To create surprises within the reimagined work

Challenges

• To begin organically – getting from point a to point b

• Work with each performer’s characteristics to identify the performed character.

• Challenging to merge and sustain organic flow and have personalities come through

• Using musical accents as performance accents and yet maintain surprise in structure of the work

• How to really change the dance’s space/time/volume beyond elementary level changes within choreographic progression

Strategies used at the cm to develop material

• Mapped own interpretations on paper, then discussed interactions and connections between all maps

• Translated drawings to spatial setups

• Used musical accents as movement accents

• Strategy each person mapped a pattern on paper, then overlapped the patterns.

• Built the piece based on levels – floor/mid/high

Questions from mentors

• Surprise is very operative and successful. Group established conventions for that surprise. The challenge is how to continue surprise once it becomes a convention?

• When is the group a group? Or a bunch of individuals moving together?

• Each performer has very developed and strong abilities to draw focus. When persona is looking out, what-where-how are they looking in context of the whole dance?

Discussion points

• When to rely on intuition/experience?

• When to purposefully construct ?

To practice

• How to really embody level changes: in one moment how to coalesce physical form, direction, energy, sensation, breath, pressure, tension, and how then to completely switch for the next level

• If continuing to create collectively

  • Establish ways for people to step out to coach and observe what is going on.

  • Videotape and view carefully.

Next goals

• Practice experience and cm methods of positive and yet direct feedback and discussion into company and personal work

Future plans

• Carry ideas of the cm principles into the company’s way of considering choreographic development

Key words

Collective creation, rhythm, timing, conventions, levels, characters, playfulness, interaction

Biographies

Adriana Cristiano

Graduated in 2012 in modern dance, Adriana perfected her skills as a contemporary dancer at the "CFP-Corso di Formazione Professionale", directed by Claudio Malangone. Since 2013 she has been a dancer of BorderlineDanza, in this role she participates in "Boarding Pass 2021/2022" with "Woman Made", a project aimed at giving voice to female choreographers and dancers around the world; thanks to this project, the solo "Pink or Blue", of which she is the author, was performed in Italy, Israel, Vietnam and Portugal. She currently continues her technical and choreographic composition training with workshops held by Bobby Jane Smith (Batsheva Dance Company), Jhonny Lloyd (C.ie Sidi Larbi Cherckaoui), Wim Vandekeybus, Adriana Borriello, Susanne Linke, Francesco Scavetta, Gjergji Prevazi, Nicoletta Cabassi and Giorgia Nardin. Since 2021 he has been a teacher for "borderLAB - Modular Professional Training Course" organised by Borderline Danza.

Antonio Formisano

Antonio is a student at the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences and an apprentice neuro-cognitive rehabilitator at Dr. Pier Paolo Coscia's 'Vivere la Conoscenza' studio. Coming from urban dances, Antonio has been with BorderlineDanza since 2015; in this role he had the opportunity to train with Claudio Malangone, Adriana Borriello, Francesco Scavetta, Jhonny Lloyd, Gjergji Prevazi, Nicoletta Cabassi, Susanne Linke, Urs Dietrich, Dimitris Papaioannou, for the latter four authors he was also a dancer. He was also a dancer for Dolce & Gabbana in 2016 and in 2022 he took part in the making of several music clips for Sony. Since 2021 he has been a lecturer for "borderLAB - Modular Professional Training Course" organized by Borderline Danza. Antonio was an interpreter in Maxine Heppner’s “piccolo krima” at the Salerno Dance Festival in 2023.

Alessandro Esposito

Of classical and modern dance origin, Alessandro began his career as a contemporary dancer in 2021 with BorderlineDanza, after taking part in the training of borderLab 21 | 22. Already in 2017, the year of his academic diploma, he began his teaching career at various centers in the Campania region. In recent years he has deepened his training at the Modern Advisor Project course by Stefania Contocalakis. Currently he is a dancer, in BorderlineDanza, in the Sacre, Carosello and Sustraiak productions. Alessandro was an interpreter in Maxine Heppner’s “piccolo krima” at the Salerno Dance Festival in 2023.

Alessia Muscariello

Alessia trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Korean high school in Salerno. She worked for the first time in Borderline in 2019, in “No Time ” by the Albanian choreographer Gjergj Prevazi. In 2020 she participated in the workshop with Adriana Borriello, dancing in RE-Rosas danst Rosas by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. In the same year she was a dancer in “Bolero ”, a version choreographed by Francesco Ventriglia, then artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Since 2021 she has been a stable dancer in Borderline, in the productions of Claudio Malangone, Gjergj Prevazi, Susan Kempster, and in the WomanMade BoardingPass Plus 21/22 project, working with the Mexican choreographer Claudia Lavista in “Nautilus ”. She is also a student at the National Dance Academy in Rome, enrolled in the Compositional address. Alessia was an interpreter in Maxine Heppner’s “piccolo krima” at the Salerno Dance Festival in 2023.

Giada Ruppo

Trained in the disciplines of classical and modern dance, Giada has been a dancer for BorderlineDanza since 2016, as a dancer, assistant dramaturg and choreographer for several of the company's productions, as well as co-author of several choreographic projects: Paolo e Francesca and Matricola 0541. She currently teaches in several training centers and at borderLab - a modular professional training course - opened by the BorderlineDanza company in 2021, conducting her own personal research around the figure of the performer and dance as an educational and social medium. Giada was an interpreter in Maxine Heppner’s “piccolo krima” at the Salerno Dance Festival in 2023.

Alyssa Scocco

Joining Borderline Danza for this exchange, Alyssa, a native of Toronto, is a key member of DanzArts, the Toronto Italian community’s Columbus Centre dance program. Ayssa’s training includes ballet, contemporary and modern dance. She has been associated with the National Ballet of Canada Dance School, Hart House dancers, and many independent projects. Alyssa is currently applying her love of movement to the study of Physics at the University of Toronto.