Closing Party (arriverderci e grazie)

Notes dated 5 March 2020 :

8 a.m.: It's a dark times, almost like the new Middle Ages. We have two popes and the plague. 11 a.m.: The radio informs me that, in collusion with the Greek police, men belonging to Aube Dorée hunt migrants, armed and with dogs, at the border with Turkey. Every night, now, in Europe. 1 p.m.: Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost, says the message I found in a fortune cookie. I prefer not to. 7 p.m.: The show is still going on, Mr. DeMille, we are ready for the close-up. 11 p.m.: Fail again, fail better. In the middle of the night: “E allora mangia la merda” as Pasolini says in Salò and the 120 Days of Sodom, his Closing Party.

Alessandro Bernardeschi After Happy Hour and El Pueblo unido jamàs serà vencido, Alessandro Bernardeschi and Mauro Paccagnella conclude their Trilogiy on Memory, also known as the Trilogy of the Fifty-somethings with Closing Party (arrivederci e grazie). End of breathlessness, accomplishment, a new start even. This closing party explores the themes that are dear to them: the passing of time, social bodies, but also the profession of dance, a waltz of farewells, between intimate memories and collective memory.

Choreogaphy, direction : Alessandro Bernardeschi in samenwerking met Mauro Paccagnella // Performance : Alessandro Bernardeschi, Mauro Paccagnella // Light design, stage : Simon Stenmans // Video : Stéphane Broc // Sound : Eric Ronsse // Music dramaturgy : Alessandro Bernardeschi

Production : Wooshing Machine // Co-production : Les Brigittines, Charleroi danse - Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles // Supported by : Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service de la Danse // Thanks to : Lisa Gunstone, Edoardo Groppler, Alessia Wyss, Fabienne Damiean

Pictures : Stéphane Broc