Cesc Gelabert | Valère Novarina | Moisès Maicas

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WRITTEN ON AIRGELABERT DANSES NOVARINA

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L’Homme de Fin, Drawing by Valère Novarina. 2587 characters

The Show

WRITTEN ON AIR is the result of an encounter between two great creative artists: the choreographer and dancer Cesc Gelabert and the writer, painter and stage director Valère Novarina. This unusual collaboration, brought about by the theatre director Moisès Maicas, is enriched by a careful reading of Novarina’s texts, focusing on the figure of the performer, particularly in the books Letter to the Actors, (1989), For Louis de Funès (1989), Lumière du corps (2006), L’envers de l’esprit (2009) and La quatrième personne du singulier (2012), amongst others.

The fusion between the mystical world of Gelabert, whose dance is always full of words, and Novarina’s philosophical universe, inspires a kind of alchemical process in which the dancer dances the word and the writer writes the movement. Novarina’s torrent of words, combined with certain concepts that structure his work (trou, vide, vague, chair, esprit…) produce the combustion necessary to generate Gelabert’s dance.

Moreover, Novarina’s facet as a visual artist (engaged in both painting and drawing), informs Gelabert’s choreographic project and provides a frame for the confluence between two artists that have now entered a stage of full creative maturity.

Both Gelabert and Novarina, the former as choreographer and dancer, the latter as writer and theatre director, require performers to pass over their bodies before entering the stage. In a disappearing act, these two highly individual artists meet on stage to establish a dialogue that surveys the very limits of art and seeks the essence of movement, word and thought. As Cesc Gelabert says, the purpose is “to dance without reaching the limits of the tendons and to use the threads of awareness to stop the movemen”.

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All good thoughts are danced, all true thoughts must be danceable.

Valère Novarina, Lettre aux acteurs

The actor, the acrobat, the dancer, throwing their body, disfiguring, inaugurating the air, dismantle, cut the universe into one thousand and thirty-five, into two thousand, five hundred and eighty-seven, into seventy-nine thousand, eight hundred and fifty-six stations of the human body, annihilating the measurements of the earth, throwing the space wide open, unfolding its membranes and reversing our entry into the flesh at each moment, at each point.

Valère Novarina, Lumières du corps

CESC GELABERT

To dance is to inhabit the body with heart and mind. To dance is to live simultaneously with the body, the heart and the mind. When I dance, I am full of words.

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VALÈRE NOVARINA L’ENVERS DE L’ESPRIT

Order is rhythmic. The story is rhythmic. History is rhythmic. All that stands is rhythmic: a tree, a shell, a facade, a face, thought. Rhythm is the soul of all structures. Rhythm is the foundation; it is the backbone, the spine, the trunk, of all that appears. Rhythm is the drama of the matter that we hear. Right at the bottom of the matter, rhythm is the wave beneath all things.

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ConceptCesc GelabertValère NovarinaMoisès Maicas

TextValère Novarina

TranslationAnna Soler HortaSabine Dufrenoy

Choreography and PerformanceCesc Gelabert

Stage DirectorMoisès Maicas

Original MusicBorja Ramos

CostumesLydia Azzopardi

Sculptures and StructuresToni Giró

LightConxita Pons

Thanks toCC La BòbilaMerçè ManaguerraSheila García

September 2013

First contacts and meetings between Cesc Gelabert, Moisès Maicas and Valère Novarina in Barcelona and Paris. Meetings with collaborators Borja Ramos, Toni Giro, Lydia Azzopardi.

October 2015—june 2016

Rehearsals at CC La Bóbila.

June 2016

Technical residence at Monumental Theater in Mataró.

8, 9, 10 july 2016

Premiere at Teatre Lliure — Fabià Puigserver within Grec 2016 Festival de Barcelona.

CalendarCredits

Cesc GelabertR

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Cesc Gelabert is one of the most influential Spanish choreographers and dancers of the moment. Indeed, this iconic and highly versatile artist has made a notable contribution to the creation of a dance culture in Spain. A dancer, choreographer and director, Gelabert was born in Barcelona. He began his dance studies in 1969, when a girlfriend brought him into contact with the studio of Ana Maleras. He soon became a member of Maleras’ group, studying jazz, contemporary and other techniques, whilst starting to experiment with his own choreographies. He also continued to be a keen footballer, playing every weekend as captain of his team. At the same time, he began to study architecture at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, though after a few years he left to devote himself wholly to dance.

He created his first choreography in 1972, and a year later presented his first solo piece, Acció 0, produced in cooperation with Frederic Amat. Meanwhile, he continued to perform in evening cabarets, as well as receiving classes in jazz and contemporary dance from eminent international teachers. His favourite teacher was Matt Mattox, with whom he took classes in London. In 1976, having returned to Barcelona, he created Acció I with Toni Gelabert and Frederic

Amat. This piece and Acció 0 were presented together under the title Espai de Dansa (Dance Space) at the Sala Vinçon, the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona and other venues. In 1977, with Espai de Dansa once more, Gelabert presented Ver-estiu-altumne-ivern-1, a piece for seven dancers, at the Saló Diana in Barcelona.

In 1978 he decided to go to New York, where he lived for two years, discovering the city’s dance scene at first hand. During this period, he held down a number of jobs whilst performing and creating both collective works and new solos. The warm reception given to My Old Corduroy Suit when the piece was presented at The Kitchen Theatre enabled him to become an active member of the New York dance community. Returning to Barcelona in 1980, he began to work with the dancer Lydia Azzopardi, performing with her all over Spain and at festivals in France and Italy. Their creative headquarters at this time was La Fàbrica, a leading Barcelona dance venue run by Toni Gelabert and Norma Axenfeld.

In 1985, the pair founded the Gelabert Azzopardi Dance Company, presenting Desfigurat, their first large-scale dance production. The new company became firmly consolidated, establishing a base in

Barcelona. At this time, too, Fabià Puigserver invited them to become associates of the theatre he had founded in Barcelona, the Teatre Lliure, creating co-productions and performing extended runs. As a result, Gelabert Azzopardi became the resident dance company at the Teatre Lliure, a position they held from 2003 to 2012.

In 1987 and 1988, they created two works: Rèquiem (Verdi) and Belmonte. The score for the latter piece is an original composition by Carlos Santos, with whom Gelabert had worked in New York. The artist Frederic Amat was commissioned to design the sets and costumes, for both works, which became iconic pieces in the history of dance in Spain. The company then embarked on a major tour that took them to theatres all over Spain and to leading festivals in Europe, America and Asia.

Developing a highly personal choreographic language, Cesc Gelabert became firmly established as a solo dancer on the international scene. As the company grew, this language acquired a unified style. Dancers from different backgrounds were recruited, though all with solid technical training and a vocabulary that embodied the very essence of dance. Parallel to his work with the company, moreover, Gelabert

continued to create solos for himself in cooperation with artists from all disciplines.

In the late-1980s, whilst performing at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the choreographer met Nele Hertling, director of the Hebbel Theatre in Berlin. This encounter marked the start of a long and productive relationship: the Gelabert Azzopardi company became co-resident at the Hebbel Theatre in a close collaboration that lasted until 2003. During this long period, when he lived between Barcelona and Berlin, Gelabert also met and discovered the work of the German choreographer Gerhard Bohner. A bond based on mutual admiration formed between the two solo performers. After Bohner’s death in 1992, Gelabert decided to reconstruct and perform the German choreographer’s pieces Im Goldenen Schnitt I and II, two versions of a solo that he built up from Cosima Santoro’s video footage. Gelabert soon began to present Im Goldenen Schnitt I at major international festivals, winning enormous acclaim. There is no doubt that the combination of Bohner’s choreography and Gelabert’s performance made this a unique, unforgettable experience for spectators. In 2010, he reconstructed and performed a third solo created by Bohner, Schwarz Weiss Zeigen.

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At the 2010 Grec Festival, in cooperation with Frederic Amat, Gelabert presented KI, a coproduction by the Barcelona festival and the Yachiyoza Centenary Committee of Yamaga, Japan. A year later, the Grec Festival opened with the premiere of La muntanya al teu voltant, created by Gelabert Azzopardi for twelve dancers from the company who performed in tandem with twelve sardana dancers.

In 2012, Gelabert presented a new solo, VO+, at the Teatre Lliure, and Tranç, created in cooperation with the film-maker Isaki Lacuesta to mark the tenth anniversary of the Institut Ramon Llull, at the Mercat de les Flors. Since then, his most recent projects have been a tribute to Vicente Escudero and cooperation with the Japanese dancer Chieko Kojima in La Cova de Pedra del Cel.

Cesc Gelabert created the solo In a Landscape for Mikhail Baryshnikov, whilst other commissions have been for David Hughes, Balletto di Toscana, Tanztheater Komische Oper, Ballet Gulbenkian, Kukai, Larumbe Danza and Hermès. He has also worked with many eminent personalities in the world of the performing arts, including Fabià Puigserver, Núria Espert, Jorge Lavelli, Montserrat Caballé, Milva, Gerardo Vera, Pilar Miró, Lluís Pasqual, Emilio Sagi, Carles

Santos, Frederic Amat, Mario Gas, Julia Migenes Johnson, José María Sánchez-Verdú, Kanjuro VII, Lorenzo Mariani and Giancarlos del Monaco, amongst others.

Over the course of his career, Cesc Gelabert has received many honours, particularly the Gold Medal of Merit in the Performing Arts and the National Dance Prize, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Other accolades also include the Government of Catalonia’s National Dance Prize, the City of Barcelona Prize (1987 and 2005), the Max Performing Arts Prize for Best Choreographer and Best Male Dance Performer (2004 and 2005) and the 2004 Herald Angel Award at Edinburgh International Festival, amongst others. In 2011, he received the Butaca Prize for Best Dance Show for Belmonte and the AISGE Actúa Prize for his artistic career. In 2012, he again won the Butaca Prize for Best Dance Show, this time for the production Cesc Gelabert VO+. Foot-Ball, for 8 dancers, is premiered on 22.01.2015 in co-production with the National Theatre of Catalonia, FC Barcelona and Mediapro.

Valère NovarinaValère Novarina is a playwright, stage director and painter born in Chêne-Bougeries, Switzerland, in 1947. He is the son of the actress Manon Troillet and the architect Maurice Novarina. Novarina spent his childhood and youth in Thonon, on the French side of Lake Geneva, then went to Paris to study philosophy and philology at the Sorbonne. He spent a year reading Dante and wrote a study of Antonin Artaud. His first play, L’atelier volant, was directed by Jean-Pierre Sarrazac in 1974. Subsequently, Marcel Maréchal asked him to create a free adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV. The result of this commission was the play Falstafe, which was performed at the Teatre Nacional in Marseille in 1976. Since then, Novarina has pursued a prolific career as a writer and stage director, as well as devoting considerable energy to drawing and painting, particularly since the 1980s.

His most outstanding theatre works include, amongst others, Le drame de la vie (1984), Le discours aux animaux (1987), Pendant la matière (1991), L’opérette imaginaire (1998), L’origine rouge (2000), L’acte inconnu (2007) and La quatrième personne du singulier (2012). With these and other works, Novarina created an outstanding, innovative dramatic oeuvre

that revolutionised stage language and reconfigured the relationship between the word and the actor and the space that the latter inhabits. The playwright provides the performers with no material that can be interpreted or imitated, nor any emotions, ideas or gestures; in the theatre of Novarina, as he himself explains: «il n’y a que le mouvement de la parole quoi doit vous mener, vous mouvoir; il n’y a qu’à suivre la pensée qui demande respiration». Considered a master of the sign and the word, Novarina the writer recreates the space of spoken language to construct a fictitious reality full of rhythms and analogies, a changing universe in which the text comes to life and becomes the ineluctable driver of the action. Stripped, then, of all realistic elements typical of the teatre dramàtic, language becomes the guiding thread in his work. And, at the centre, binding everything together, is the actor, around whom we hear the resounding echo of such ideas as theatre, space, word, matter and hole, joined together by the force of opposites.

Novarina is a truly unique playwright, one who has little in common with any of his contemporaries (Lagarce, Vinaver, Py, Gabily, Minyana…). Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, his works are regularly performed in Paris, at such venues as the Théâtre de la Colline and the Théâtre du Chaillot. In 2007, he was the special guest author at the Avignon Festival. His books have been translated into German, English, Arabic, Catalan, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Czech and Turkish. Novarina has received numerous prizes and awards in France, including, particularly, the Grand Prix du Théâtre de l’Académie Française (2007) and the Prix de Littérature Francophone Jean Arp for his entire body of work (2011).

Le Sujet, drawing by Valère Novarina. 2587 characters

Moisès Maicas

After taking his degree in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona, Moisès Maicas worked as an assistant director under such masters as Fabià Puigserver, Lluís Pasqual, Rosa M. Sardà, Josep Muntanyès and Joan Font. A founder member of Mataró City Council’s “Aula de Teatre” drama class, he also teaches at La Casona theatre training centre and at ESCAC, the Film and Audiovisual School of Catalonia.

Jointly with Teatre Invisible, he received the Adrià Gual National Prize for the project to stage Josep Palau i Fabre’s play L’Alfa Romeo i Julieta i altres obres. He has also worked on several theatrical projects with such visual artists as Jordi Colomer, Pep Duran, Toni Giró, Pere Noguera, Valère Novarina and Perejaume.

He has worked as a director at various Barcelona theatres, including Sala Atrium, Sala Beckett, Teatre Lliure, Círcol Maldà,

Sala Muntaner, La Seca—Espai Brossa, Teatre Gaudí Barcelona and Versus Teatre, amongst others.

Moisès Maicas has directed Catalan-language versions of the following works: Jean Genet’s The Tightrope Walker; Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz’s The Cuttlefish, or The Hyrcanian World View; Agustí Bartra’s Cora i la magrana and El tren de cristall; J. V. Foix’s Cròniques de l’ultrason; Joan Brossa’s Quan serà pintada una escena de fons sense fi?; Botho Strauss’ Seven Doors; The Fair of Love: Poems, Letters and Songs by Bertolt Brecht; Fernando Pessoa’s The Mariner and The Anarchist Banker; S. An-sky’s The Dybbuk; Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor; Edward Bond’s Chair; Lars Norén’s November 20; Thomas Bernhard’s Simply Complicated; Valère Novarina’s Letter to the Actors; Philipp Löhle’s Alias Gospodin; Daniel Keene’s Half and Half; and Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon.

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CESC GELABERTgelabertazzopardi.com

MARIA ROSASproduccion@gelabertazzopardi.com(+34) 934 160 068(+34) 637 806 820

VALÈRE NOVARINAnovarina.com

MOISÈS MAICASthe3keatons.com

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