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THE RENZO VESCOVI LIBRARY Of particular importance is the creation of the “Renzo Vescovi Library”. Hundreds of volumes on western and eastern...
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theater, some of which very rare and never translated into Italian, owned by TTB founder Renzo Vescovi, are made available to students and researchers, thanks to the partnership with Università di Bergamo. This material can be consulted at the TTB and volumes can be retrieved in the Università di Bergamo mutimedia library catalogue. «It is a remarkable and original, one of a kind book collection […] that features bibliographic materials in their original language that cannot be found in conventional libraries. It has been made available for quite some time now to researchers, professors and students even if not only interested in theatrical studies but in the multidisciplinarity of subjects and scientific approaches that such collections are able to offer.» Prof.ssa AnnaMariaTestaverde - Università degli Studi di Bergamo.
LECTURES CUM DEMONSTRATION Contemporary theatre is not (anymore) just a performance. In this section you’ll find, from a trans-cultural point of view,...
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lectures cum demonstration on eastern dance-theatre and on working techniques developed by TTB:FIREWORKS: a performance-demonstration with a reflection on the art of acting: art and techniques in contemporary theatre.UNA ROSA BIANCA. I COLORI DELLA VOCE: a lecture com demonstration on TTB’s vocal techniques.IL LAVORO DELL’ATTORE TRA ORIENTE ED OCCIDENTE: ways and intersections: from the jester to the lyrical actor through the experience of outdoor theatre and Indian dance.KONARAK. LA PAGODA NERA: Orissi style classical indian dance-theatre.IL RAJA DI KOTTARAKKARA: Kathakali style classical indian dance-theatre.CANTI D`AMORE: Bharata Natyam style classical indian dance-theatre.
MASTERS AND TECHNIQUES Through the years different techniques and masters joined: after Eugenio Barba and Jerzy Grotowsky we started working with...
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the Colombaioni brothers on clowerie and acrobatics, singing with Giovanna Marini, voice with Gabriella Bartolomei, Indian dance with Kalamandalam John, Usha Raghavan, Aloka Panikar, Pei Yan Ling for the Beijing Opera, Made Djimat for Balinese dance and many more. Then we developed self-learning techniques for improvisation methods based on “pure dance” or on “tasks” for musical instruments and voice and for the use of stilts in street theatre, through which TTB bent the open space to a dramaturgic function: another mix of cultured and popular, high and low, and play “for everyone”.
RECENT ACTIVITIES Alongside the historical activities of the IXO - Istituto di Cultura Scenica Orientale, TTB continues its research with study...
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travels of its members in India (Delhi e Kerala, 2011 e 2012). In 2011 we produced a new Kathakali show called “Il dono di Arjuna”. In 2011 and 2012 we organized a series of meetings, seminars and shows for the festival “Il teatro vivo” at the presence of field scholars and of the dancers Praveen Kumar (Bharata Natyam) e Madhu Natraj(Kathak), winners of the prestigious Mohan Khokar Award.
MASTERS AND TECHNIQUES KALAMANDALAM M.K. JOHN, Kathakali styleHe graduated from the Kerala Kalamandalam in Cheruthuruthy, the most important school for...
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this classic style and is currently manager of the Kalatharamgini Centre for Performing Arts and Culture. Pupil of the famous gurus C. Padamanabhan Nair and Vijaya Kumar, Kalamandalam K.M. John presented his shows in India and abroad during various tours since 1981. In collaboration with TTB he managed the European tours of Kerala Kathakali Troupe (1991), Kerala Kathakali Sangam (1992) and Kalatharamgini Troupe, with the best masters of this dance. ALOKA PANIKAR, Orissi styleShe comes from a well known Bengalese family of movie and theatre artists. She was taught to dance by the great master of Kathakali Guru Gopinath, she soon found out that her delicate appearance and seductive personality were perfect for the Orissi dance. She was then the favorite pupil of notable Guru Maya Dhar Raut, known as one of the four refounders of the Orissi dance. Aloka Panikar, for the perfection of her style and the pathos of her performances, was considered one of the best interpreters of the classical Orissi dance. She currently works in Delhi, where she opened a dance school. USHA RAGHAVAN, Bharata Natyam styleDisciple of the famous guru guru Sri Adyar Laksmann, Smt. Usha Raghavan is one of the best interpreters of Madras (Chennai) Bharata Natyam classical tradition. Usha toured abroad many times, in Asia and Europe, where she was sent by Unesco. International critics pointed out her skills with unanimous appreciation. Above all we can quote the review that appeared in many newspapers in Paris about this “delightful representative” of del Bharata Natyam: «Her style is so pure and clear that you don’t need much effort to understand the meaning of this art [...]. She’s one of the best and most beautiful Indian dancers ever seen in France». She currently works and lives in London where she founded the Kalasagara U.K. school.
STYLES Indian dance shows, demonstration shows and laboratories offered by TTB belong to the three disciplines practiced by the...
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Group.KATHAKALI: native to Kerala, the green south-west Indian region, Kathakali in its actual form dates back to the second half of the XVII century. Since the second half of the 19th century and through the first decades of the 20th century, Kathakali fell into the general decay that affected Indian culture under the British Empire. After the independence, Kathakali came back to its ancient glory with an always growing vitality and popularity. Kathakali’s fame, a real myth to the western scenic practice, essentially consists of its technical rigor and its actors’ legendary preparation.ORISSI: Orissi dance owes its name to the Orissa state in north-east India and has ancient origins. In the tradition it was a cultural practice allowed only to some priestesses, mahari, performed in the daily bhara singar ceremony. At the end of the 1950s, four of the most respected gurus in Orissa set the very rich tradition’s vocabulary. As every classical Indian dance, Orissa is now essentially an artistic fact, but still maintains it religious imprint.BHARATA NATYAM: is the par excellence classic Indian dance. It was once performed in temples by sacred dancers, devadasi, who were raised and taught in art and music for this sole purpose. This love lyric fell into disfavor because of the Victorian censorship during the British domination, and was brought back to its cultural and artistic reputation only in modern times.
SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES SEMINARS Work meetings about the art of acting that basically aim to the knowledge and control of the body (-mind) as the main...
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expressive medium.THE NAMELESS ACTOR: topics: socializing games, general body technique, acrobatics, eastern dance-theatre technical elements, clowning technique, physical and vocal improvisation, formalization and montage techniques, unconventional places theatre techniques, introduction to the use of stilts and musical instruments for a performance.THE BODY-ORCHESTRA VOICE: laboratory on vocal techniques. The free voice, resonators, diction, improvisation and formalization, building of the text’s vocal melody.THE DANCING ACTOR: a laboratory on the art of acting between East and West. We offer our students an introduction to Indian dance through the exercise and the practice of the fundamental steps, the analysis and study of possible “translations” for the western actor.When the eastern masters from IXO - Istituto di Cultura Scenica Orientale are in Italy, TTB organizes intensive seminars open to whoever is interested in knowing directly the eastern stage culture.
CONFERENCES TTB organized conferences (sometimes integrated by videos or visual documents) on various topics:LA COPPA E LA GRAZIA: eastern theatre technique and poetry.LO SPAZIO DEL TEATRO: the evolution of the stage space and its dramaturgical relevance in contemporary theatre.
IXO The current moment in theatrical research helped the rediscovery of the classical tradition of south Asian dance-theatre and its...
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huge influence on the contemporary western scene. The institute, founded in 1981 by guru Maya Dhar Raut from Bharatiya Kala Kendra and Renzo Vescovi, promotes various initiatives to spread the knowledge of theatre, music and dance in the eastern tradition. It collaborates with an International Scientific Committee formed by artists, researchers and oriental and occidental institutions the guarantee the cultural and artistic-spectacular value of the shows. Since 2011 the institute collaborates steadily with the Mohan Khokar Award (Bangalore) that every year awards the best young emerging dancer in the various forms of Indian dance-theatre. So far, IXO promoted hundreds of oriental scenic culture events: single shows and monographic retrospectives, special projects, concerts, exhibitions, movies, videos, publications for meetings, inter-university laboratories, congresses. Between all of IXO’s activities we can list the pedagogical ones (stage, courses, seminars), lectures cum demonstration and the actual classic eastern dance performances presented by TTB actors who run the organizational side of IXO.
RETROSPECTIVES The self-learning processes in the Group’s structure and the pedagogy work that TTB does with the audience and schools in...
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its reference area integrate in the organization of activities and retrospectives that aim at putting in contact qualified personalities of the theatrical culture with different groups of users in Bergamo and its province: real producers, non-specialized ones and the young audience.
Festival TTB’s festivals delve into the tendencies and aesthetic-formal reasons that we feel close to our idea, open new...
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confrontation grounds with different poetics and scenic practices offering proposals often different and eccentric in approaching the scene, connected to the concrete artistic practice and at the same time to research and theoretical study. The theoretical-practical stages alternate with performances, that often are live experiments on urban space.The idea is to realize interdisciplinary festivals about performative arts like prose, figure theatre, dance, music, trying to get on the same bill highly cultural theatrical events (oriental theatre-dance shows and experiments, highly innovative productions, conferences and seminars) and more popular shows in which the audience has to do some “work”: cultural, inner, spiritual.
EVENTS ORGANIZED (1975 – 2012) TTB organized these events in the Bergamo province and other Italian areas:1975: Invito alla Festa - Una proposta teatrale per la...
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Val di Scalve1976: Invito alla Festa1977: Invito alla Festa – Atelier Internazionale sul teatro di Gruppo (promoted by the Institut International du Théâtre, a UNESCO division, in collaboration with Azienda Autonoma di Turismo di Bergamo) 28 August/6 September, 42 participating groups from 30 countries.1978: Invito alla Festa - Musica a teatro1979: Alle radici del teatro1980: Musica a teatro1981: Il Sapore della danza1982: La città in scena1983: Un Teatro per la città1984: Tre sonate al chiaro di luna1985: Alle frontiere del teatro - Verso un`antropologia della danza1985-2000: Sonavan... le vie dintorno - Festival Internazionale di teatro musica e danza (16edizioni)1998-2012: Il Teatro vivo - introduzione al teatro del ‘9002005, 2007-2009: Il Centro e la Circonferenza - Festival Internazionale di teatro musica e danza (4 edizioni)2010: Liber A Nos. I libri, il teatro, la città2009-2012: Per Amore o per ForzaWe also partially or completely organized or directed:1978: Festival Internazionale del Teatro in Piazza (S. Arcangelo di Romagna) 1979: Festival Internazionale del Teatro in Piazza (S. Arcangelo di Romagna) - L`Attore che danza (Como)1981: Festival Internazionale del Teatro in Piazza (S. Arcangelo di Romagna) - Le riserve del teatro (Lecco)1982: Festival Internazionale del Teatro in Piazza (S. Arcangelo di Romagna) - Oriente-Occidente (Rovereto) - I paesaggi del teatro (Piacenza)1983: Festival Internazionale di Madrid (Spagna) - Festival di Ajaccio (Francia) - Le Strade del teatro (Abruzzo)1984: Dolce e chiara è la notte (Brescia)1985: Chiare, fresche e dolci acque (Brescia)1987: Sonavan... le vie dintorno (Brescia) - Encuentro Internacional de Teatro Antropologico (Bahia Blanca - Argentina) - Reencuentro Ayacucho (Cuzco-Perù)1988: Sonavan... le vie dintorno (Brescia) - Festival Internazionale di Chieri (Chieri)1989: Sonavan... le vie dintorno (Brescia) - La Cultura del Teatro - Esperienze teatrali tra antropologia e ricerca (Mantova)1990: La Noche de los Reyes (Madrid-Spagna)1991-1995: Dolce e chiara è la notte (Como)1991: Un Teatro per tutte le stagioni (Chieti) - Masques et bergamasques (Bergamo)1992: Un Teatro per tutte le stagioni (Chieti) - Masques et bergamasques-il gioco delle maschere: Oriente e Occidente (Bergamo)1995: Il Mantello di Arlecchino (Riccione)1996 e 1998: Nei plenilunii sereni (Como)1997: The Discovery of India (Milano) - Il teatro vivo (Seriate, Bergamo)1999: Per le strade del mondo… (Lecco)2001: Quel ramo del lago… (Lecco)2002-2003: Odin Teatret a Bergamo2003: Ville en fête (Nyon-Svizzera) - Vinden Festival di Lemvig (Danimarca)2004: Corteo manzoniano (Lecco)2005: Corteo manzoniano (Lecco)
EVENTS The organization of events is part of TTB’s work since its beginning, as a necessary complement of our aesthetic-expressive...
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development. It’s the expression of a cultural policy, sort of a “secular arm” of artistic research: it’s about creating a network that’s alternative to the official one, find and identify a new audience, in order to create a working ecosystem and a reference community. In this field TTB’s work divides into two constants: one for the organization of events with particular regard to outdoor theatre, the other for theatrical culture activities such as stage, conferences, seminars.
TTB’S EXPERIENCE TTB’s work has a very precise cultural, political, ethical connotation. It is also the story of a technical research in...
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which specific instances combine: the will of precision and strictness in the studies carried out by International School of Theatre Anthropology, founded by Eugenio Barba, and secular rules, like the Master’s tradition, for a long time ignored by western theatre. These are some of the elements that concur to one’s actor practice and extend up to the point of conceiving theatre, both indoors and outdoors, as “actor’s centrality”, whose work is the production’s rawmaterial. This theoretical-practical development got different results that traced differentiation and stratification lines in the production. The play is the product of the process style of the work more than the final act of a production cycle, modeled through the concept of training and improvising, in an endless continuum of practice and rehearsal.
EAST – WEST Soon the jester-actor proposed by Renzo Vescovi looks East and creates a possible theatricalism utopia. He looks at an ideal...
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model of actor: the one who, through the complete mastery of his body and full expressive autonomy, evokes and produces poetry on stage. Orient will teach the actor discipline, body polyphony, control, production of sign unities in time unities, energy and material organization in an encoded language, poetic freedom in a formal cage. So the “lyrical actor” and “the nameless actor” add to the “jester-actor” as an aesthetical-technical ideal: the choral dimension and the loss of “role” and “character” add up to the relevance of the physical and instinctual part. Anyways this orchestration of the single body is a figure of the ensemble body orchestration, that is of the idea of group as an orchestra and of the play as a polyphonic performance, where actors are dramaturgical function that keep on changing and interacting between them; these are all incompatible features to the strong verbal and intellectual individuality (and individualism) of the actor in conventional theatre. “To be, not to appear” as Renzo Vescovi wrote.
TTB’S EXPERIENCE After meeting the oriental masters invited by Eugenio Barba to the Atelier Internazionale del Teatro di Gruppo in Bergamo (1977),...
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TTB starts its research on Indian and Balinese dance-theatre, and afterwards with the Beijing Opera. Since 1978, actors from the Tascabile theatre go regularly to the East to specialize in various Indian disciplines, specifically Bharata Natyam, Orissi, Kathakali e Kuchipudi. Contextually, in the last 40 years TTB had a remarkable role in promoting classic Indian theatre, organizing and promoting tours in Europe for great masters and dancers through the foundation of IXO - Istituto di Cultura Scenica Orientale.For TTB the relationship with India is the logical development of its need for scientific knowledge, for technical-practical acquisition, for a logical solution to the problem of the theoretical and formal basis of its work. The eastern example was recommended since the beginning of the 20th century by the great theatre masters as a way of complete renewal and as a new art. Through Indian dance TTB created what Renzo Vescovi called “the lyrical actor” and “the nameless actor”.
TTB meeting India was fundamental from the point of view of exploring a new branch of theatrical knowledge and also for creating a new mental horizon, made of shared memories, technical terms, knowledge, affection, ideals and values, as it’s documented on the working diaries of its director Renzo Vescovi and its actors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In time TTB became a credited theatre for its specialization in Indian dance, both in India and in the West.Its activities about...
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oriental scenic culture (plays, festivals, courses and special projects with national and international institutions) are credited by numerous university thesis, about ten shows for RAI and Swiss TV, various publications, interviews on Indian newspapers and magazines and the Appendix 2000 on the Italian Encyclopedia (Treccani): entry Theatre, sub v. “Eurasian” theatre, pages 815-817 «[...] and especially the group of actors and actresses that, under R. Vescovi’s direction, gather in the Accademia delle forme sceniche in Bergamo, where in a continuous exchange between India and Europe, the classical forms of Orissi, Bharata Natyam and Kathakali have been cultivated for some time now. They’re not imitative artists or exotic genres amateurs, they’re real accepted and appreciated masters both in Europe and India. »«Italian born to Indian dance» (1989); «Their presentation could be an inspiration even for Indian dancers, [...] a communion with sublime» cfr. Stile Orissi in "Times of India", 1992; «[...] all was superb» with the title "Superbly enacted" cfr. Stile Kathakali in "Indian Express", 1990; «They master dance Kathakali to the point they’re recognized specialists even in India E. BARBA “La canoa di carta”, Bologna, 1993
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