Paco Decina at the lectern at the "Orologio"
A choreographer from Paris
Paco Dècina: a naturalized Neapolitan in Paris who froze the emotionality of the south in the rigour of the French capital.
Thirty-three years old, dancer and choreographer, teacher at the choreographic centre of Champigny, winner of the first prize "conceptographies", Paco Dècina presented this weekend at the Piccolo Orologio "Tempi morti".
The show, the second part of the "theatre and dance between tradition and prospective" programming, was applauded at length for its novelty and for the professionalism of the dancers.
Two couples and a man are on stage walking through the "paesaggi sentimentali" drawn by the choreography of Dècina. Loves, nostalgia, boredom, desires, are the emotions of eternal stories of love and abandonment. Andalusian melodies, Brazilian rhythms, themes borrowed from lyrical art are intertwined in the score of the show.
Decina tells the feelings, but without emotions. His dances are worthy of the best lessons on distance, the face of his dancers is frozen in an impassive mask. This is perhaps the neapolitan choreographer's most personal imprint: his impassability in the face of feelings and his geometric rigor in choreographic composition. The space of the Orologio, with its three doors open on the plateau, has perfectly lent itself to the composition of the "paesaggi sentimentali".
There is no set design, the costumes are classic, as gestures, often borrowed from everyday life, can be conventional gestures. The dancers are not even afraid to show the heaviness of their bodies.
(m.z.) Carlino Reggio
Paco Dècina's show was widely applauded
Under the title "Theatre and Dance Between Traditions and Foresight," Piccolo Orologio's 1987-1988 theatrical season featured Post-Retroguardia in "Tempi morti," a work by young Neapolitan choreographer Paco Dècina, which, after a Milanese debut last May at the Porta Romana Theatre, won in France the "Prix de la Ménagerie de verre 1987" which replaced the famous Bagnolet competition.
Paco Dècina is of Italian origin, but, as happens frequently, he owes his own fame to his indisputable abilities but also to the sensitivity of Paris and France in general towards dance, which first adopted him as a pupil of Peter Gross and Anne Dreyfus, then discovered as a choreographer.
But if "Tempi morti" seems at first to fit, to fit completely into the style and taste of the new French dance, through his vocabulary of cold, stereotypical movements and gestures, with minimal variations and totally unbalanced in the way of giving the choreography the scene of a highly scenographic work, we realize after a few moments that Paco Dècina and his group, while adopting the movements of this base, recompose it in total freedom.
In "Tempi morti" , Paco Dècina does not invent a new style but makes the show run an unusual, absolutely Italian poetry, which accentuates situations, the everyday life, which is ultimately the theme of work, complexity, mystery.
In essence, his constant work is that of an implicit decodification that shows what is seen until it is not seen.
The real subject of his work is neither boredom nor static, but the flow of time, his virtuality never considered, those moments when nothing seems to happen and on the contrary everything happens. Five dancers, two couples and a man move, meet, separate in the closed space of a room, poor, devoid of stage elements. Here, thanks also to the captivating musical bases (Hector Berlioz and Latin American rhythms), the secret wounds of humanity, transmitted without naming them, almost modestly, but not without irony. It is the mysteries, the hidden prides, the secret pains "reflections of the soul" intimate.
But Decina and her dancers (who are worth naming: Andrea Battaglia, Sophie Lessard, Alvaro Morell Bonet, Claire Rousier) are always present and give life, with the help of Dominique Mabileau for the lights, to a series of very clear images (the gaze is fixed, the expression of faces is reduced to the maximum, precise gestures, never languorous), to an essential work that reflects the apparent emptiness of everyday life in theatrical terms, without being theatre but instead of theatre.
The choreographer who seduced Paris is at the Orologio
"Tempi morti" see replayed tomorrow night, always at 9:30 p.m
"I have no certainty except one: I dance myself Thus speaks Paco Dècina, 32 years old, pomettes dug at the Nureyev (some say: it looks like Gadès), former painter-scenographer-actor and now dancer and choreographer. His story began in Naples and continued in France, where he first worked with Anne Dreyfus before founding the company "Post Retroguardia": two boys, two girls and him. "We are in a great tune," he says. For me, a dancer is a person before being a pair of legs and arms. That is why the human relationship seems fundamental to me and that I only manage to work well with people who have a history, a lived experience. I am not inspired by a young man of barely twenty years. It's still a clean slate."
Tonight and tomorrow, Paco Dècina will be in Reggio, at the Piccolo Orologio Theatre. He will present "Tempi morti", a strange creation, attentive to a free dance, in line with the choices of the main authors of Central Europe: Bausch, Goss, Chaupinot. "Tempi morti" received the 1987 Glass Menagerie Prize. Decina said of the show: "You don't have to tell stories. I always talk about real things, but through behavioral clichés. On stage, there are men and women with a very precise individuality, not fantastic characters." They don't have stage costumes but real clothes. On set, everything that can happen in a human relationship happens. There are two couples and a single character who determine sentimental landscapes. "Tempi morti" is constantly balancing emotion and feeling. We almost never touch each other, the relationship between us is impalpable. It could be a show about incommunicability, but there is irony and ambiguity." And again: "I don't think of doing dance theatre, even if my show is theatrical. What he says is the attitude towards what is being done, because between theatre and dance, I don't think there are differences in aesthetics but only in motivation ."
With Paco Dècina will perform Andrea Battaglia, Sophie Lessard, Alvaro Morell Bonet, Claire Rousier. Curtain-raising at 9:30 p.m. Second session tomorrow night.
There is a strange quality that links the characters of "Tempi morti", The play by Paco Dècina presented on June 15 at the Glass Menagerie.
A murky feeling that is not of a love order, and which, detached from the internal rhythm of dance, is expressed by frustrated actions, almost gestures. In this couple dance (two plus a solitary dancer), there are calculated heaviness in the falls, prolonged stations that make the body heavier than usual.
There is also a brutal character in the overall arrangement of the danced pieces.A few bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling, changed Latin American pieces, and simple costumes, complete to give the ensemble a desolate and everyday character, which does not necessarily exist during the performances in theaters.
It's danced, played, the dance is staged, full of poses, finally it's as you want, but it necessarily goes through the theater without being dance-theatre. Paco Dècina does not invent a particular language, but the sincerity of his speech outweighs the modesty and reserve of his writing.
The casualness of the American Sophie Lessard and the vertical solemnity of Claire Rousier serve admirably this Italian-style downtime.
The intelligent composition still suffers from a tendency to extend the scope of each gesture over time. Too bad, because the nostalgic and nonchalant atmosphere loses its strength. In short, it gets a little long. It may be enough to never believe that the suspension requires length. Despite this, Post Retroguardia has found a rare and subtle tone. to follow...
La Ménagerie de Verre, under the direction of Marie-Thérèse Allier, gave young choreographers the opportunity to show the work they had prepared for the late Bagnolet 1987 competition, which disappeared suddenly before being declared public-cultural.
On 31 May and 1 June, therefore, fourteen companies presented fifteen pieces. From pure experimentation, to avant-garde attempts, from the immobility of beautiful poses to a few clumsy attempts, only one company has clearly emerged. Post Retroguardia and its choreographer Paco Dècina, who lives in Paris.
Avec "Tempi Morti", presented on June 15, she won the 1st prize handily. Its performers, who are of complete accuracy, including in the slow and difficult passages, recall the humour and sense of tragedy characteristic of Italian films of the fifties. The company won a month-long residency at the Glass Menagerie.