The great thing about the internet is that you can
[Members of In Compagnia, a dance company in Milan, Italy] communicate with people living continents away. That's basically how I met Regina Marques, a dancer from Milan, Italy with the dance company In Compagnia. Regina sent me an email inquiring about the Marin County Festival of Dance 1997, and I replied. As it turned out, she was going to be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area shortly thereafter, and so, I and the co-producer of the festival, Cynthia Pepper, invited her to come on a picnic lunch with us at the outdoor festival site. Luckily, Regina speaks English, because neither Cynthia nor I speak Italian. We had a wonderful lunch together eating, drinking, dodging yellow jackets and discussing various aspects of dance. Talking to Regina, it became clear that choreographers and dancers everywhere struggle with similar issues in their commitment to contemporary dance, mainly: How to fund it and how to do it well with minimal funding... how to make time for choreography at the end of a day of work...where to rehearse...how to find good dancers who are committed...how to keep both yourself and your audience happy in the creative process??? Hearing some of In Compagnia's solutions, we felt less alone in our quest for the ultimate choreographic experience.

[In Compagnia's dancers doing floor work]

To give you a little background on the company, In Compagnia was formed in Milan in 1995, developing from and continuing, partly with the same artists, the work of Compagnia di Tre. The works of the company are influenced by dancers of both the Brazilian and Italian cultures who have all studied many different dance styles and techniques, however, as Regina pointed out, the company attempts in every way to remain true to themselves and their own creative visions when choreographing original works.

[In Compagnia's Il Mattino Sospeso]

In Compagnia's Choreographer and Artistic Director, Eugenio De Mello, was born in Brazil. Before moving to Italy in 1982, he was a dancer at Ballet de Camara de São Paulo. He has performed, mostly as a soloist, with many choreographers: Louis Falco, Ranko Yokohama, Teri Weikel, Susanna Beltrami, Robert Pomper, Enzo Procopio, Martine Bucci, Luisa Casiragh, and Adailton Russo. He has been choreographing and presenting his work steadily since 1988, and he founded In Compagnia in 1995. Eugenio makes his living as a comtemporary dance teacher for professional dancers at IALS Milan, Scuola Professionale di Danza Italiana and Scuola Europea di Cinema e Teatro, and as the Dance Director at the Teatro Comuna Baires of Milan, where In Compagnia has been in residence since 1996.

In Compagnia participates within the flexible structure of this residency to collaborate with other artists -- dancers, choreographers, musicians and singers, to develop interdisciplinary projects. One of these recent projects, Sacri Segreti, premiered at the Teatro Comuna Baires in Milan last year, and was awarded second prize for best choreography at the 1997 Florence Dance Festival. Sacri Segreti is produced by C.S.C. Anymore -- Bergamo, and Teatro Comuna Baires, Milan. The public relations piece for Sacri Segreti proclaims: "...A secret becomes sacred when we decide not to disclose it. Deep in our souls we have desires and feelings of indefinable nostalgia that sometimes rise to the surface. This work explores the instant in which memory is brought back to life and the present becomes dream-like..."

[Duet from Il Mattino Sospeso, dance company Il Compagnia]

Sacri Segreti is an artistic collaboration between In Compagnia and musician Osvaldo Arioldi and his band, Officine Schwartz, a group of 18 musicians. This band evolved from a group of rock musicians who wanted to express what they call the sound and style of the "industrial civilization." Using drums and various instruments created or forged from industrial materials, mixed voice choral singing, and traditional instruments such as the horn, trumpet, sax, bagpipes, accordion, keyboard and wind instruments, they create soundscapes that are designed to evoke images, thoughts and feelings around concepts such as the cultural history of the workplace, the passage from an agricultural society to an industrialized one, and man's relationship with the machine and modern technology. Officine Schwartz prefers to perform at unusual locations relevant to the work culture: abandoned factories, quarries, building yards, churches, squares and streets, and collaborates with others to build performances that include background noises, projections, dance and other live action.

[Dancer's footwork in Sacri Segreti, dance company Il Compagnia]

After lunch we went to Cynthia's and watched Sacri Segreti, and another work entitled Il Mattino Sospeso documented on video. As we watched, dancers moved in shadows of dusk at a historic church site, the action beginning outside and moving inside. It seemed that every crevice and cornice of the church was utilized, the dance melding with the environment effortlessly. The choreography kept us guessing, was well crafted, and the dancers were athletic, performing the technically challenging work with precision. The flow and texture of the choreography, particularly the partnering, created an inspiring landscape of movement, which was complemented by competent technical direction and moody lighting design. In Compagnia's collaboration with musicians, who performed an original score, was seamless. On the whole, it was an impressive display of a truly original and interdisciplinary performance. It is exciting to see quality dance coming from anywhere, but more exciting to witness the fact that there are artists of many disciplines all over the world, collaborating to create both aesthetically beautiful and thought provoking performances -- and succeeding -- despite all the obstacles involved.

Quality innovations in dance and musical composition are alive and well, and in residence at the Teatro Comuna Baires of Milan, in Milan Italy. If you happen to be visiting Italy this summer I highly recommend their works, based on the videotape I watched. You might want to check it out...In Compagnia will be performing on the following dates: May 1: Festival del Ticino; May 7: Cremona; May 15: Romanengo; May 28: Festival Uscite D'Emergenza, Milan; June 13: Festival InCastro Danza, Lago Iseo; October 17 and 18: Atelier ADN, Neuchatel, Switzerland; November 20: Theater am Gleis, Winterthur, Switzerland; November 15: APPI, Milan.

For more information on upcoming productions, contact Regina Marques at incompagnia@iol.it.

Credits

 From the top of the page:
Photographs 1, 2, 5 and 6 by Nino Romeo.
Photographs 3 and 4 by Francesca Agosta.

Article by Hilary Kretchmer

In Compagnia

Choreographer and Artistic Director: Eugenio De Mello
Dancers: Ana Lucia de Pinho, Regina Marques, Eugenio De Mello,
Stefania Moratti, Carmela Soldani
Assistant: Donella Bucca
Technical Director: Dalibor Kuzmanic
General Coordinator: Erika Canova

[Sacri Segreti, dance company In Compagnia]



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