Review Fix Exclusive Fresh Fruit Festival Coverage: Gennaro Cimmino Talks ‘All Out Dance 2016’

Review Fix chats with “All Out Dance 2016” director Gennaro Cimmino, who discusses the production and its upcoming run at this year’s Fresh Fruit Festival.

About the Production:

From Italy, the Compagnia KÖRPER perform their signature full length work “Aesthetica-esercizio n°1”
Friday July 15th, 8 pm; Saturday 16th, 5 pm

The obsessions of new media and social networks through dance. On a carpet of sounds and ringtones, with attractions and distractions, beauty contest catwalks and the “confessionals” of the reality shows, six dancers offer a sarcastic reflection on today’s cult of the image and on the use, and abuse, of the objects of desire.

For more on the production, click here.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Gennaro Cimmino: I approached this work almost in the way that an anthropologist would, observing the way that the younger generation interacts with social media, in particular applications such as Grindr or Whatsapp which serve as platforms for meeting others. This use of digital communication changes the way in which interpersonal interactions are carried out and, of particular interest for a choreographer, the way in which people move throughout society. For this work, I called upon a young choreographer, Gennaro Maione, to work with me in order to have an exchange between someone who observes this process from the outside and someone who lives within it.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Cimmino: My immediate approach is almost always without music. I let myself be inspired by the subject and give life to actions. Once the work is at a mature phase, I introduce music into the project, letting it “fill in spaces.” I begin my work in silence because I use all of the sounds which come from our bodies in my choreography, such as audible breathing, slapping, stomping, and vocalization.

I do not adapt the choreography to the music, but the music to the choreography.

To cite an example, there is a moment in the choreography when two of the dancers interact in what could be described as a “master-slave” relationship. The movement is rhythmical, as if the slave were a bouncing ball in the hands of the master. This relationship between the two dancers made me think of our relationship to multi-national communications corporations such as Google and Facebook which control our lives and make us bounce to the rhythm that they choose. As a consequence of seeing the scenario which had been created, I was inspired to pair the movement to a special, re-mixed version of “Slave to the Rhythm” by Grace Jones as the musical accompaniment.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Cimmino: I created this work as an adult man who observed a younger generation’s relationship with social media. The dancers themselves, in fact, belong to this generation, and my observation of them from the outside, as a Baby Boomer, a member of a generation which grew up without these mechanisms, gives the work a different perspective.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Cimmino: I didn’t learn much; most of what I choreographed were mechanisms which I have been observing over the past few years and which I only now have decided to stage, but in any case I was genuinely surprised by the final outcome.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of something like this?

Cimmino: For me it is natural to observe the world and to try to represent my feelings through dance-theater. It comes almost automatically to me.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Cimmino: After we leave New York, we will take our production back to Italy, where on the 22nd of July we will present it at KiloWatt Festival in Tuscany. On September 1st, we will bring it to TanzMesse in Dusseldorf, Germany, one of the most important dance festivals in the world.

Seeing as the production touches on an international theme which involves a vast portion of the world’s population, my ultimate goal would be to show it to as many people as possible.

Review Fix: What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

Cimmino: I think that my audience will enjoy seeing their very own relationship with social media reflected in the dancers, the choreography, and the music.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Cimmino: The next creation will be called Aesthetica- esercizio n° 2. It is the closure of a diptych, and in this next work I will turn my attention to television.