Don Juan

Presentation

Don Juan is a full-length production of Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto, conceived and made real by Johan Inger, which will involve a wide range of top theatres and international festivals. The show is born from Inger's desire to "face" Don Juan/Don Giovanni, an ancient and still contemporary, truly paradigmatic myth. Inger, together with the playwright Gregor Acuña-Pohl thoroughly read twenty-five different texts inspired by Don Juan. Some of the works that inspired him are Tirso de Molina's original comedy and the plays by Molière, Brecht and Suzanne Lilar.

This Don Juan features all the characters of the story, from Doña Elvira to Doña Ana to Zerlina and Masetto. The Don Juan is a Kamerspiel, where the dance is a magnifying glass for each of the characters revealing in a refined way the inner world of men and women on stage. Inger especially interprets Leporello and the Commendatore in an original way. Leporello is no longer the servant of Don Giovanni, but represents another aspect of his persona, thus transposing on stage the dichotomy freedom/sense of guilt, enhanced by the lighting design by Fabiana Piccioli: this idea is inspired by many sources, ranging from Wilde's Dorian Gray and Fight Club by Palahniuk. The figure of the Commendatore, on the other hand, is transposed into Don Juan's mother, thus adding a psychoanalytic and Freudian perspective. Every time Don Juan, the "serial lover" encounters a woman he is actually looking for his mother and for this reason he cannot truly commit to any relationship.

The 16 dancers of Aterballetto will tell the story of Don Juan in a single act, to an original score by Marc Álvarez created for the occasion that can potentially be played live by an orchestra, and immersed in a neutral scenic space by Curt Allen Wilmer with no geographical or historical connotation. Costumes, on the other hand, will be very important and so they shall have well defined traits thanks to the careful eye of Bregje van Balen.

Artistic Team