World-class review of ballet and dance.
For twenty one years, Luca Silvestrini’s Protein have been creating wildly inventive, witty and moving dance pieces, including “LOL (lots of love),” which interrogates our interactions with technology; a vivid, colourful version of “The Little Prince,” and “Border Tales,” a thoughtful, heartfelt look at immigration. Lorna Irvine catches up with Protein's artistic director Luca Silvestrini to find out more as they launch their new digital programme.
Stuart Waters and Kip Johnson in “LOL (lots of love)” by Luca Silvestrini’s Protein. Photograph by Nuno Santos
Congratulations Protein on turning twenty one. What's been the biggest learning curve for you all, over the years?
Thank you. There were quite a few learning curves along the way, and being on reflective mode right now, because of our year-long celebration activities has made me more aware of them, including the missed learning opportunities. I can say that the biggest and most rewarding lessons have come from knowing that downs and doubts can be used and turned into growing opportunities and chances to refine your practice and approaches.
Your work more often than not interrogates big societal issues. Do you think audiences come away from your work seeing things with a fresh perspective?
It might be about gaining a fresh perspective for some, but generally I hope that audiences keep the conversation going after the show is finished, either internally or with others. My choice of socially relevant themes comes from personal enquiries, from facts and challenges that I face or that affect others; I want the work to hold up a mirror, allowing audiences to recognise themselves or something familiar in it and have a reaction to what they have seen and felt.
“LOL” was an incredibly prescient piece. When you first created it, did you think we would all be so tech savvy, collectively, nowadays?
I partially did, the signs were all there. When we created “LOL,” we were at the start of a massive change in connectivity and we had concerns about the future. Ten years down the line, everyone seems to comfortably shift and mix between real life and online life, and the risk of digital dependency has been absorbed by normativity. I am hooked too, but I remain concerned and I often look back nostalgically.
As we're all rethinking how art is made just now, what do you think the future looks like for dance in general?
Well, now more than ever digital connectivity has determined the way we make and engage with dance and the performing arts in general. In a way technology has saved us during this pandemic, and we might even have discovered new opportunities that can be continued and developed beyond this period. However, this is not a substitute and nothing will ever replace the real thing, the physical connection we so much need in the studio and on stage, amongst performers and with our audiences and participants.
“LOL (lots of love)” is screened on June 25th at 7pm, with more films screened monthly thereafter. To find out more about the screenings and the company, head to the company website.
“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”
Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.
Already a paid subscriber? Login
A ballet career necessitates lifelong scholarship. Professionals take a daily technique class that begins with the same pliés at the barre as absolute beginners. Most days at the School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet members are tucked into in a corner of the studio, honing their tendus alongside the top divisions.
Continua a leggere
Jessica Lang is smack in the middle of a three-year stint as resident choreographer at Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet. It’s an excellent artistic match that deserves to be followed closely, because both Lang and PNB merit a higher national profile.
Continua a leggere
The close-knit ballet scene in San Diego was dealt a blow when California Ballet, the company Maxine Mahon founded in 1968, folded in 2020. Insiders tell me the pandemic wasn’t entirely to blame, but since then, Golden State Ballet, still wet behind the ears, has risen in its place.
Continua a leggere
Now in its fifth year, New York City’s Lincoln Center Summer for the City is going all out for dance. This year, the festival will inaugurate the much-anticipated Lincoln Center Contemporary Dance Festival in Alice Tully Hall, featuring five international companies, as well as a new outdoor contemporary dance series called Dance Encounters, presented outside on Hearst Plaza.
Continua a leggere
comments