Save the last dance for me

EVENT DESCRIPTION

In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels co-presents with French May Arts Festival Save the last dance for me by Alessandro Sciarroni, at the venue partner PMQ, as part of a Dance Festival in Hong Kong.

In Save the last dance for me, Alessandro Sciarroni works with dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini using a Bolognese dance step known as ‘Polka Chinata’. A courtship dance dating back to the early Thwentieth century, it was originally performed only by men: physically demanding, even acrobatic, it involves dancers whirling around in a crouching position, facing each other with arms interlocked. The work was created in collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a Filuzzi dance master who brought this age-old tradition back to life by studying unearthed documentary videos from the 1960s. Sciarroni discovered this dance in December 2018. At that time, it was practiced by no more than five dancers in all of Italy. The project was thus designed to include a performance by two of these dancers, as well as a series of workshops intended to promote and revive this endangered popular tradition.

The artists will be leading an exclusive workshop open to all on May 13th at noon at the venue partner PMQ, Qube.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Trained in the fine arts and boasting extensive on-stage experience, since 2007 Alessandro Sciarroni has been designing productions that blend performing arts and modern art. Starting with a conceptual approach, he uses a theatrical system and regularly calls on select techniques and practices derived from dance and related disciplines, including sports and the circus arts. His works are grounded in repetition of practices that try dancers’ physical endurance in an attempt to reveal the obsessions, fears and fragility of performance, seeking to create a new time dimension and a bond of empathy between performers and spectators.

A contributor to various international artistic projects and networks, Alessandro Sciarroni is regularly invited to present his creations all over the world, particularly at CENTQUATRE-PARIS, where he is an international associate artist. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the 2019 Venice Biennale Danza.

Alessandro Sciarroni is associated artist at CENTQUATRE-Paris and at Triennale Milano Teatro 2022-2024.