The Dritter Frühling dance theatre performs Gilles Jobin’s “Moebius Strip”
Dritter Frühling (TT3F), under its artistic director Roger Nydegger, has been producing dance theatre for people aged 60 and over in Zurich for more than 20 years. In spring 2020, the group began working on a new production of the historic and award-winning “Moebius Strip” by the well-known Geneva-based choreographer Gilles Jobin. Jean-Pierre Bonomo, who has danced with Gilles Jobin for many years and is responsible for mediating the piece, worked closely with Angelika Ächter (assistant), Roger Nydegger (overall director) and the men and women of TT3F on a new interpretation that has been enthusiastically received not only by Gilles Jobin himself but also by the audience at five performance days in September 2020 at the Kulturmarkt in Zurich. Special arrangements were made to allow the rehearsals and performances to go ahead in spite of the corona pandemic. This rigorously formal dance piece from 2001 is well suited to the corona situation: on the floor is a pattern that creates distance between the dancers who are obliged, by those constraints, to find new ways of interacting with each other, since joint action is the only way of achieving harmony. As soon as it becomes possible once again, and with support from the FOC, TT3F is planning a tour with “Moebius Strip” that, for the first time, will travel also to non-German-speaking regions of Switzerland.
Art, culture and society. Book on MOPS_DanceSyndrome
MOPS_DanceSyndrome is a dance school and company in Locarno made up entirely of dancers with Down Syndrome. The only one of its kind in Europe, it was founded by the Swiss choreographer and artist Ela Franscella. Since 2008 it has produced eleven choreographies and four video art short films. The group makes guest appearances at international festivals in Switzerland and abroad, dancing not only in theatres but also in museums, clinics, retirement homes and schools. In 2012 it was the subject of an extended documentary made by RSI entitled “La danza dei Mops”. In 2018 the work of Ela Franscella received the Pro Ticino Prize. A book containing a comprehensive presentation and theoretical analysis of MOPS_DanceSyndrome’s method and artistic and educational processes was published in Italian in 2020. Accompanied by pictures and documents and realized in collaboration with the University of Turin (DAMS – Arts, Music and Performing Arts) it contains academic essays by dance experts. There are plans to translate it into other languages, in order to present this example of inclusive culture beyond the Italian-speaking world.
It’s a little-known fact that there was a contemporary dance company in Ticino as far back as the early 1980s: “Progetto Danza”, founded by the dancer, choreographer and educator Claudio Schott (b. 1948). Katja Vaghi, a dancer and dance researcher from Ticino, was prompted to embark on a research project in the region by Anne Davier and Annie Suquet’s 2016 book “La danse contemporaine en Suisse”. Vaghi’s project focuses primarily on Claudio Schott as a key figure of modern and contemporary dance in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Its goal is to investigate what happened in the region following the intensive dance activities of the early 20th century, when Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman were experimenting with expressionist dance on Monte Verità and Charlotte Bara was dancing in her own Teatro San Materno. With support from the Accademia Dimitri, Katja Vaghi aims to place Claudio Schott in his historical context and explore his links to the theatre landscape of a period that saw the emergence of groups such as Teatro Pan (1977), Teatro delle Radici (1980) and Teatro Sunil (1983). The form in which it will be published has not yet been decided, but the intention is to make it accessible to a wider audience.
