Compagnie Montalvo – Hervieu

GOOD MORNING, MR. GERSHWIN

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14, 15 Novembre, h. 20.30

AUDITORIUM CONCILIAZIONE national prèmiere

José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu’s encounter with the world of George Gershwin is an electrifying one, supported by the profound bond that links the two choreographers to the composer. What links them is their bent for imaginative art that is full of ideas but which can always be understood immediately. And they are supported by an identical love for the eclecticism of forms and artistic languages including those that come from afar, convinced as they are that the fusion of culturally diverse stimuli also reflects a vision of society.
Their consonance has already taken form in the performance of Porgy and Bess staged by Montalvo and Hervieu. The performance, which played in April and met with success at the Opera of Lyon saw the participation of their company, and was a first approach to theatre prior to embarking on this new show dedicated entirely to Gershwin and his many facets.
Gershwin died aged just 38 but composed over 700 songs, inspired by black American music, opera arias, popular songs and Jewish songs; at the age of just 18 he had already started writing music for Broadway, putting his name to around thirty musicals in the space of his short career. The advent of sound in Hollywood did not pass him by and he was assigned numerous musical comedies, including the renowned Rhapsody in Blue -the first score to bring jazz out into the open, taking it into the sancta sanctorum of classical music-, Concerto in F and An American in Paris were part of his repertoire destined for classical concert halls; not by chance it opened with a “Tango” composed in 1915.
It is more than enough to unleash a company like Montalvo-Hervieu whose contemporary dance vocabulary ranges from the classical vein to afro-jazz, hip-hop, clown-dancing, capoeira and other acrobatic and urban styles. With them we set off on an adventurous journey into the music of this composer. We end up at the jazz clubs amidst cinematographic atmospheres, in search of the musical culture and choreography of the ‘20s and ’30s of the black Americans, like the “Dance Bands” in Hotel Savoy style which marked a revolution in ballroom dancing and had a profound effect on dance in the last century.

The French Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu is the witty and wise brainchild of the director José Montalvo and his co-choreographer Dominique Hervieu. They mixe genres and cultures, humour and seriousness; the unbridled fantasy of the choreographer duo J is interpreted through the expressiveness of the irresistibly lively and disarming dancers.