Un fascio di nervi

The question of beauty in a body that is suffering, the intense contrast that exists between these two “objects” (beauty and pain) and the awareness of being able, through their commitment, to succeed in showcasing a “dancing” space; these are the starting points for A Fascio di Nervi (a first study). This work, whose first phase had already been presented at the Summer Studios Showing in Brussels in 2007 and then at the Les Dimanches de la Danse Festival in the Schaerbeek Halls in 2008, brings together Antonio Montanile – dancer/choreographer and Thomas Luks – musician, in a context that questions pain and sustained torment. The experience of solitude that the sensation of suffering entails for a subject makes it evermore inept when the other approaches.
At the beginning, the musician advances frontstage with his cello, sits down and begins to play. Rapidly, the dancer positions himself next to him. But what appears to be a duo is quickly interrupted by the evermore vehement gestures of the dancer, which end up by obliging the musician to distance himself. The whole performance goes on to focus on the alternation and the renewal of the figures that illustrate a possible “being together” and its opposite, the “being one”.
By imagining his work around the paradigm of pain and the solitude of torment, Antonio Montanile addresses the factors that incite him to dance by seeking out in his body and in the scars that remain ever-so present the traces of a violent intrusion experienced in the past. A Fascio di Nervi (first study) can be viewed as the development of a dialogue whose rhythm, between suspense and release, highlights the procrastination of two protagonists in their attempts to approach one another.

Source : Maison de la Danse programme