The magical virtuosity of Toti Scialoja(1914-1998), a master not only of images but also of words, is at the heart of a creation for children produced by the Fondazione Nazionale della Danza/Aterballetto and the Centro Teatrale Bresciano. Direction and choreography are by Francesca Lattuada, and on stage are two young performers: Aterballetto dancer Vittoria Franchina and baritone Piersilvio De Santis. The visionary nature that marks Francesca Lattuada’s work is matched by the visual universe of artist Natali Fortier, who is able to evoke strange mixes of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic beings, who will create masks for the performance.
A special feature of this show is the possibility for children to get in touch with texts of very high literary quality, but at the same time of immediate fascination. Thus it allows a unique reflection on poetry, before or after the vision.
Particolarità di questo spettacolo è la possibilità per il bambino di trovarsi a contatto con testi di altissima qualità letteraria, ma al tempo stesso di immediata fascinazione. Permettendo quindi una riflessione peculiare sulla poesia, precedente o successivo alla visione.
La sonorità stessa delle parole e gli imprevedibili accostamenti della fantasia conducono verso una “una pedagogia dell’immaginazione”, come direbbe Italo Calvino, non a caso uno dei più grandi estimatori di Toti Scialoja.
The very sonority of the words and the playful juxtapositions of the imagination lead towards ‘a pedagogy of the imagination’, as Italo Calvino, not surprisingly one of Toti Scialoja’s greatest admirers, would say.
“The raw material of the project are Toti Scialoja’s short poetry extracts from the collection La mela di Amleto.
These ‘haïku’ are imbued with an absurd seriousness, and act like mantras with magical virtues. The vibrations that flow from Scialoja’s poems are like the infinite rings that are created at the surface of the water when a stone is thrown: evokers of unreal or hyperreal images, bearers of a musicality that mixes poetry and nursery rhyme, they make the extraordinary and the frightening go hand in hand‘. (Francesca Lattuada)
