Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/396532
26 maltatoday, Sunday, 12 OctOber 2014 This Week Culture | tV | Film Cinema listings Food | What's on this week Having adapted alice in Wonderland and Snow White for the stage, Gozitan ballet troupe naupaca dance Factory return to the – both Maltese and Gozitan – stage with their most ambitious project yet: an adaptation of dante alighieri's divine comedy, with the collaboration of international dancers Sergei Kheylik as dante and Francesco Mariottini as Virgil. teOdOr reLJIc speaks to members of the naupaca team about this audacious artistic plunge 'gozo could become contemporary dance Was it daunting to adapt such a classic text? How did you go about 'chipping away' at Dante's work to make it both palatable to a contemporary audience and, also, to make it work visually? Deborah Agius (Production Man- ager, 'Beatrice'): It was extremely daunting, we're still challenged by it. It has affected us even on a person- al level. We are invested in it both professionally and emotionally. The project is always evolving, 'chipping away' at Dante is a process. Maria Theuma (scriptwriter): La Divina Commedia has taught us so much, even about contempo- rary society. Reading it closely, you discover that human nature hasn't changed much since the 14th cen- tury. Because of this, the poem is extremely relatable. We've tried to explore this through our project, to unveil how the obsession with and the search for love, beauty, perfec- tion and genius is still as present as ever in contemporary societies. Given that this production also marks a move away from your previous work in that it deals with a specifically literary work - as opposed to fairy/folk tale - how did you approach the visual and thematic aspects of the production? Luke Azzopardi (Naupaca resi- dent costume designer): This time the literary source demanded extreme reverence. Visually, it's all about the play between an internal state of being and a strong sense of aesthetics. We're going for three completely different looks for each act; namely Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. In Inferno, we found our- selves being very much interested in the heaviness of it all, and we decided that that heaviness could be translated into something that looks extremely stylized and artfi- cial, absurd even. Purgatorio is our most adventurous take on a liter- ary source yet. We've taking quite a risk with it. It's going to be totally kitsch and colourful. The creation of Paradiso was quite daunting. I don't think we can describe it – it needs to be seen and felt. Mostly the latter. Did you learn anything new from this particular production? What was it like working with international dancers? Joeline Tabone (director, chore- ographer): We've been thinking about the different roles within the ballet for the past year or so. It was really hard for me, because I've al- ways worked with and been inspired by people I personally know. One of our main concerns was that of finding the right male dancers, who transmit the right amount of 'man- liness'. In the sense that, Divina is very organic and raw, and we want- ed to get the right male dancers who could provide the accurate amount of balance against a female back-up cast of dancers. For Divina, Deborah Agius and Denise Buttigieg were the danc- ers I worked with mostly. I choreo- graphed the whole project on them, hoping that it would eventually look good on other dancers, even male ones. Denise is incredible, I still don't understand how she gets it all. She's 13 years old. Dante's role was developed on her, from beginning to end. Virgil's role was composed on Deborah, and she has managed to switch from Virgil to her actual role, which is that of Beatrice, with remarkable skill. Apart from that she's project coordinator. Also, it's true that we have found very lit- tle financial support, but this has made us grow. We've learnt an awful lot about how to manage this, how to deal with the practicalities of a project of this scale. Sergey Kheylik is a bit of a miracle really. We were at a loss with regard to assigning Dante's role to the right male dancer. I once opened my in- box and, to my surprise, found an email from Sergey, asking about any work opportunities within Naupaca. I actually thought it was a joke. I still cannot believe our luck. Dante had found us. I cannot imagine Dante being danced by anyone else. He just gets it. Francesco Mariottini, who plays Virgil was recruited in a different way. I was in love with him when he was on the Italian TV show, Amici, and couldn't think of anyone better to dance the role of Virgil. He Maria Theuma Deborah Agius DIVINA, a dance adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy, will be Naupaca Dance Factory's most audacious project yet PHOTO BY RAY ATTARD