DUATO DIMERSION TO TÍVOLI – Magazine Teatre Barcelona
Fifteen years ago, the departure of Nacho Duato As director of the National Dance Company It caused almost as much of a row and its entry in 1990. For twenty years at the helm of the most important dance company in the state, Duato, along with its team and the dancers and dancers who were part of it, raised their artistic level, managed to create a recognizable stamp around the world and became a benchmark. The Nacho Duato Academy has emerged the Company Nacho Duato (CDND), made up of young dancers from all over the world, who preserves and maintains alive the artist’s repertoire, as well as premieres new works by the Valencian choreographer.
Many of his choreographies are like those songs that stick or that music that you enjoy more as you listen to it again and again. Without pretending it, they hypnotize and paste. With the help of the young dancers of the CDND, in the Tívoli, you will be able to see two iconic choreographies, Dund and Gnawaan extract, Libertéand a new creation Cantusthat under the score of Karl JenkinsDuato premiered with the young dancers of his company in November 2024. Before he went into detail in the iconic choreographic menu of the program that Tívoli can be tasted, however, it is necessary to stop for a moment in the trajectory of this artist.
Trajectory and style
Despite having begun his dance training late, Duato traveled prestigious schools in London, Brussels and New York. His career started at the Cullberg Ballet of Stockholm directed by Mats ek and from there jumped to the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) of the Hague directed by Jiří Kylián. In fact, it was in this Dutch company that he began to choreographed.
‘Synaphai’ with Nacho Duato (1986). Image: Sven Ulsa (NDT)
It is worth noting the importance of these years in the Hague. On the one hand, the fact that he has a teacher and director in Kylián, a deeply musical choreographer who, throughout his career, has combined the expressive potential of classical dance and modern dance in a magical way, and who is one of the great masters of the passage to two (dancing as a couple). On the other, at NDT Duato he met and dancing with great dancers of his generation as Jim Vincent or Catherine eld – Director of IT Dansa – and other essential choreographers such as William Forsythe. Its thin opera, Closed garden (1983) created with NDT dancers, with music and voice of Maria del Mar Bonetwas an immediate success. From the beginning as a choreographer, Duato showed knowing how to convey an organicity in his compositions that seemed to flow from the music. Classical technique such as earthwork – though often not detected as such – is key in its pieces, so it requires very well -formed performers, but with a naturalness and fluency of innate movement.
For twenty years in the Danza National Company, Duato created more than thirty works. His work as a choreographer took him by companies around the world who included pieces from his repertoire. One year after leaving Madrid, he was invited to direct the Ballet Mikhailovsky (2011-14) and was named artistic director of the prestigious Staatsballett of Berlin (2014-2018). Currently, it combines, among other artistic activities, such as painting, the direction of the Mikhailovsky ballet with the Compañía Nacho Duato.
An iconic repertoire that invites us to travel
Since its first performance in Alicante on June 5, 2024, the Company Nacho Duato has not stopped turning through different theaters and festivals, and the fact is that there were seven Duato. This time, except with Cantusthe young company proposes an iconic repertoire that travels to the forest, on the African coast of the Mediterranean and Haiti. Dund It is undoubtedly one of the best -known choreography. Created and released by the Nederlands Dans Theater in 1991, this choreography is based on compositions of Claude Debussythrough which he turned the sounds of nature into music. Through the magic of Debussy’s music, Duato goes into the woods to explore a fantastic world, here is the title: Duende, Because the dancers often look elegant from the forest. Steps of two, Trios … In this Duato choreography he plays with the possibilities offered by six couples of dancers on the stage in total harmony with the “Impressionist” music of Debussy that he drinks from Arabic culture, the Slavic and even jazz.
Whether Dund transports us to the forest, Gnawa – which was released by the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2005 – evokes the African Mediterranean coast. In this work created by the American company, Duato continues to portray the Mediterranean, its people and landscapes through choreography. The movement of arms and the gesture of the hands are characteristic of these works that reconnect us with the movement and the rhythm of the sea and the roots of this corner of the world. And the title refers to the name given to the descendants of the black slaves from Sub -Saharan West Africa.
The voice of the singer -songwriter Toto Bissinthe he inspired Rassemablythe work of which the passage arises to two of Liberté. Duato created this ballet that pivotes on slave songs and Haitian culture with the Cullberg Ballet in 1990. As Lost heart or Sandythe naturalness and fluency with which the couple moves Liberté captivate the gaze and the rest of the senses.
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