Cristiana Morganti, the ironic dancer from Pina Bausch, brings her crazy catharsis to the stage

Cristiana Morganti throws herself honestly into the void in Behind the light (Behind the light), the solo she is presenting this Monday at the Teatre de Salt in Girona, as part of the Temporada Alta festival.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
04 December 2022 Sunday 21:48
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Cristiana Morganti, the ironic dancer from Pina Bausch, brings her crazy catharsis to the stage

Cristiana Morganti throws herself honestly into the void in Behind the light (Behind the light), the solo she is presenting this Monday at the Teatre de Salt in Girona, as part of the Temporada Alta festival. A very important show for her, she assures of her, because she not only creates it but also interprets it, and in it she tries to sublimate the losses experienced during the pandemic: the death of her parents. Of course, without ceasing to resort to the irony and humor that characterize this historic dancer from the Pina Bausch company.

"It's hard for me to understand what I've done, but I have the feeling that it's a show without filters, without a safety net. And the public connects from the first moment," says the also author of the celebrated tribute Moving with Pina, a kind of danced conference that was seen in Temporada Alta 2017 and in which Morganti explained what it was like to work with the legendary German creator, of whose company, the Wupperthal Tanztheater, he became a part of for 22 years.

This new solo from 2022 would be like the third chapter of a trilogy of solos that includes both Moving with Pina and Jessica and Me (2014), a show where Morganti discovered her own aesthetic universe and freed herself from the world of Pina Bausch. The success that she recorded of her caused her to be sought after as a choreographer by other dance companies, but with the pandemic she realized the difficulty of working with so many people. Her parents got sick and died, very painful events occurred in her family, and she fell into a black hole, she explains.

"I was not able to create practically anything, but I had the need to vent and that's why I sometimes filmed myself dancing. Looking at the images, I saw them as tragicomic. So why not explain my attempts to get out of this hole. Not crying bitterly but trying to make feel the need to be able to get out of the medieval period of my life", argues the artist.

The process of creating Behind the light was therapeutic, it helped him get up again and rediscover his love for going on stage and acting. "I have the feeling that it is a show without objectives, limits, or safety net. And I hope that the Temporada Alta audience understands it that way, that a connection is established with me," he warned.

Morganti's sense of humor is spontaneous. When she was little she did classical ballet, she did not understand that the other students were enthusiastic about putting on the tips, with how painful they were... From the beginning she had a somewhat ironic look towards the situations she lived through. "A feeling that I have kept," she says.

In Behind the light he wanted to carry out an existential task, but a tragicomedy came out. "I am not capable of taking myself seriously, in general terms," ​​she confesses. "I don't like people who act too seriously on stage. And when you do a single autobiographical, the key is to make it bearable for the public "

Solos and choreographer work for other companies is something she wants to continue combining, although she admits that it is more difficult to convey the self-ironic mood working for others. "Because the dancer lives off his body and the aesthetics of his body, so it's not easy for dancers to be ridiculous and fragile on stage, to show things that they've been trying to hide all their lives. That's why I feel more effective when I alone I have to combine the beauty of the dance with that irony".

The direct relationship with the public that was seen in Moving with Pina will also appear in Behind the light. But here, being a more spontaneous show, you will need an interpreter. But it will be a lively, chaotic and spontaneous moment.

How would you define the way of working with Pina who was looking for that sense of humor?

"It was 1986 when I was completely hallucinated by Pina. It was in Rome vindo Victor, a show totally dedicated to the city of Rome. I was still in the Dance Academy and I was shocked... I didn't understand if they were dancers, actors... they spoke, danced, sang... and with completely different physiognomies. They didn't seem like athletic bodies, but really. It seemed to me like a mysterious group that alternated very dramatic moments with scenes that were irresistible because they were comical, grotesque and at times burlesque. Pina's strength was that enormous range of situations and emotions that we live every day, because life is not only poetic and tragic, we also have ridiculousness", says Morganti.

"I thought that was what I wanted to do. In 1993 I started working for the company and Pina quickly understood that I had the ability to tell tales, to speak from the stage. Most of her theater contains that irony because all her dancers they had that sense of humor. She was funny but against her own wishes. During our performances and rehearsals we laughed a lot. And in me she fostered qualities that I wasn't even aware of having."

How do you relive the tragedy of the loss of your parents?

I am still in the mourning phase. I am an only child and my father died six months ago. He was sick for a long time and I knew the time would come but I'm not over it yet. And this show helps me think about my mother, I dedicate it to her. She had a great sense of humor and so she caught the very proximity of her death. She was pragmatic and even somewhat ironic. And one of the first ideas I had was to be elegant on stage. That's why I'm wearing my mother's top and her earrings. She was very pretty and I have never followed her style, I was too hippy for her tastes, hence the idea of ​​acting as she would have liked to see me, well made up, with earrings, with high heels... That's why she I feel so present It helps me get over this loss."

He dances a lot in this show, the 70 minutes it lasts. But she says that she dances according to her age. What does it mean?

"Approaching fifties, dancing is now or never, because the next piece would have to be danced while sitting down," he jokes. In the only what I can at my age. Let's say it's a conscious way of dancing, very fluid, somewhat morbid, sweet. But I hope that with great quality of movements, that they help to make up for the lack of self-destructive, virtuoso and acrobatic movements.