The brand new Celler Perelada and the vineyards that surround it ended up evoking August Rodin's flowery garden yesterday with the shadows of dusk. It happened at the hands of the god Bernal, this charismatic dancer who three years ago became independent from the National Ballet of Spain to found his own company with Ricardo Cue.
The unusual setting, with the roofs of the cellars integrated into the landscape as a backdrop, hosted the premiere of Rodin. The sculptor of emotions, the first show to take to this stage but not the last, judging by the dreamy effect it had on the audience at this Empordà event.
The artist from Madrid has been inspired by three works by the French sculptor: Torse d'Homme Louis XIV, The Kiss and The Thinker. The first of them, from 1904, also called Torse de l'Homme qui tombe (Torso of the falling man), served Sergio Bernal to embody the power and greatness of the Sun King, around whom his subjects revolved. And also strength and beauty.
Of course, the artist came out on stage with an advantage, since his single image obeys the Greek canon of beauty that has been immortalized in thousands of statues. The dancer and choreographer made his appearance surrounded by the music of Lully with arrangements by Jordi Savall, who performed a small ensemble of strings, percussion and oboe. What could go wrong!
To his neoclassical vocabulary with echoes of the Spanish dance that he has nurtured since he was a child –when he was four years old his mother took him and his twin to take sevillanas and flamenco classes– Bernal added a Versaillesque touch, with baroque shoes and pants. And over the public address system – a team that could still be improved – he could be heard speaking through the mouth of Louis XIV.
The world premiere continued with Valentino Zucchetti's choreography for the famous The Kiss, an earlier work by Rodin that represented Paolo and Francesca, characters from The Divine Comedy whom the deceived husband murders after surprising them kissing. Bernal dances that love with Giada Rossi, soloist of the Compañía Nacional de Danza, in a sensual fusion of bodies in neoclassical style... all of this on the recording of the Pavana for a deceased infanta by Ravel.
The show closed in a big way with the visceral solo inspired by the iconic sculpture of The Thinker that Bernal created and that will undoubtedly be a before and after in his career. Once again, live music, this time by Roque Baños, with Daniel Jurado on classical guitar, and a disturbed and impotent Bernal showing off energetic footwork. "My thinker thinks not only with his brain - he recites -, he thinks with clenched fists and clenched fingers".
And it was there, with her elegantly sculpted body, where the star connected with the expressionism of the French sculptor who ended the aesthetic canon to delve into a more reflective art. Only 140 spectators (plus the 140 on the first day) were able to enjoy the delicatessen at Peralada.
