Repertoire
Halos
The idea behind this piece comes from a visit the choreographer made to the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza. Nicolo Fonte was especially impressed by the museum’s medieval paintings. The majestic quality of these iconographic images, with their resplendent halos, those luminous, golden discs which enwrap the heads of saints and virgins, fired the imagination of Nicolo Fonte. Halos reflects, in both its foundations and its form, that original emotional impact. Stage lights with bright glowing halos rise and fall throughout the piece, illuminating the dancers below. Nicolo manages to maintain the tension present in the ambience of the piece through the fusion of this medieval aesthetic with the modern metal spotlights.
The music, which bridges the chasm between east and west, helps to add a real sense of grandeur to the performance. The American composer, Evan Ziporyn, a self-confessed lover of the music of Bali, was born in Chicago in 1959. In 1993 he founded the Gamelan Galak Tika, a melting pot for the two cultures which form the basis of his creative talent. The two musical concepts come together here and coexist in perfect harmony. The Balian tones, more difficult for our western ears to assimilate, are accompanied by a more familiar electric guitar. The cocktail of sounds intermingle to create a fusion which captivates the spectator.
