MBIRA
2019
MBIRA, ph. Carlo Carmazzi 00402
Finalist UBU Award 2019 – Best Dance show
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next dates
March 2025 Puglia / Veneto IT (to be defined)
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choreography and direction ROBERTO CASTELLO
music MARCO ZANOTTI, ZAM MOUSTAPHA DEMBÉLÉ
text RENATO SARTI / ROBERTO CASTELLO in collaboration with ANDREA COSENTINO
performers ILENIA ROMANO, GISELDA RANIERI / SUSANNAH IHEME (dance/voice), MARCO ZANOTTI (percussions, limba) ZAM MOUSTAPHA DEMBÉLÉ (kora, tamanì, voice, balafon), ROBERTO CASTELLO
production ALDES – Teatro della Cooperativa
with the support of MiBAC – MINISTERO per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, REGIONE TOSCANA / Sistema Regionale dello Spettacolo, Romaeuropa Festival
media partner NIGRIZIA
tanks to Cooperativa Sociale Odissea
How much did Africa contribute to make us who we are?
For many centuries Europeans and Arabs have explored, colonized and converted every single corner of the planet. Today many cultures have been lost and the western culture has become, in many ways, the universal reference point. It’s impossible to say whether this is a positive or a negative, or if the colonized people used to be happier before colonization. It’s a fact that the world is getting smaller and less varied, full of TVs that broadcast the same programs and identical shops that sell identical products, from Greenland to Terra del Fuego, from California to Madrid, Riyad or Tokyo. But it often happens, in the colonization process, that the colonist changes irreversibly once he gets in contact with the conquered’s culture. This is what Mbira attempts to talk about; a concert for squares and theatres in which two dancers, two musicians and a director – through music, dance and words – try to address the complex relationship between our own and the African culture.
Mbira is the name of a musical instrument from Zimbabwe, but also the name of the traditional music made with this instrument, and “Bira” is the name of an important traditional celebration of the Shona people, the main ethnic community in Zimbabwe, in which people dance and sing to the sound of the Mbira. Mbira is also the title of a musical composition created in 1981, around which a harsh legal controversy has arisen, an issue that represents well the complex and problematic nature of the cultural and moral tangle characterizing the relationship between Africa and Europe.
Mbira is, in short, a word around which a surprising variety of stories, music, dances, celebrations and reflections about art and culture intertwine.
TOUR
25/06/2019 (Preview) SPAM!, Porcari (LU)
29/06/2019 (Preview) Festival Diffusioni, Terranuova Bracciolini (AR)
03/07/2019 (Preview) Insolito Festival, Parma
05/07/2019 (Première) Vignale Monferrato Festival, Vignale Monferrato (AL)
03/08/2019 Anghiari (AR)
08/08/2019 Festival itinerante Notte della Taranta, Acaya (LE)
11/08/2019 Barga Jazz, Barga (LU)
25-26-27/10/2019 Teatro della Cooperativa, Milano
1/11/2019 Nuovo Cinema Palazzo, Roma*
2-3/11/2019 Hangar 238 / Circo Rosso, Roma*
4/11/19 Futura Memoria / Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo, Roma
9/11/2019 Spin Time, Roma*
3/12/2019 Resistere e Creare / Teatro della Tosse, Genova
19/12/2019 Teatro Toselli, Cuneo
21/12/2019 Cantieri Teatrali Koreja, Lecce
28/07/2020 Spazio Remmert, Ciriè (TO)
31/07/2020 ‘La meraviglia sul far della sera’ / Gran Parterre – Reggia di Venaria (TO)
30/08/2020 Suq Festival, Genova
18/09/2020 Villa Smeraldi / Stagione Agorà, San Marino di Bentivoglio (BO)
02/07/2021 Corpi Uscenti Festival, Perugia
01/08/2021 Il teatro dei luoghi fest / Teatro Koreja, Lecce
17/08/2021 Armonie d’Arte Festival, Borgia (CZ)
21/08/2021 Lac en Plein air / LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Lugano (CH)
30/04/2022 Festival AZIONI IN DANZA, Chiesa di S. Antonio, Barletta
01/06/2022 TenDance / Teatro Fellini di Pontinia (LT)
11/06/2022 Tutti al circo! / Chapiteau Circo El Grito, Ponte Buriano (AR)
18/06/2022 Opera Prima, Rovigo
24/07/2022 Piazza San Benedetto, Home Futuro Presente per Estate Nursina, Norcia
06/09/2022 ATCL / Quartieri Nicolosi, Latina
13/12/2022 Teatro del Giglio, Lucca
16/12/2022 Teatro dell’Arte, Lastra a Signa (FI)
24/02/2023 Il Funaro, Pistoia
15/03/2023 Teatro SanbàPolis, Trento
31/03/2023 ‘Terrestri’ / Teatro Astra, Vicenza
18/06/2023 Festa della Danza di Roma, Piazza Testaccio, Roma
09/07/2023 Festival Scene di Paglia, Venezia
10/07/2023 L’Isola delle meraviglie, Dolo VE
* Romaeuropa Festival
TOUR
25/06/2019 (Preview) SPAM!, Porcari (LU)
29/06/2019 (Preview) Festival Diffusioni, Terranuova Bracciolini (AR)
03/07/2019 (Preview) Insolito Festival, Parma
05/07/2019 (Première) Vignale Monferrato Festival, Vignale Monferrato (AL)
03/08/2019 Anghiari (AR)
08/08/2019 Festival itinerante Notte della Taranta, Acaya (LE)
11/08/2019 Barga Jazz, Barga (LU)
25-26-27/10/2019 Teatro della Cooperativa, Milano
1/11/2019 Nuovo Cinema Palazzo, Roma*
2-3/11/2019 Hangar 238 / Circo Rosso, Roma*
4/11/19 Futura Memoria / Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo, Roma
9/11/2019 Spin Time, Roma*
3/12/2019 Resistere e Creare / Teatro della Tosse, Genova
19/12/2019 Teatro Toselli, Cuneo
21/12/2019 Cantieri Teatrali Koreja, Lecce
28/07/2020 Spazio Remmert, Ciriè (TO)
31/07/2020 ‘La meraviglia sul far della sera’ / Gran Parterre – Reggia di Venaria (TO)
30/08/2020 Suq Festival, Genova
18/09/2020 Villa Smeraldi / Stagione Agorà, San Marino di Bentivoglio (BO)
02/07/2021 Corpi Uscenti Festival, Perugia
01/08/2021 Il teatro dei luoghi fest / Teatro Koreja, Lecce
17/08/2021 Armonie d’Arte Festival, Borgia (CZ)
21/08/2021 Lac en Plein air / LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Lugano (CH)
30/04/2022 Festival AZIONI IN DANZA, Chiesa di S. Antonio, Barletta
01/06/2022 TenDance / Teatro Fellini di Pontinia (LT)
11/06/2022 Tutti al circo! / Chapiteau Circo El Grito, Ponte Buriano (AR)
18/06/2022 Opera Prima, Rovigo
24/07/2022 Piazza San Benedetto, Home Futuro Presente per Estate Nursina, Norcia
06/09/2022 ATCL / Quartieri Nicolosi, Latina
13/12/2022 Teatro del Giglio, Lucca
16/12/2022 Teatro dell’Arte, Lastra a Signa (FI)
24/02/2023 Il Funaro, Pistoia
15/03/2023 Teatro SanbàPolis, Trento
31/03/2023 ‘Terrestri’ / Teatro Astra, Vicenza
18/06/2023 Festa della Danza di Roma, Piazza Testaccio, Roma
09/07/2023 Festival Scene di Paglia, Venezia
10/07/2023 L’Isola delle meraviglie, Dolo VE
* Romaeuropa Festival