SAMIR CALIXTO
Photo by Joris-Jan Bos
Photo by Joris-Jan Bos
Photo by Joris-Jan Bos
Photo by Joris-Jan Bos
Photo by Joris-Jan Bos
Photo by Joris-Jan Bos
LA NOCHE ETERNA
Try-0ut: 11th February 2023 - Schouwburg De Lawei (NL)
Première: 16th February 2023 - ODEON Zwolle (NL)
European Tour - February/ May 2023
Concept, Choreography, Light, Decor & Costume Designs: Samir Calixto
Dancers: Quentin Roger & Erika Poletto
Live Performance by Ensemble Black Pencil:
Jorge Isaac (Recorder), Matthijs Koene (Panflute), Esra Pehlivanli (Viola),
Marko Kassl (Accordeon) & Enric Monfort (Percussion)
La Noche Eterna is a co-production of Matter Affects (NL), Ensemble Black Pencil (NL),
Scenario Pubblico (IT), Zwolse Theaterrs (NL), Schouwburg de Lawei (NL) & Magnezy Dance Productions (NL)
Supported by Gemeente Zwolle, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and Fonds Podiumkunsten
The game between light and dark in nature has always fascinated people. It is
an example of our desire to understand the world around us and the laws to which it is subject. The mystery that surrounds the night and its expression in music and movement is one of the pillars of the performance LA NOCHE ETERNA (The Eternal Night).
It is this sound of the eternal night that has brought together choreographer Samir Calixto and the prestigious Ensemble Black Pencil, uniting their forces in the desire to create a performance based on existing compositions (which unite pieces from the baroque and contemporary repertoire) and a new choreography. Together, they will create an intricate fabric of images that makes our archetypal relationship to the dark side of nature tangible.
A physically intense and profound performance - characteristic of Calixto's oeuvre - enhanced by the musical richness and artistic uniqueness of the Ensemble, LA NOCHE ETERNA promises to be a dialogue with the unknown: not from a mere desire to bring light into the darkness, but as an exercise of acceptance of the night as part of our existence.
FROM THE PRESS
"Samir Calixto's endless night does its salutary work.
The beauty of the Spanish title of Calixto's new work ('the eternal night'), is that it can refer either to an ultimate dream or to an ultimate nightmare. In the choreography, both possibilities remain latent from beginning to end (...) This performance is a contemporary danced reflection on the phenomenon of musica universalis, which preoccupied philosophers and composers in the Renaissance and led to musical compositions that sought to express the harmony of the spheres.(...) the viewer is left with a deep sense of satisfaction: the endless night has done its beneficial work."
PROGRAM NOTES
by Samir Calixto
LA NOCHE ETERNA is a performance about a quest. It takes the metaphor of a journey through the night as the representation of our struggle with our own inner darkness. 'The dark night of the soul', the poem by 16th-century mystic John of the Cross that inspired this performance, describes the spiritual experience of someone going through a phase in their life when they feel abandoned by everyone, with no hope for a better future. Several spiritual traditions refer to this crisis as a profound and purifying experience. Like the night itself, the cycle can only be complete when the light claims its own presence. The night transcends us and is within us. The fascination with its mystique and mystery is a human constant, an archetypal example of our own inner paradoxes, of a life with forces that may seem contradictory but are ultimately complementary. Therein lies our hope.