by and with Marco D’Agostin
sound, graphics LSKA
texts Chiara Bersani, Marco D’Agostin, Azzurra D’Agostino, Wendy Houstoun
lights Giulia Pastore
set construction Andrea Sanson
scientific advice The Nigel Charnok Archive, Roberto Casarotto
dramaturgical advice Chiara Bersani, Claudio Cirri, Wendy Houstoun, Tabea Martin, Alessandro Sciarroni
technical advice Eleonora Diana, Luca Poncetta, Paola Villani
movement coach Marta Ciappina
technical direction Paolo Tizianel
translation Johanna Bishop, Damien Modolo
care, promotion Damien Modolo
organization Eleonora Cavallo
administration Federica Giuliano
production VAN
coproduction Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, KLAP Maison pour la danse à Marseille, CCN2-Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble
with the support of Centrale Fies, CSC/Centro per la Scena Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa), inTeatro, ERT, the WorkRoom (Fattoria Vittadini), Teatro Comunale di Vicenza
length 1h
pre-première
in Italian and English with Italian e English surtitles
Dear N,
you were too much.
Too funny.
Not just plain funny but, you know:
silly funny, witty funny,
biting funny, cutting funny, ferocious funny,
despondent funny, frightening funny.
And physical too.
Yes too physical by half.
Too body, body.
Too bodily body to be theatre
and too entertaining to be serious.
Wendy Houstoun, Letter to Nigel Charnock
With these words, Wendy Houston would say goodbye to his friend and colleague Nigel Charnock, a few days after he died, in 2012. Nigel had been one of the cofounders of DV8 Physical Theater in the ‘80s; he had then left and followed his own research, creating and performing a formidable series of solos. For whom had met him, he was exactly as Wendy wrote, “too much”. With his performances, hyperkinetic explosions in which singing, dancing, screaming, fiction and performance were intertwined on top of an abyssal emptiness, he broadened the borders of “contemporary dance” and seemed to perfectly embody the possibility of art that David Foster Wallace defined as “failed entertainment”. Everything in him was energy, desire, will. Yet, as he desperately repeats in his solo One Dixon Road, «there’s nothing else, it’s nothing, nothing»*.
I met and worked with Nigel in 2010. This encounter marked a clear line in my way of thinking about performance. After him, the possibility of dancing is for me the possibility that everything on stage can happen, simultaneously. BEST REGARDS is not a tribute but for sure a salutation. It’s my way of saying “Dear N, I wanted to be too much too”. It’s voracious solo, a letter addressed to someone that will never reply. A work about rage, that specific one of first love: love that existed before dance became a job. Before projects, before meaningfulness, before unity. Love of being on stage, sweaty and livid, singing and dancing. An act of desperate nostalgia – not for the world as it was, but for the world as it appeared to me.
* rubbish, shit, there is no now… all there is is
this, there’s nothing else, it’s nothing, and what
does this mean nothing… It’s absolutely, totally,
beautifully, divinely, amazingly meaningless,
right, I’m glad we got that sorted now
Marco D’Agostin
Marco D’Agostin
Marco D’Agostin is an artist active in the field of dance and performance, winner of the UBU 2018 Award for Best Performer Under 35. After training with internationally renowned masters (Yasmeen Godder, Nigel Charnock, Rosemary Butcher, Wendy Houstoun / DV8, Emio Greco), he began his career as an interpreter, dancing for, among others, Claudia Castellucci, Alessandro Sciarroni, Liz Santoro, Iris Erez, Sotterraneo.
Since 2010 he has developed his own choreographic research taking part in numerous international projects (ChoreoRoam Europe, Act Your Age,Triptych).
He presented his works in many of the main Italian and European festivals (Santarcangelo, Romaeuropa, VIE, Torinodanza, OperaEstate, Rencontres Choréographiques de Saint-Denis and Théatre de La Ville in Paris, Les Brigitines in Brussels, The Place Theater in London, Sala Hiroshima in Barcelona, among others).
His works have been honored with numerous awards: Gd’A Veneto Award 2010 (Viola), Special Reporting for the 2011 Scenario Award (Spic & Span), the 2012 Perspective Dance Award (per non svegliare i draghi addormentati), Teatro Libero di Palermo Prize at the BEFestival and second prize in the competition (Re)connaissance in Grénoble in 2017 (Everything is ok). He was twice among the Priority Companies of the European network Aerowaves. The Olympic Games, created in collaboration with Chiara Bersani, was co-produced by K3 | Tanzplan (Kampnagel, Hamburg) and the European project BeSpectACTive. In 2018 he debuted with two works: Avalanche, co-produced by Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Saint-Denis, CCN of Nantes and Marche Teatro, and First love, a commission by Torinodanza and Espace Malraux (Chambéry).
Marco D’Agostin is one of the founders of VAN, a dance production organization recognized and supported by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities since 2015.
