Lento
Lento is
Lento is a
Lento is a psychodrama
A psycho theatrical split.

A word that slowly becomes dissonant, absurd and drifts to a familiar impression of déjà vu, to open a window on loneliness.

Logical and absurd, Lento is composed like a puzzle, a riddle with several layers, playing with reality’s interferences and cyclic repetition.

This is a hybrid form composed of movement, circus, music, absurdity, illusion, symmetry, doubt, failure, wandering, drift, irony, invisible, subliminal, contemporary, yraropmetnoc, off-screen, silence, the real and its double and its double and its double.

A piece where the form is as important as the content.

Dancer with circus tendencies, Valentina Cortese trained in France and Italy. She obtained a Master’s degree in audiovisual communication and worked for the Cinémathèque française in the following years. Later, she studied dance at the CRR of Boulogne, obtained her Technical Aptitude Examination in contemporary dance, then trained in acrobatics at the FLIC circus school in Turin. She then worked for Petr Formann, Roberto Magro and collaborated with the Magdaclan Circus. In 2016, she founded the Terzo Livello collective dedicated to research and experimentation in the circus arts. She continues to train with artists she admires such as Peeping Tom, Baro d’evel Cirk, Cristiana Morganti (Tanztheater Pina Bausch), Ambra Senatore, Adriana Boriello... She spent a month at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen. She joined the Fabrique de la danse, an incubator for choreographers, where she developed the writing of Lento e Violento, of which she presented a first work axis at the Carreau du Temple in Paris in June 2018.

In 2018, she entered the 3rd year of the Esacto’Lido, where she found a space of freedom that allowed her to refine her personal approach to the circus and the stage. She is interested in «minority practices» as Johann Le Guillerm calls them, and in any form of movement and theatricality that does not have a name. She undertook research that was initially intended to become an act, a false solo at the crossroads of acrobatics, theatre and magic: Lento e violento, her first project as an author. Curious about cognitive processes, metaphysics and writing, Valentina joined the CNAC’s new magic training course, artistically supervised by Raphaël Navarro and Valentine Losseau, who closely follow her current creation. She is involved in cultural action projects in various contexts (senior citizens, hospitals, social action). In 2023, she joins Baro d’evel Cirk to take over the Mazut duo.

Author and performer: Valentina Cortese

Stage technician: Marie Vela / Donatella Zaccagnino
Technical manager: Paolo Danesi and Rémi Dubot
Set construction: Rémi Bernard
Sound design: Florent Hamon and Valentina Cortese
Lighting design: Hugo Oudin
Costumes: Laurine Baudon and Marnie Langlois
Collaborations: Florent Bergal, Valentine Losseau, Jean-Michel Guy
Artistic collaboration: Marie Vela
Creative production: Maud Thomas
Production, distribution, administration: Baron Production - Juliette Grigy, Margaux Duchêne and Jordan Enard

Supports: Studio de Toulouse-PACT (Pépinière des Arts du Cirque Toulousaine), dispositif mutualisé Esacto’Lido - Grainerie SACD / Processus Cirque, circusnext PLaTFoRM, co-financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, with the support of Espace Périphérique (Mairie de Paris - Parc de la Villette) and Teatro da Didascália, Aide à la création de la région Occitanie, Tersicorea Toff, Fondation E.C.Art Pomaret

Coproductions: Groupe Geste(s), La Grainerie, fabrique des arts du cirque et de l’itinérance - Pôle Européen de Production, Cirkano - Cirque à l’hôpital, Les Bords de Scènes 91

Residences: La Grainerie, fabrique des arts du cirque et de l’itinérance - Pôle Européen de Production, Espace Périphérique (Mairie de Paris – Parc de la Villette), Teatro da Didascália, Cirkano - Cirque à l’hôpital, L’Été de Vaour, Ax Animation, Pôle Culture de la ville de Cornebarrieu, Service culturel de Cauterets, Centre culturel des Mazades, Cave coopérative de Baro d’Evel Cirk Cie, Dinamico festival, Tersicorea Toff 

The performance in Subotica is part of the tour organised by associations Čarobnjakov šešir, Cirkorama, Cirkusfera, Desiré Festival and ROOM 100. The tour is organised with the support of the French Institute in Serbia and Teatroskop, a program initiated by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Ministry of Culture, and Institut français Paris.

10+

Photos: Francis Rodor, Gabi Merz

Duration: 00:50

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