Torinodanza obviously remains the flagship dance event in Turin. This festival, located in the rich capital of Piedmont, takes place every year from the end of September to mid-October. The ultimate in contemporary dance meets there. There we find, among others, the Geneva ballet and its new director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui whom we saw last weekend. Other great troupes too, like the Batsheva from Tel Aviv, the Peeping Tom association – undoubtedly the most original – and its director Franck Chartier, or even Dewey Dell for the best known. At the same time, this festival makes a point of inviting up-and-coming Italian companies, such as Il balletto teatro di Torino, or the choreographer Francesco Sgro.

However, it was not in Turin but in a small village in the Varaita valley that the real surprise of this fall took place. At the bottom of the mountains where the wood industry is flourishing, the association of local artisans Confartigianato Cuneo decided, three years ago, to open the factories to arts and entertainment. Thanks to this excellent initiative, visitors have the opportunity to visit the production sites before enjoying quality shows. In Brossasco, for example, the RBB company, a manufacturer of custom furniture, hosted a dance performance orchestrated by the Italian conductor Giacomo Loprieno, which mixed both classical and contemporary. Corrado Bastonero, his boss, was visibly moved when, in front of the public, he explained how, with his seventeen employees, they set up this stage in the middle of the workshop, and created a large space for the public.

Claire Mousseigne and Nicola di Vico, two superb dancers from the Paris Opera with impeccable technique, carried the colors of classical dance loud and clear with two pas de deux extracts from the repertoire, The Carnival of Venice and Don Quixote, which They were inserted between three contemporary creations signed by Francesco Gammino, Alessia Gatta and especially Damiano Artale. The creation of the latter is breathtaking: ten intense and finely tuned minutes which we hope will result in a longer work, as the theme lends itself so well to dance. Its title Mirroring – inspired by an English term which means imitation – evokes the mimicry which strikes a youth inclined to conform in every way to its contemporaries. Beyond the strength of the group, Damiano Artale wanted to emphasize, all individuals are different. He succeeded so well that we could have titled his creation “even in a group, everyone has their own life”. It is performed by four excellent dancers from Pompea Santoro’s Eko Dance project, whose incredible gestures give all the power to his idea. They thus evoke the difficulty of integrating with others without conceding anything of one’s free will or one’s personality. Served by a high-quality musical band, Damiano Artale generates a fluid and intense dance, where bodies brush against each other, stand out, interact to embody the fight required to preserve one’s individuality within a group. The audience, visibly new to contemporary dance, but driven by great curiosity, warmly applauded this work.