Shows /

Daphne

for an urban mythology
Marta Bevilacqua / Compagnia Arearea
2012

The myth of Daphne and Apollo tells the story of non-mutual love and a nymph’s escape from the desire of a god. Daphne_for an urban mythology is halfway between a sculptural installation and a choreographic performance: two languages restoring life to an ancient tale through color, gesture and nature’s strength. Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree, and we meet her right there, tied up to her eternal curse. Daphne is a glimpse, something unexpected, a contemporary incursion into the myth. Daphne-for an urban mythology was born thanks to LUOGHI COMUNI – a euro-regional project for contemporary dance in the public space. LUOGHI COMUNI project includes Lieux Publics (Marseille), Les Hivernales (Avignon), Les Ateliers Frappaz (Villeurbanne), the National choreographic center Maguy Marin (Rillieux la Pape), Teatro a Corte Festival, Interplay Festival, Cera l’Acca Association (Turin), ARTU Association (Genoa). The theme of 2011/2012 edition was the tree. Marta Bevilacqua worked upon the inspiration of Daphne’s myth for this site-specific performance that premiered in Villetta Di Negro gardens in Genoa, on October 29th, 2011

“You don’t know, o thoughtless one, you don’t know
whom you flee, and therefore you flee.  
I pray that you more gently run
and restrain your escape, I myself will pursue more gently”
Her strength spent, pale and faint,
with pleading eyes she gazed upon her father’s waves and prayed,
“Help me my father, if thy flowing streams have virtue!
Destroy the beauty that has injured me, or change the body that destroys my life.”
Before her prayer was ended, torpor seized on all her body,
and a thin bark closed around her gentle bosom,
and her hair became as moving leaves; her arms were changed to waving branches,
and her active feet as clinging roots were fastened to the ground
her face was hidden with encircling leaves.

Ovid, Metamorphoses