No Dance, No Paradise

Press

“[…] [Pere Faura] dances like Fred Astaire performing to ‘Singing in the Rain’, like John Travolta, like a Rosas dancer with De Keersmaeker and, yes, like Pavlova’s ‘Dying Swan’, too. The amazing thing is how he successively presents these different layers of his own dance biography, then arranges them on top of each other and finally performs them kind of simultaneously, like a fantastic collage. […] During ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’ a sadness falls on the disco movements, […] it’s not easy to be a dynamo all the time. And so, Faura stands still, exhausted, when for him, too, only Pavlova’s spotlights dance to the ‘Dying Swan’. It is a wonderful moment of memento mori amidst all this giddy dance frenzy.”

www.tanznetz.de, 9 September 2019

Preview Text

For “No Dance, No Paradise” choreographer Pere Faura has appropriated a selection of seminal dance pieces that have become inscribed in the public memory. The pavement tap dance in “Singin’ in the Rain”, John Travolta’s Saturday night disco moves, contemporary dance in the style of Rosas and classical ballet’s dying swan are all cited here to deliver an entertaining, genre-spanning lecture in dance history. And while the individual dance elements are being performed, Faura proceeds with great gusto to deconstruct the four choreographies. His illuminating insights into dance history, which can also be applied to real life, are then followed by a visually stunning dance collage of the iconic pieces in authentic costumes. Any danger of sinking into parody is skillfully sidestepped as Faura demonstrates humour and self-awareness against a serious background, dissolving the boundaries between lowbrow and highbrow culture. The bottom line is: Long live dance!

(approx. 90 mins)

Watch a video on Youtube

cast & credits

Direction & performance: Pere Faura
Visual scenography: desilence studio
Lighting design: Israel Quintero
Technicians on tour: Cristina Eugen, Tatiana Halbach
Stage scenography: Jordi Queralt
Movement Advisor: Amaranta Velarde, Claudia Solwat
Music: Aturo Castillo, Lena Mandotter, Jorge Drexler,
Mistress Barbara, Pete Ilderton
Voiceover: Michael Heart
Sound design: Ramón Ciércoles
Musical assembly: Arturo Castillo
Costume design: Txell Janot
Booklet design: Joan Escofet
Performance texts: Pere Faura, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
Voiceovers: Enric Arquimbau

Production: Claudia Solwat

Administration production: Joan Gay

Production on tour: BlancProduccions

Production: La Diürna

Co-production: La comédie de Valance, CDN Drȏme-Ardèche/ Mercat de les Flors/ El Graner/ Fundació Catalunya – La Perdrera/ La Poderosa (all based in Barcelona)

With the support of: L`Estruch, Sabadell/ Departament de cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya/ Circuito #DanzaaEscena 2016, Madrid

With thanks to the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.