Tracing the choreographic innovation at Rome Opera House

Three case studies from 1990 to 2010

Abstract

This text is part of a larger research* that examines the notion of choreographic innovation at the Rome Opera House in relation to the cultural policies in Italy from the 1960s to the present day. Having examined the contents of the historical archive of the Rome Opera House (programme notes, press articles and reviews, photos and audiovisual material), the research analyses three specific case studies:

• La Serata Giovani Coreografi Europei (1991) with works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Lionel Hoche, Jean-Pierre Aviotte and Kim van der Boon
• the remaking of Coppelia (1994) by Bigonzetti and
• an evening dedicated to La Danza d'Autore (2010) with pieces by Virgilio Sieni, Michele Abbondanza / Antonella Bertoni and Lindsay Kemp.

The three evening-length cases were produced by Rome Opera House, under the artistic direction of the corps de ballet by Elisabetta Terabust, Giuseppe Carbone and Micha van Hoecke and they were presented at the adjacent stages of the institution: Teatro Nazionale and Teatro Brancaccio. By focusing on these choreographic cases and approaching innovation as a dialogical process of rethinking but also breaking with the ballet tradition, the text investigates the institutional frame of these curatorial choices in relation to the cultural policies from which they emerged and it offers an opportunity to trace moments of contemporary making at the Rome Opera House, whose role in choreographic innovation has received little attention so far.