A ‘Dream’ at the Center

Young Chang

As if there weren’t enough worlds to begin with.

William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” presents three

realities and three groups of denizens -- fairies, courtsmen and

players -- that melt into each other to create the most other-worldly

place.

Add yet another dimension to this fanciful scene and you have

Aterballetto’s dance version of “Dream” at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center, running today and Saturday.

“If you take traditional ballet of the 19th century, you see

everything dance,” said Carla Vigevani, head of Aterballetto’s press

department and translator for company President Frederico Grilli. “In

this ballet you will see certainly it’s dance, but dancers also run.

They are in little moments a little bit actors.”

The prestigious Italian troupe makes its United States premiere of

the show in Costa Mesa. With a commissioned score by Grammy

Award-winning composer Elvis Costello and choreography by

Aterballetto’s artistic director Mauro Bigonzetti, the performance

offers a contemporary yet reverent attitude toward classical dance.

“A rupture with the traditional ballet,” Vigevani said.

Grilli, whose words were translated by Vigevani, said the basis of

Aterballetto’s work is usually academic, inspired by traditional

dance and developed with Bigonzetti’s modern flair. The process of

marrying a rock musician’s scores and a choreographer’s acclaimed

contemporary style is comparable to a “cultural operation,” he said.

“We toured in Italy and in Europe . . . the reaction of the

audience was very open,” Grilli said. “Now we are very curious to see

how the American audience will react.”

Vigevani added that people think “Costello” and expect rock music.

“But Costello had a very particular approach to dance and he

wanted to have a very respectful approach to ballet,” she said.

The story is about four lovers, the magic juice that gets in some

of their eyes, the misunderstandings and mischief that ensues and

then how life as Shakespeare intended it gets restored in this world

full of fairies and playfulness and even theatrical arts.

Set designer Fabrizio Plessi, known in Europe for his video art,

built rotating sets that by their creative designs depict the

differences between each world, as do the costumes.

But the choreography most dramatically interprets “Dream’s” three

worlds and moods.

“He has found the ability to describe each of them,” Vigevani said

of Bigonzetti, who has also interpreted works by Balanchine and

Antony Tudor in his five years as artistic director of the company.

“He will recognize every figure, every character, while dancing in

the way Mario feels it. That means in a contemporary dance.”

To realize the separateness between the worlds of dancing and

acting, Bigonzetti eliminates the use of costumes and masks, for

example, when the character of Nick Bottom transforms into a donkey.

In fact, you won’t even see a donkey on stage.

“It is felt like a physical transformation so this is not done as

usual,” Vigevani said. “It is done through a sort of suffering

through the body, through the movement.”

When it comes to the fairies, Bigonzetti plays with the idea of

having one’s feet in two worlds as each dancer sports a point shoe on

one foot while leaving the other foot bare.

“The point is, in one sense, different from reality, but in

another sense, it’s something that can be recognized as a tribute to

classical ballet too,” Vigevani said.