Svarupa & Vyakta is a part of the EurAsia Repertory directed by Stefano Fardelli.

The world premiere in India has been supported by the Italian Embassy and Italian Cultural Institute of Delhi and by the Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata, India.

Svarupa & Vyakta was created by Stefano Fardelli for the launch of E.D.C.- EurAsia Dance Company, with its world premiere at EurAsia Partner Kolkata Centre for Creativity (Kolkata – India) in February 2023. For years, Stefano Fardelli has been creating pieces for the EurAsia Repertory that have been danced by other companies, but in 2023 E.D.C., the official company of the Network, was founded.

Svarupa-vyakta is a historical piece of Stefano Fardelli’s repertoire, a highly successful solo that toured the world between 2014 and 2019, danced by Stefano Fardelli himself, and that is now staged again for a duet and two dancers of the E.D.C. company, with the new title Svarupa & Vyakta. 

Svarupa-vyakta is a solo inspired by a trip to India and means “Self” in Sanskrit in two different ways as different will be the dialectic created between the dancers and the five balloons, which represent the projection of the “Self” in another dimension.

The image that suggested the idea for the solo was born in Varanasi. Varanasi is a city on the bank of the river Ganges. Access to the water is granted by a big stairway called Gat. One morning, at dawn, Stefano Fardelli sat on the steps looking at the atmosphere around him. The humidity created a sort of mist and the white hue of the sky melted with the horizon. On the other side of the river there’s nothing but the desert, and the sand seemed to end in the vacuum, giving him the sensation of floating on the clouds, as if he was on an imaginary island, which didn’t exist. While Stefano was living this unique experience, hundreds of induist pilgrims, in front of him, were washing themselves in the waters of the river, dozens of wooden boats were crossing the dirty waters of the Ganges, and at his left, a burning pyres was lifting a column of gray smoke that melted with the white sky. Time had stopped, corpses were burning, but among the relatives of the dead ones there was no sandness nor desperation, boats went up and down the river without going anywhere, the noises of the city did not disturb the silence of that strange, suspended dimension created by that place between life and death, reality and illusion, between him and the image that he had of myself, between him and the others – because everybody think to be different from the others, but Stefano believes we all come from the same place somewhere. The river seemed to put on the stage the eternal play of life. And Stefano thought he was looking at himself through the mirror of the waters, and through all that doing and being. 

The “self”, through the wire and the flowing of life, observes its own projection –  as we observe our shade while we are walking,  when we are able to see it. In the same way, in his choreography, the dancer dances and observes his shade suspended above his head – the balloons,  tied to invisible wires, which represent “himself” in another dimension.