OMMANIPADMEHUM by Stefano Fardelli, part of the EurAsia Repertory, will be on tour this April 5th, at 7pm local time, in the auditorium of the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles in Kinshasa: the piece is danced by E.D.C. – EurAsia Dance Company.

At 6pm, before the performance, there will be the press conference regarding the tour of EurAsia Dance Project International Network in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

/// MORE INFO & REGISTRATIONS: ambkins.mail@esteri.it  or  +243816056881

The tour in D. R. of Congo is brought by EurAsia Dance Project International Network in collaboration with the EurAsia Partner DANCEHAUSpiú´ of Milan, Italy, and supported by the Embassy of Italy in Kinshasa.

OM-MANI-PADME-HUM which in Sanskrit literally means “honouring the lotus jewel”, focuses on the history and rituals of the Tibetan Buddhists of the Yellow Hat Order with a particular focus on their connection to the Shaolin monks and thus the study of their training. The idea for this new project stems from the need to continue the exploration and examination of the connection between spirituality and ritual through movement, already begun with the previous solo NAMU: the Sanskrit word namu – or namas – means ‘devotion’.

Throughout the creation period, the dancers of the company followed the training of the Shaolin monks, studying their meditation and combat techniques. The next step was to translate, through the ‘contemporary code´, their sequences and movements by bringing them into space and making them abstract, thus maintaining their essence but making them functional to the staging. The same process was followed for the creation of the costumes and atmospheres of the piece.

The encounters with the Buddhist monks and the martial arts students, the study of their practice and ceremonies are the foundation of the choreography. When the bell starts to play the rite begins, the dancers enter what could be a temple and lead us in another dimension and place, accompanied by the Francesco Ziello original music.

Hats, cloaks, a sun symbol of the divine, and the gold of temples are often rendered abstract by an aseptic architectural use of space and by string or orchestral music that creates contrasts between oriental images and western sounds.

To conclude, a multicultural cast that translates the movements of the Shaolin monks with different nuances that reveal the origins of the various dancers and thus a quality of movement linked to the traditional dances of the performers that influence, and give character to, the entire piece.

Choreography: Stefano Fardelli

Dancers: Jesus Rea (Bolivia), Marco Hernandez (Mexico)

Original music: Francesco Ziello

Music: 10 Preludes Op. 23 by Serjei Rachmaninoff, Concerto For Violoncello And Strings by Dobrinka Tabakova, The Well-Tempered Clavier Book1 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Such Different Paths by Dobrinka Tabakova

Costume Designer: Marco Hernandez | De La Croix

Video Maker: Salvatore Lazzaro

Visual Artist: Matteo Bittante

Photography: Salvatore Lazzaro and Antonino Dimondo