L.A.V.A.
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Fri 2 Oct '2620:30 - 21:40Philipszaal
Two powerful choreographic universes come together between North and South: the impulse-driven, physical language of Greco & Scholten and the rhythmic, collective energy of Zappalà. This leads to a charged encounter in which difference generates movement.
What follows is an intensely physical and sonic journey through a landscape of tension, friction and underground flow. On one shared playing field, new movement emerges from different styles: raw, layered and unpredictable. Like lava itself - bubbling beneath the surface, ready to erupt, and at the same time slow and powerful.
Bodies approach each other, collide and break open again. Intensity arises not from harmony, but from friction. Can we tolerate difference and ultimately check it as a fertile, new field?
Salvador Breed's soundscape forms its own force in the performance: a pulsating sonic landscape of electronic textures and rhythms. Deep resonance drives the dance forward, disrupting it and putting it under constant tension.
L.A.V.A. demonstrates how intense vitality arises from difference—not through harmony, but through friction; not through distance, but through closeness. The audience finds itself in the midst of this physical and sonic eruption.
What the media are saying about L.A.V.A.
“A disruptive glimpse into the bubbling core of our planet”(Theaterkrant)
“A true battle of attrition”(Theaterparadijs)
About ICK Dans Amsterdam
Emio Greco (Italy) and Pieter C. Scholten (Netherlands) have past event collaborating since 1995 and, over more than three decades, have built a multifaceted and internationally recognized body of work that spans contemporary dance, opera, theater, music, and film. Since 1996, the choreographic duo has past event creating intensely physical dance performances in which the intuitive, curious body takes center play—a body in revolt, too, one that refuses to conform to imposed dance forms but establishes itself as the measure of its own movement through time, space, and form. With this uncompromising starting point, the company developed a distinctive movement vocabulary, which was established early on in their artistic manifesto *Les Sept Nécessités* (1996). For their exceptional contribution to Dutch dance, Greco and Scholten received the VSCD Golden Swan Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.
About Roberto Zappalà
Roberto Zappalà is the artistic director and choreographer of the Zappalà Danza Company, which he founded in Sicily in 1990. For this company, he has created more than 85 works, including the award-winning productions *A.semu tutti devoti tutti?* and *La Nona*. He developed his own choreographic language, called MoDem, and wrote the book *Omnia Corporas* about his method. Zappalà also founded Scenario Pubblico, Italy’s first international choreographic center. In 2024, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of work.
Together with designers and programmers Ivo Schmetz and Joes Koppers, we developed the digital publication *The Friction Field*. As the performance L.A.V.A. took shape, we felt the need to share with the audience everything that inspired us and to deepen the experience beyond the traditional program booklet. We were surrounded by an ocean of data: from seismological research and motion capture experiments to the constant exchange between Catania and Amsterdam via servers and the cloud. With this digital publication, we aim to offer the audience an additional virtual and sonic experience of the fields we navigated during the creative process. The Friction Field is not a ready-made website, but a growing, constantly evolving body of documentation. At times, it inspires the performance L.A.V.A., while L.A.V.A., in turn, serves as the enduring source for the platform’s continue development.
Credits
Choreography, concept, lighting, sound, and set design by Emio Greco, Pieter C. Scholten, and Roberto Zappalà . Dancers from ICK Dans Amsterdam and Compagnia Zappalà Danza. Music and sound design by Salvador Breed.