Moveo Dance Company is this weekend presenting a dramatic new interpretation of Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen at the Manoel Theatre, choreographed and directed by Moveo founder and artistic director Dorian Mallia.
It’s a tale of a free-spirited Romani woman who ignites a destructive passion in a Spanish soldier named Don José, whose infatuation leads him to abandon both duty and reason. When Carmen rejects him in favour of the celebrated bullfighter Escamillo, his obsession culminates in tragedy.
“I was originally drawn to Carmen because it is such a popular and familiar opera,” Mallia says. “Moveo’s ethos is to make contemporary dance accessible to a wider audience and, as a company, we are reinterpreting this much-loved story while staying true to the core of the original. We wanted to tackle love, passion and resilience from today’s perspective because the way we understand these concepts develops alongside society.”
Moveo dancers and collaborators are always encouraged to be open with one another during the development of a show, and while it is not necessarily intentional, “as artists we express ourselves with what’s happening at the moment, or what we imagine the future will be,” Mallia continues.
He would ask, for example, what passion means to them today.
“Increasingly,” he explains, “we feel able to share personal experiences on different platforms, in a decade in which social media influencers have become mainstream.
“What it means to be resilient today too is different to what it was seven years ago when we first presented Carmen.”
This fresh take on what it means to be resilient, a key theme in the performance, and how this has changed over time parallels the resilience of Moveo which survived through COVID and has, this year, doubled the number of dancers in the company to 12 to create even more this energy on stage.
“Carmen’s resilient; Carmen is fiery and powerful, and she keeps on trying and pushing and pushing [her way through life]. She knows she’s going to die, because whenever she’s reading her cards, she repeatedly draws the death card. We have therefore included Death as one of the main characters within our performance,” Mallia smiles.
“Death manoeuvres his way through the scenes, putting the seeds of ideas into people’s heads. The audience follow Carmen and Death on an emotional journey through the show. She confronts and resists him.”
Moveo is also working with contemporary composer Albert Garcia, who has been modernising the music to include the electric guitar and other sounds “that give it an edge”.
“And we have reimagined the traditional costumes, pushing the boundaries with leather. These changes reflect the changing culture around us,” Mallia continues.
The stage is set only with a large staircase at the rear which evokes, for the audience, the idea that they’re sitting inside a bullring, an arena in which Carmen is constantly battling.
“There are moments where the dancers are on the staircase representing people cheering during the Toreador Song, but there also more surreal episodes where you’re inside fighting either for your life, or for your lover, or even having a sexual experience there,” Mallia says.
Aesthetically too, the production is visually striking, pairing black playing with a strong and a light pink.
“We chose fuchsia because it is a colour deeply associated with the world of bullfighting. While audiences often think of the iconic red cape, matadors traditionally use a striking pink-and-yellow cape during the early stages of the corrida. We were drawn to the vibrancy and theatricality of fuchsia, using it as a visual thread throughout the production to evoke the spirit, passion and spectacle surrounding Carmen,” Mallia remarks.
The colour also hints at the love triangle between Carmen, Don José and Escamillo in the narrative. These characters and Micaela, Don José’s betrothed since childhood friend, form a notable quartet within the choreography.
Underpinned with classical technique, the show’s choreography infuses contemporary dance to deliver a flamenco flavour appropriate for the Spanish setting, a grounded ‘earthy feel’ rather than Zapateado [the percussive footwork for which flamenco is famed]. And as Carmen, ex-flamenco dancer Diane Portelli and her fellow dancers stylishly transport the audience to Seville with flounce and flair.
Moveo Dance Company’s adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen is on at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta, on June 26 and 27 at 8pm. Tickets from teatrumanoel.mt.
