MERLIN -
A 70 minutes new dance quintet.
Following the popular and critical success of Fit/Misfit (40+ performances to date), following also the commission by Dublin Dance Festival of a dance solo commemorating the Proclamation of Irish Independence in 2016 at the GPO, and the creation & touring of REVOLVER in 2017, Iseli-Chiodi Dance Company creates MERLIN, a new full-length dance quintet.
Concept and artistic direction: Alexandre Iseli & Jazmin Chiodi
Choreography: Alexandre Iseli & Jazmin Chiodi, with the dancers
Dance: Jazmin Chiodi, Clara Protar, Kiko López, Sarah Ryan, Alexandre Iseli
Original Music: Oscar Mascareñas
Costumes: Pierre Canitrot
Lighting: Kevin Smith
Stage manager: Roxzan Bowes
Technique: Paul Lenihan
Line producer: Michelle Cahill
Contribution to the choreographic research: Lorenzo Dallai
Supported by an original soundtrack, striking costumes and an outstanding international cast, MERLIN is a dark tale instilled by the protean spirit of the eponym character.
Jostling with rational narrative and swimming in the substance of myth, MERLIN dives into body textures to invoke tales, pagan carnivals, dark waters, Orphic themes, monsters, wild animals, a battered queen, a shamanic devil, a strong-headed child-woman, countless images that resonate in our hearts, the fading of time, and of course, Merlin himself, and his mischievous grin.
In our environment that seems increasingly dominated by symbols, images and memes, MERLIN wonders how to reconcile our longing for shapes and narrative with the amorphous turmoil of organic life. MERLIN stands with one foot on each side of the paradoxical rift between substance and shape, nature and law, instinct and culture.
MERLIN is a rigorously structured group piece, chiselled choreography colliding with intuitive impulse: a mix of individual urge, group synchronicity, chaos and order. MERLIN aims to merge animalism and finesse, in the choreography as much as in the movement vocabulary.
