Italian dance company Compagnia Bellanda are making their Edinburgh Fringe debut this summer with the duet Il canto dell’assiolo, featuring performances by company founders Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Claudia Latini. Rooted in the breakin’ style, the piece explores the evolving dynamics in relationships. I recently had the opportunity to speak to the dancers about their upcoming festival run, which will see them perform the duet at Assembly @ Dance Base during the second half of the festival.
About the company
Giovanni comes from a breakdancing background that involves dance battles and ciphers, and Claudia initially started out as a contemporary dancer. Claudia says “I started learning from Giovanni, and then we started to practice together to understand how we could develop something”. Claudia laughs and compares their first meeting to the Step Up and Save the Last Dance films, recalling an early duet. Giovanni founded the company in 2012, then together in 2018 the pair built up the structure of the company. Giovanni leads the research and the creation, but they create a dialogue together through their choreography.
Compagnia Bellanda’s work has taken them all over Europe and it is through this travelling for performances, that the company are ending up making their Fringe debut. After Dance Base’s Artistic Director Tony Mills saw them perform a work in progress piece in Brussels, the creative approached them about the Fringe and they said “let’s do it”.
Exploring the theme of relationships through dance
Il canto dell’assiolo as a piece of dance fuses body movements, audio and speech. They say “aesthetically, it could be romantic and a love story between a man and a woman”, but really it’s “universal”. On a deeper level, it’s about relationship dynamics, specifically “leading, controlling and letting the other person lead”. Giovanni says “it was important to find a strong concept, maybe even aggressive but very powerful, without falling into vulgar or provocative situations”. Claudia continues “in the speech, we try to balance the physically aggressive situation with a tender dialogue”.
Audio elements
When asked about their unique approach to audio, Claudia explains “we started with Giovanni’s solo eight years ago where we used microphones on the floor that catch the sound of the body hitting the floor. And in every theatre it was different because the surroundings, the environment changed the sound itself. We are still working with microphones to catch the sound, to catch our breath, to catch the audience as well. If the audience is creating noises, we all can see, and can listen to it repeatedly, because we also use the delay effect”.
Giovanni says “we want to get closer and closer with the audience” and they liken their approach to audio to the movies: “the sound is not just a soundtrack […] it’s something that must create the atmosphere, the feeling, the suspense”. “It’s something that works together with us and our dance to tell the story”.
Making their Edinburgh Fringe debut
When asked what they are looking forward to about the upcoming festival, Giovanni laughs “it’s more frightened than excited”. Claudia explains that Giovanni comes from a background where “you have to train to be prepared for the [breakdancing] battle” and says “the way of thinking is still the same [for Fringe]”. Coming from a small town, “the Edinburgh Fringe seems really huge” and “we are very curious to see that kind of machine, that kind of engine working”. “I think it will be amazing to walk through the streets around [Edinburgh] and see crowded streets, and go to see performances”.
Looking ahead to the end of the festival
Giovanni says “the way we judge our work, is if the audience coming out of our performance seems and is different to the way they came in”. Taking away taste and preference, they “always hope for the audience to feel different at the end of the performance, whatever that could be”. “If there’s no reaction and no change, there’s something that doesn’t work in our work”.
Catch Compagnia Bellanda at the Edinburgh Fringe this year
It was a pleasure to speak to Giovanni and Claudia from Compagnia Bellanda before they make their Fringe debut this summer. I found how they measure the success of a performance to be incredibly inspiring, separating audience preferences and opinion from emotional reaction and feeling. Il canto dell’assiolo is based in the DB1 space at Assembly @ Dance Base (venue 22a) from 18th to 30th August (not 24th). Tickets are on sale via the EdFringe website now.
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