Ballet arrives at the Teatro della Sapienza.
An American trio provides enjoyable entertainment by way of their provocative performance.
Bang Group, On Stage Madness
di Mimmo Coletti

Perugia—Three on stage at the Teatro della Sapienza: irreverent, mocking,
sarcastic, ironic, and bent on sweeping dance free of any traces of the
romantic, the classical or other sacred idioms. This appointment in dance
was part of the season of the Fondazione Umbria Spettacoli (Umbrian
Founda-tion for the Performing Arts). The performance itself was provided by
David Parker's Bang Group, a daring Amer-ican ensemble that introduced a new
world in dance with its explosive mixture of gags, mime, and vitriol, all of
it framed with great technical skill. The dancers moved with velvety grace,
their steely muscles and physical prowess covered in a cloak of feline
agility. That particular talent, however, is certainly not theirs
exclusively. Nonetheless, in them (in Parker himself, in Jeffrey Kazin, and
in the marvelous Kathryn Tufano who held her own against her two male
companions), this agility was polished to the maximum. Indeed, the Made in
the USA stamp moved to the forefront even within the harmonious
eighteenth-century setting that is the Teatro della Sapienza.
The Teatro itself, as some may or may not know, is a historical center in
Perugia, located near the small church of Saint Michael the Archangel. Part
of the Onaosi, a girl's school, the teatro is now fortunately being used
more and more often. Thanks to its restoration, here you can enjoy a taste
of refinement even as you are embraced by its elegant but intimate
surroundings.
The dancers (Bang Group) performed five animated dances; the entire program
called “Beatification”. The second half celebrated the golden age of the
American musical whose songs used to arrive in Italy frequently mangled, but
whose musical line always provided an enjoyable pastime, given their romance
and no-nonsense cleverness. At bottom this part of the show expressed a love
for the kind of music that has always triumphed on Broadway. Here however,
the music had been smartly reworked to embody a wanton sense of derailment,
of sheer madness, which proceeded with steely determination to explore the
roots of beat. Things began with a piece entirely on toe and executed as a
solo by Tufano. Applause accompanied childhood reminiscences portrayed
through a dance difficult to pull off unless you are abundantly talented.
The first part of the show ended with Bang and Suck, a curious piece given
its use of background music from “The Nutcracker”. Infantile regression was
the theme; it seems, since the two male dancers emerged as temperamental
babies who suck not just their thumbs but other people's as well. Kisses too
are exchanged all in the name of art, or what else should we believe? But
this very celebrated dance—good for some of its intuitions —is also
repugnant because of its violent obstinacy in being an end unto itself.
Luckily all is forgiven, thanks to bits of humor pulled from the dustbin of
comedy. A pair, for example, made immortal by the voices of Judy Garland and
Marilyn.
Add now the average spectator who has not scaled the heights of pure
intellectualism (that sterile, vacuous world too given to airs and populated
by idiots anyway). Then say hats off to the Bang Group for exploring the
limits of the provocative.
—Mimmo Coletti
La Nazione (Italy)
February 28, 2001