Scapino Ballet with a Spanish  touch.

Performance: Scapino Ballet Rotterdam

Choreographer: Marcos Mauro

Music: Orchestra Sinfonia Rotterdam 

Date: 9th of December 2016

The Scapino Ballet, well known as a big dance company of the city Rotterdam. This company, with a lot of repertoire, dances the piece ‘Pablo’ choreographed by Marcos Mauro, a new large European choreographer.  On the 9^th of December 2016 I watched the performance in the city theatre of Rotterdam, the premiere of Pablo was on 7th of December 2016.   

‘Pablo’ is a piece that combines dance, theatre and live music. This music is played by Orchestra Sinfonia Rotterdam, in an occupancy of up to 24 musicians. Marcos Mauro was inspired by the life of Picasso with a lot of Spanish influence and soul. The performance he made came out like a war movie on stage with great dancers and music, this all with a Spanish vibe in it. 

The Spanish influence was very strong, because of for example the music, costumes and stage settings, for an example they had an old car and motor on stage and the costumes were really Spanish look a like. Beside this it still kept the Scapino style of movement. This style of movement I would describe as technical, impossible looking, rhythmical and very dynamic. They use dynamic in two good ways, in kind of music they use and the way they dance. The way of moving is interesting and unique and keeps your attention. They move unpredictable and keep it fresh. This is mostly because of the dynamic movements, which you can see in ‘Pablo’ as impulsive jerky technical movements.

This time they also chose to put theatre dialogs in the piece which was quiet different in my taste. The dialogs that got added to the piece were in my opinion not that strong. I thought it was not clear what they wanted to perceive with it. Sometimes it looked more like a random thing ought to make a statement, but it did not deliver. Most of the time it gave me the idea that the dialogue was a small reminder of events that took place in the time period of Picasso. I can say that a few of the dialogs had potential to be strong, but were not finished or did not had a clear transition after it.

Everything taken into consideration I found the show mediocre, because of the fascinating movements and the poor theatre. But when somebody asks me if I would recommend this show to family and friends, I would say yes.

Pablo will be play till 8th of March 2017 in Heerlen, the Netherlands.

By: Milan van Ettekoven