Bella Figura

The basic idea, as well as all the building material, with which Bella Figura was made, is not very complicated, but, maybe not so simple either, whenever viewed through the perspective of our experience. It is a “parable” on the relativity of sensuality, beauty and aesthetics in general, and on the question, how we face the phenomenon in our everyday life. It is a journey through time and space, illuminating our dignity, as well as our doubt. Finding beauty in a grimace - in a knot of the mind - or in a physical contortion. It is like trying to perform a balancing act on the string of your umbilical cord.

For the dancers, it is not only a manifestation of their competence, aesthetic qualities or technical accomplishment, but equally, it represents their acceptance of their deficiencies, doubts and vulnerability. The words “bella figura” in Italian don’t only stand for “beautiful body”, they also represent a philosophical resilience of people facing a difficult situation - consequently it also means "putting on a brave face"... With other words: The people in the audience will not know, whether the actor who is performing for them tonight, is in a difficult situation or not, they will not know anything about his personal problems, but the actor also knows, that they don’t know! All he knows is, that they bought tickets to see him, and that they want to be “entertained”. So he puts on his “bella figura”.

For a long time, I have asked myself the questions: “What is a performance, and who are actually the performers?”
And.... “When does the performance actually begin? Does it begin when the curtain raises, or at the moment of our birth - or does it all only start when the choreographer asks the dancers to learn their first steps?
Does the performance start when the dancers start putting on their make-up?" And...” Does the show finish whenever they leave the stage, or does it carry on until the end of our lives?” Or....” What is the difference between the clothes, we wear in the street, and the stage costume? Where lies the border between art and artificiality, and where should we draw the line between fantasy and reality?”
And finally: “Where is the border between the truth and a lie...?”
In any case - all these things, which I have just tried to describe to you, can be explained in a much easier way:
Imagine that you had a dream, in which you fell out of your bed, and as you wake up next morning, you realize, that you have a broken rib.

-Jiří Kylián - The Hague, September 23, 2007