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4 Tempos (one act ballet)
2022 Rahvusooper Estonia in Tallinn, Estonia
Annual Closing Galas produced by Estonian National Ballet's School
choreography by Cristiano Principato
video extracts from two performances
dancers: female graduating class of Estonian National Ballet School together with four male professional dancers from Estonian National Ballet

4 tempos
4 Tempos
Cristiano Principato
Johann Sebastian Bach
2022
25 minutes
14 (10 ladies, 4 gents)
Lola Howard (and Cristiano Principato)
Marja-Liisa Pihlak (and Cristiano Principato)
* 2022 - Estonian National Ballet School Annual Closing Galas
Rahvusooper Estonia in Tallinn, Estonia
4 TEMPOS was originally drafted (but not completed nor performed) in 2019, when Cristiano attended the second edition of Dutch National Ballet's Choreographic Academy, a three weeks studio workshop where young makers get to chance to create for the dancers of DNB Junior Company.
During this workshop, besides the studio choreographic practice, Cristiano also attended theorical conferences that gathered several choreographers, directors and composers (lead by Peggy Olislaegers, Associate on Research and Development at DNB and freelance dramaturg).
In 2022, the draft initiated during the Choreographic Academy was completed and performed by the ten ballerinas of the 2022 graduating class of the Estonian National Ballet School, together with four male dancers from Estonian National Ballet.
The piece was performed twice at the school's Annual Closing Performances on the stage of the Estonian National Opera.
This neoclassical work on Bach's music is made of four movements, each of them taken from a different Bach's concert and each of them with a different solo instrument (piano for winter, double harpsichord for spring, oboe for summer and double violin for autumn).
Winter and summer are two duets danced by the principal couple and they abstractly explore the relationship between the powerful mother Earth (woman) and mankind (man), in which, first with cold and then with warm passion, nature will always overpower humans at the very end of time.
Spring and autumn are groups dances and they explore the very different temperaments of these two seasons over the course of the year: first with the thrill and lively excitement that comes at the rebirth of nature after a long winter, and lastly with the nostalgic and most stunning colours that nature reveals at its most dramatic and sad moment of existence.
Autumns is intentionally placed at the end of the piece in order to encourage humanity to entirely grasp the present moment and live it to the fullest, before it is too late. "All we have is now".
4 Tempos (one act ballet)
2022 Rahvusooper Estonia in Tallinn, Estonia
Annual Closing Galas produced by Estonian National Ballet's School
choreography by Cristiano Principato
performance photos by Jack Devant and Rünno Lahesoo
dancers: Anastasiia Sosimova, Joel Calstar-Fisher, Marianna Odinets, Sara Yamashita, Mio Yoshikawa, Connor Williams, Marcus Nilson, Nikos Gkentsef
