Haris Pasovic (5:51)
To narrate football through words and dancing, this is Haris Pasovic’s challenge. He is the Sarajevo director who, with his Football, Football, will open the next Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. «This show will be zippy, physical, both fun and serious, to celebrate with the tools belonging to the theatre the most beautiful game in the world which goes beyond nations, classes, ideologies and religions” stated the director. and Naples will be in the foreground with its fans and a tribute to a myth: Maradona.
«I take to the theatre the dreams and passions, the hopes and disappointments, the art of a unique game in the world, football». During the month of the World Championships in South Africa, Haris Pasovic, director from Sarajevo, will stage Football, Football, the theatre dance show produced by the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. «It will be zippy, dynamic, physical. My actors/dancers will express in words and movement the very essence of this marvellous sport, from its embarrassing simplicity, which goes beyond boundaries, social classes, races, political and religious ideas». The show, produced by the Festival together with the East West Theatre Company which belongs to Pasovic himself and with the Belgian company Les Ballets C. De la B., has another fundamental partner, that is the Singapore Arts Festival, which for the last two years has been closely connected with the Naples Festival in the field of co-productions. It is not a coincidence that Football, Football will make its debut on the 20 May in the city-state of the Orient, to then reach Naples, as had happened in 2009 with Giorgio Barberio Corsetti’s shows.
Naples and the sport of football: what kind of research did you do in the city?
Haris Pasovic: I have spoken with fans, collectors of Naples memorabilia, journalists, I looked at the scenes from the RAI files of the celebrations for the first pennant in 1987, I have spoken with Ciro Ferrara and Fabio Cannavaro, champions for sure, but also very worthy people, especially for all they do through their foundation in favour of the city’s outcasted children.
And what have you found out?
That football in Naples is a way of thinking. A way of living. I have never seen anything like it in the whole world. It took merely half an hour in the city to realize that Maradona, 23 years after the pennant, is still a “god”.
However, your research did not stop at this…
I have been to Singapore, where there are many soccer fans and, more specifically, fans of European football. There I had a very interesting encounter: at the Polytechnic Institute, scientists have devised a robot that can dance and play soccer. Exactly as in my Football, Football. In fact I believe that in the show there will be a reference to those incredible mechanical creatures. While in Wolfsburg, Germany, I have met two budding stars of European soccer, both of them Bosnian.
Who are they?
Edin Dzeko and Zvjezdan Misimovic. Dzeko is the incarnation of a dream come true. In the Nineties, during the war in Sarajevo, among bombs and snipers, he was dreaming of becoming a champion. Today he is one.
How are you building up your show?
I am working with Augustijnen for the choreographies and with the technical staff for the videos, the lights, images and words. Football, Football will be a fun and serious symphony of stories, dance, images and words. The aim is to touch people’s heart, to surprise them and make them think. Because it is obvious that we will be celebrating the most beautiful game in the world, but we must also put up a theatre show!
TAKINGS FROM THE SHOWS WILL BE DEVOLVED TO DOTTOR SORRISO ONLUS (MONALDI HOSPITAL OF NAPLES).
Shuttle Bus
departures from piazza Vanvitelli departure 9.15 p.m. (arrival 10.15 p.m.) / from seafront luxury Hotels departure 9.15 a.m. (arrival 10.15 p.m.) / from piazza del Gesù 9.30 a.m. (arrival 10.15 p.m.) - arrivals to piazza Vanvitelli, to seafront luxury Hotels, to piazza del Gesù (10 minutes after the end of the show)
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