Hear from Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company’s dancer Sabrina Gargano, who plays the Red Queen in ALiCE. Catch this magical show at DanceEast next week!
Jasmin Vardimon Company is returning to DanceEast this Christmas after performing an adaptation of Pinocchio here last year. What can audiences expect from the new creation, ALiCE?
For sure, the audience can expect magic from this Production. After being here and performing Pinocchio last year, this time we come back with Alice on a revolving set, amazing projection, and powerful choreography.
The story of Alice is already rich, in this version by Jasmin Vardimon, it is not just physical, theatrical, and visual but everything has a poetic meaning. The audience can really have fun discovering the many layers each scene contains.
Things are seen from a different perspective, sometimes upside down and Jasmin managed to create a very surreal world where still the metaphor of life and reality is very tangible. That’s why Alice is for everyone.
The set design looks fantastic! How does working with such large moving set pieces, like the giant revolving book, influence the choreography and your performance?
Yes, the set is incredible and massive. It creates a very special world where everything unfolds. It’s very demanding to move but everything is so coordinated, and it really shaped our choreography.
As the set turns, different environments come to life and even if the audience thinks they have seen it all still they will be surprised until the end. We know it inside out. From day 1 we played with it and through Jasmin’s tasks, we discovered the infinite possibilities we had.
It completely shaped our way of dancing. It allows us to be bigger. We stand on it, we jump on it, we turn with it, but also smaller where the choreography requires just part of our bodies out, in order to create illusions. The set almost breathes with us.
How long have you been dancing with JVC? Can you tell us a little about the working processes with Jasmin in creating a new production.
I’ve been working with JVC since 2017. First, I came to learn the role of Pinocchio, then I’ve been a course leader for the development program JV2, I’ve been part of the cast for Alice in VR Wonderland, and finally in this stage production of ALiCE.
From Alice VR in 2021, Jasmin’s research about Alice was very deep and profound. In the beginning, this allowed us to explore ideas in many different directions and to see how the story of Alice could have been portrayed.
In May 2022, when we started production, things somehow were clearer. Still, we had a lot of time to play around and to see the infinite pathways the story could have had but at the same time, Jasmin was going even deeper into the topics she wanted to bring to the table and the questions that will permit the story to connect with our actual presence.
What has been your favourite part of creating this work?
My favourite part was definitely the beginning. It was a playground where everything was valid and where ideas were born. I also loved the almost end, when suddenly you realize how Jasmin shaped the show and how the ideas blossomed to coexist together in order to give the storyline told in a very original way.
Don’t miss Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company’s ALiCE this December at DanceEast! Book your tickets here.
