Giorgio Madia - Thoughts about Beauty - An Interview: Part 1

Sep 5

Sep 5 Giorgio Madia - Thoughts about Beauty - An Interview: Part 1

To sit down, enjoy a good cup of tea and an interesting talk with Giorgio Madia is invariably a big pleasure. Once, discussing performances that we both had seen, but also music, costumes, sets, and stage lighting we came to a most "illuminated" subject. Beauty.

At the very moment we mentioned it, we knew, instinctively that we should somehow go into ourselves and soon meet once more to talk about it, to „philosophize" about it. For, as we know, this theme „has legs".

In times like these, it is sometimes difficult to act accordingly to our plans, and instead of „meeting soon", it took us quite a little while to be able to adjust our schedules and meet again. An aggravating prospect.

Giorgio Madia needs no introduction but please keep „in the back of your mind" the following few „chapters" of his career:

Corps de ballet to principal in 8 different companies (La Scala, Maurice Béjart, San Francisco Ballet), Ballet Master in 3 companies, Ballet Director in 2, Guest Ballet teacher, Partner in duett with “Nureyev and Friends” for his 3 year´s world tour, Choreographer of 24 full evening ballets and various Opera, Operetta and Musical productions, Stage director of 4 Opera, 7 Operetta, 4 Musical and several big events, awarded Light Designer and at occasion Stage and Costume Designer. Artistic Director of an Inclusion Art Festival.

His work is filled with style, class, and such mastery – the same mastery which allowed him to turn the most boring of all commercial musicals, Jerry Herman's “La Cage” into a beautiful, scenically impressive production.

One day about two weeks ago I found myself sitting quietly on my way to his flat, using public transport and realizing that I was „pitifully unprepared" for our talk, a fact that, instead of worrying me, filled me with joy. Trust and comprehension are qualities that are not easy to find. And isn't it wonderful to be in full possession of both on the way to an improvised meeting in which we could let ourselves go completely to discuss ideas, thoughts, impressions, feelings... beauty? „Lucky me", I thought. And I was right. We sat down to have our „nice talk" and it turned out to be one of the nicest and most intimate ones that I have had in a long time with an Artist.

The perfect surroundings and situation for a pleasant talk were given and sitting comfortably in his light-filled flat, enjoying some good strong black tea and after having talked a bit about the present dance situation in Vienna, we started our long-awaited „new" chat which is involved by the cellophane of „Beauty", our chosen theme that day.

„Giorgio dear, let us start with a point that I would like to discuss very much... observing your work, it is quite obvious for anyone that „Sensuality" plays a huge role in it – and I am talking about sensuality in the purest sense of the word; the fulfilling of the senses. One can always see and feel that in your work. Up to your latest creation „Don Juan"“ (Note: originally created for The State Ballet Berlin, readapted for Vanemuine Theatre in Tartunow and now playing in Wrocław), “to go right into my first question – does perhaps a certain Béjart influence have something to do with it?"

He smiles and I can already feel that he has so much to say. „Well, in my work... where did this begin? Number one: No, not Maurice Béjart. I think that Béjart had a much more intellectual and philosophic approach to dance than I. I have absolutely not that kind of talent. His vision was that one cannot speak of abstractness in dance as long as a dancer´s body is on stage. So the inevitable perception of the flesh was already imbedded within me. Number two: it started with my very first choreography. Do you know that I used the sound of mating Eskimos?"

„Mating?" I say as he laughs a bit „OK, I see..."

„Yes. Basically, it was a piece called „Stück" (for it felt so unfinished that I did not want to give it a real title) and it was one of those choreographies made for that sort of Young Choreographer's „Events". This one was in Zürich the Studio Theatre of the Opera House. So, it was instinctively a possibility to work on what your mind was concentrating on. It was all about the sexual act and obviously, I used metaphors to not get into any pornography. It was all about the seduction, being together, and even the afterward' feelings, this sense of peace, well-being that gets you... „

„The lighting of the cigarette afterward... „ I say smiling.

„Exactly! For that I used a Lady “boureeing” on point with lots of balloons over her head which were attached to the strings of her hair, lifting it and moving it as a Medusa underwater, symbolizing that kind of feeling that you have when you feel completely „weightless", like being elevated to a new state of your perception to the „physical being". That is sensuality, the way it started playing a role in my work from the beginning. I guess... that you made me aware of that. I had never thought of it before – it was not a conscious decision.", he ponders. I guess I follow my credo that dance is the most vital of the arts and sex is the most vital and creative act.

„By far I don't know ALL your work... but from all I know, everything is not only filled with Sensuality, for this can be even the way one touches a cup", and I touch my cup of tea to show what I mean „but also with Beauty, which I tend to think is a required, necessary element for you"

„Yes, IT IS! It is and it has always been. For example, my elementary school teacher liked me very much. I had no idea why for I was the worst student ever", he laughs „She called me „l'esteta". I was terrible, I never studied anything, I was always making trouble but somehow, I was entertaining – later we found out that I was having an issue with excessive use of caffeine. Yes, too much coffee for a child – I was drinking as much as an adult - so I was always like under drugs, totally doped, high. And also highly opinionated about how things should run in class or even look. Yes, and she called me l'esteta (Note: aesthete). It all started instinctively. And senses can only get more acute due to awakened sensibility, the one you discover once you start learning Ballet – because... that is what it is all about. Beauty. Or at least, it should be!"

Beauty. We had landed on our main subject much sooner than I thought.

„Yes, a young kid, being confronted with his own image in front of the mirror, looking at others to learn, to recreate, to understand, to perform – always aiming for the better... „ he says in a way that I could feel his thoughts going further, walking down memory lane.

„I wonder, Giorgio, why we have to be confronted now with a kind of work that has nothing to do with beauty – in no sense" and I think how funny it is, that „in any way" can be also expressed by "in no sense", especially while talking of Beauty and Sensuality „and Art creators surround themselves with ugly thoughts, things, living and working in dark, "restless" rooms decorated with graffitis..."

"Some graffiti can be nice... Others are but violent and disturbed. This kind is an aberration. And, to be honest, if we open this paragraph, we are opening a Pandora's Box... The whole thing is that just now one is not allowed to talk about Beauty. We „should not" talk about Beauty. Some think that Beauty is not pertinent to Art! This is their version of an intellectual approach"

„I see... „ I say, really understanding his point of view and where he wants to get at.

„And it is "not pertinent to the Art" at present times. So much that you cannot describe a piece of Music being „beautiful" anymore. And neither a painting nor Dance. This wording „belongs" to the past and has a negative connotation. NOW. It does. Well, this is not MY opinion. It is a common opinion. Just think of how you haven't been reading in the last years sentences like„It is beautiful or it is not beautiful". Why? Because it is an adjective that belongs to another Century and therefore it is not "in" to still use it. The adjective that should be the „golden Number one"... But the radicalism of our present times, especially in Europe, by the, excuse me, „intellectually fucked-up" causes this reaction: People don't look back to analyze what is really important or to learn from past experiences. They ignore them."

Suddenly the word IGNORANCE comes to my mind. Ignorance: lack of Knowledge and/or Information.

"People don't ask „what fills me up?" anymore. Art has become just intellectualized and if you intellectualize something, you take the Beauty away from. Because you cannot give „logic" to Beauty. It is something that is neither logic nor coherent nor explainable„

„That goes completely in the opposite direction of my aim"

„Your aim?", he asks immediately.

„Of just looking at things more simply and being able to say: This is beautiful. Just to stand in front of Notre Dame de Paris or Michelangelo's Davide or „Springtime" from Botticelli, and just breathe deeply and say „Wow, Beautiful"! Just as simple as that!"

„I understand you, Ricardo, but as I said: „it belongs to the past". Think of it: If you read critiques, not yours, you'll see that a word like „Beauty" is derogative, and if you use this word you'll be laughed at. Beauty is something (now) considered to be superficial – because Beauty is aesthetic, it is not a deep concept. Therefore, it is not „essential". But if I'd start a new paragraph with „Beauty" and „Essential", I'm sure that we'd go into stuff to fill many, many pages. The answers and the needs for Beauty are innate in the Human being. It is the one thing that lifts the spirits and eventually, I'd say, the world"