Dewey Dell, biography / interview

Dewey Dell (IT) was formed in 2007 by four young people: Teodora, Demetrio, Agata Castellucci and Eugenio Resta. They have strong skills in different areas. This took each of them to give priority to a specific aspect of the work, without giving up a collective modeling of materials. Teodora is therefore author of choreographies, Demetrio composes the music, Eugenio designs the lights and takes care of the technical aspects of production, while Agata assists in choreographic creation and looks after aspects of organization. Since 2007 Dewey Dell has created different works: à elle vide (2007), KIN KEEN KING (2008), Baldassarre (2009), Cinquanta Urlanti Quaranta Ruggenti Sessanta Stridenti (2010), Grave (2011/12) and various forms of live concert, in collaboration with Black Fanfare, the musical group of Demetrio Castellucci, Black Fanfare//Dewey Dell (2011) and Tuono (2012). The new project for 2013 is in collaboration with two Japanese artists, Kuro Tanino from the theatre company Niwagekidan Penino as a assistant director, and Yuichi Yokoyama, a comic artist illustrator as the costume designer. Since 2007 Dewey Dell is part of Fies Factory, a project by Centrale Fies. The name Dewey Dell is a tribute to Faulkner and to the young girl of “As I lay dying“, under whose look the company prepares itself to wander towards the abyss.

www.deweydell.com

Foto: Dewey Dell

Foto: Dewey Dell

INTERVIEW

G: Where are you starting from and how?

DD: Dewey Dell was born in 2007 with the creation of our first work “à elle vide“. At that time we didn’t know yet that what we were doing would become what might be called a profession, a vocation, that what we really wanted to do in our life. We only knew that to bring our ideas alive and accessible to an audience we needed theater, with the darkness, with a start and a precise end; we just felt the urgency to bring into life the figures that lived in our minds. Drawings weren’t enough, videos were too cold and distant; we wanted a close relation with the audience, like dogs sniffing some feelings from humans we wanted to breathe the vision of people. Year by year, this sensation has been consolidated and we are absolutely convinced that the media is like the language, and as a real native one, it is closest to the pure sincerity of the spirit. Even if the company is 6 years old now, we still don’t have a proper method which we use as a “secure” process for each work. On the contrary we are always careful not to repeat our ways of working. What we desire is to be surprised by ourselves, in the meaning of being able to change to rediscover situations, topics, sensations that we, firstly, want to live at full force.

G: Which way are you going?

DD: As we wrote before, when we started we weren’t absolutely aware about what we were doing, but each of us had already different and precise skills that we lived as personal vocations. What we did was to put all together these vocations (creating music, creating scenography, creating choreography..) in an harmony in order to create a show. We never studied in a school, we are autodidacts and our education is actually doing what we are doing – with all the risks that this fact could bring! Influences are very important for this reason. We really love some visual artists or some film directors, from the past but from the present as well, we adore to learn from some comic designers too, we have learnt more from them than from the dance and theater spectacles we see around us. Music, as well, is really important, we are absolutely convinced that to make dance it means also to be extremely updated with new music. They are profoundly linked in the souls.

 

G: Where are you going to?

DD: We don’t know so much about the future, we usually don’t like to project long horizons, but we like to remain in the simplicity of going forward project by project. We can feel the need to expand our work in other fields but not in the meaning that we want to change our media, but just to fill it with other elements, to create new vortex of input and desires, new ways to work together, also with other people. Our aim will remain the same though: being able to surprise the audience, but not by replacing the concept of “beauty” with the concept of “shock” (as, to be honest, it is happening right now in the world of art in general), but by considering the audience as a catch and surrounding it with strong emotions linked to clear meanings, far from being just fast surprises.