Department of Italian

PERFORMANCE 2009

* UPDATE *

The final workshop will take place on Saturday March 7th. Download full details about it here.

The performance will be on April 25th. It will be a promenade performance in Robinson College beginning at 6.30 and moving around its courts, culverts and Chapel. Importantly, this performance will culminate in a buffet supper where, we hope, informal discussion can take place, regarding Dante's work, the performances themselves and, above all, the future possibilities of encouraging collaboration and experimentation in the arts across the University and between the Colleges.

We are charging a nominal fee of �5 if you register before March 5th. Therafter, the fee will be �8. It covers both the workshop AND the performance on April 25th, and includes refreshments at the performance. Please bring your completed registration form and either �5/�8 in cash , or a cheque made payable to 'Robinson College' to the first of the events which you attend. Download a registration form. Alternatively, please send your registration form and fee to Mrs Nan Taplin, Department of Italian, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA.

A new group - comprising professionals and established composers, choreographers, film-makers and writers - is being set up this year to collaborate with student performers in all of the following fields:

Drama Music

Film

Dance Poetry

The aims of the group are

to create experimental works in workshops and master classes

and

to stage these original pieces on April 25th 2009.

Using a number of unusual architectural spaces in Robinson College, the stagings will aim to provoke continuing discussion between performers and audience and to lay the foundations for continuing collaboration and experimentation in subsequent years.

Initially, the project will be supported by Robinson College, the Italian Department, the English Faculty Drama Studio, Members of the Music Faculty and the Contemporary Dance Club. All comers are welcome at all levels of interest, whether as participants or as members of the audience. Registration for the coming year (payable to the Italian Department, c/o Nan Taplin) will be at the rate of �5 which will include entrance to two workshops and to the April showing (where drinks will be provided).

Those who are interested should contact one of the following:

Robin Kirkpatrick (rk22@cam.ac.uk), Professor of Italian and English Literatures
Jennifer Hersch (jlh68@cam.ac.uk) of the University Contemporary Dance Group, who will organize the dance elements.
Jeremy Thurlow (jrt26@cam.ac.uk), DoS in Music at Robinson College, who will be concerned with all matters musical.
Nan Taplin (nt272@cam.ac.uk) who, as Italian Department Secretary, will collect subscriptions and organize timetables.

Dante 2009

In the inaugural year, the programme will take its theme from Dante's Commedia. This poem has always invited artists in other forms to respond to and interpret the original text. An example is the visualization of Hell offered by Botticelli (above) who produced illustrations of every one of Dante's 100 cantos. Our performance group has already begun to bring together experimental pieces by established artists, graduates and undergraduates. Others are expected to be developed in the course of the year. And ideas will be welcome from all who are interested.

These suggestions may refer to opportunities in all the arts in which we are interested, whether, dance, drama, poetry, music or film. Robin Kirkpatrick will be glad to receive these suggestions and to establish contacts between performers in all our areas of interest.

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