Free dance workshop at the festival
Learn historical Polka Chinata dance from Italy Bologna at the Baltoscandal festival. The workshop will take place on July 9 at 14:00 in the assembly hall of Rakvere Gymnasium. The workshop is in English and the duration is 120 min. For attending the workshop please write: triinu@rakvereteater.ee.
Bolognese dance called Polka Chinata is a courtship dance originally performed by men only and dating back to the early 1900s: physically demanding, almost acrobatic, it requires that the dancers embrace each other, whirl as they bend to their knees almost to the ground. Dancers Gianmaria Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini will perform it in „Save the Last Dance for Me” in the assembly hall of Rakvere Gymnasium July 8 at 15.30 and 18; July 9 at 18.
Alessandro Sciarroni's „Save the Last Dance for Me” was created in collaboration with Giancarlo Stagni, a Filuzziani dance master who revived this ancient tradition thanks to the rediscovery and study of some documentation videos dating back to the 1960s. Sciarroni discovered this dance in December 2018 when the dance was practiced in Italy only by 5 people in total. For this reason, the project consists of a performance performed by the two dancers and a series of workshops aimed at spreading and reviving this popular tradition in danger of extinction.