NIPPON-KOKU

As Kieslowski did for many years in the eighties, La Veronal has wanted to create a Decalogue where every piece is located in or takes its inspiration from one country or city in the world - creating an analogy of dance and geography. The pieces are not intended as documentaries that directly describe the country but they use elements that the place name provides in order to develop an idea or an argument.   Imagine a group of high-ranking officials from some army in a strange place; they are supposedly powerful but they have nobody to order or instruct: no soldiers, civilians, hostages or servants. Isolated from any kind of civilisation, these anonymous leaders are out of play - removed from the notion of battle. Now everything is useless because the supposed war, which never happens, should be the most direct and real action whereas, here on this floating island of deactivated military personnel, action is as unreal as an hallucination occurring in a constant state of scepticism.   The emblematic figure of Yukio Mishima and his close relationship with notions of Fascism and Beauty help us to understand that, perhaps, there is not much difference between us and that imaginarily neutralised warlike group. Maybe we are all waiting impatiently in a last world like in a last abandoned barracks: training ourselves at all times for the next step, which we are yearning for but which terrifies us. Maybe we ourselves are - unwittingly - responsible for the outcome of events.
  Nippon-Koku is based around the idea of society and authority in order to raise doubts about who we are, where we are and the nature of our behaviour within the social game to which we are, whether we want to be or not, absolute accomplices.   This NIPPON-KOKU, an original work created for the Compañía Nacional de Danza, would form part of that general Decalogue of the group and is the first collaboration between the CND and La Veronal. La Veronal is made up of performers and artists from the arenas of dance, film, literature and photography. The aim of its artistic team lies directly in a constant search for new supports for expression and cultural references (film, literature, music and photography, mainly) that are committed to strong narrative language with the intention of forming global artistic spaces.

 Music: Luis Miguel Cobo
Assistant to the Coreographer: Lorena Nogal
Assistant of Dramaturgy: Roberto Fratini