Lili Elbe Show - Compagnia Riva e Repele

A true story. A private and intimate story that actually belongs to each of us. This apparently distant story is closer than it might seem thanks to the interpretation and choreographic writing of Sasha Riva and Simone Repele who explore the demon of human dissatisfaction, the need for acceptance that each of us demands from ourselves and the sense of inadequacy that often takes over.

This is the story of the landscape painter Einar Wegener and his wife, the portrait painter Gerda Wegener: a journey of transfiguration and metamorphosis told by an ironic actor/narrator, deus ex machina who, like a sort of puppeteer, unravels step by step this incredible story today interpreted through the magical lens of dance and choreography, after having been addressed in a book and a film.

In the clear and readable narration, a peculiar characteristic of Riva&Repele’s plays, two levels of reality appear in Lili Elbe Show: the story of Einar who, in his anxiety to find his own identity will become Lili and the level of the fairy tale, of the “spirits”, of the “ghosts” that wander around him/her.
A “petite femme fatale” sculpts Einar’s naked soul from the very beginning, but it is also the image of the desired daughter that Gerda and Einar have never been able to conceive even though they are driven by a deep and controversial desire for parenthood.

On the stage a mirrorless frame represents a “stargate”, a secret passage leading to this other dimension, where the visions of dreams are unleashed and where the “petite femme” is already Lili: a faithful silhouette of Einar’s most intimate emotions.
The frame also shows the strong and charismatic figure of Gerda who compassionately supports her husband in the search and affirmation of his final identity: she is the artist who was able to draw the exact image of Einar dressed as a woman on the canvas and these paintings made her famous.

The other unnamed figure, but with a strong male connotation, is the stereotype of the strong sex that embodies desire: the one that should be there, the one that in this story takes unexpected forms, the one that underlines the thorny “difference”.
The presenter is the interpretation of the destiny that is fulfilled, who already knows what the outcome will be and that only the protagonist is able to see: Einar sitting on a wheelchair, helped by all the characters dressed in white coats and operating instruments, transforms death into metamorphosis.
With poignant irony and impeccable taste, Einar therefore leaves the scene to Lili who is finally ready for her sparkling Show.

RIVA AND REPELE COMPANY - LILI ELBE SHOW

Ballet in one act choreographed by Simone Repele and Sasha Riva, inspired by the novel ispirato al romanzo
The Danish Girl, written in 2000 by David Ebershoff and made into a film in 2015, directed by Tom Hooper.
Duration: about 1 hour
Dancers:Sasha Riva, Simone Repele, Silvia Azzoni, Yumi Aizawa, Jamal Callender

MUSIC:
J. S. BACH
The Art of Fugue
Keyboard Concerto No.2
Sonata for Violin solo No.1, Presto
Sonata for Violin solo No.1, Adagio
Violin Partita No.2
Come, Sweet Death
Goldberg Variations: Aria
Concerto in D Minor: 2.Adagio
Suite No.3 in D Major
DAN HAUGAARD
Byssal Lull – Lullaby
Per Nilen Han Drager Sin Jolle Til Land