FAÇADES (2024)
Melanie Suchy in Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“A captivating mix of humor and sadness … The six dancers are responsible for the physical simmering. Curving all parts of the body, crossing, throwing out the arms and legs, folding the upper body down. This never looks for a beautiful pose, but nervously and playfully breaks down the harmonious lines or symmetries of the baroque-based classical ballet … Anna Prohaska connects the music side with the dancers. She mixes with these and those, in pumps, barefoot, in a girly skirt, in a black evening dress. She sings early Baroque Italian arias about heartbreak, and it sounds so clear, so pure. Because, like the lute musicians, she doesn’t dramatize, she lets the melodies take their course, the slow ones, the excited ones, the trills, melismas, sighs, these little downward steps. Glass with heart …”
Verena Düren in Kölnische Rundschau
“Brilliant interplay of early music and modern dance … The evening was made a special experience by this interplay by Anna Prohaska, who shone in arias by Caccini, Cavalli, Barbara Strozzi and of course Monteverdi, the lautten compagney, that skillfully moved between early music and the minimal music by Philipp Glass, and the interpretation of the content by Emanuele Soavi incompany, who achieved a remarkable performance …”
THE DAY I BECAME A CLOUD (2023)
Thomas Hahn in tanz
“… Emanuele Soavi’s “The Day I Became A Cloud” is a strong piece … In the precise and dynamic geometry of his solos, duos, trios, etc., the first part of the evening reminds us of William Forsythe … The structural component of kinetics came in Paris especially in front of Matisse’s large-format murals into its own … It is the strength of such a choreographic vocabulary to be able to communicate with diverse universes …”
10 Jahre Emanuele Soavi incompany (2022)
Thomas Linden in Kölnische Rundschau
“… Shortly after its founding, the ensemble of the Ferrara-born Italian Emanuele Soavi was one of the pillars of Cologne’s independent dance scene. Nobody like him had ever been seen here. Productions with large stage sets were just as important as tiny scenes in hotel rooms. He exhibited his dancers naked as art objects in the opera and dealt with ancient gods as well as his own biography. No wonder that he continues to build a bridge between classical ballet and modern dance. Nowhere in Cologne you can see such professional dancers as in Emanuele Soavi’s productions …”
ORAKEL (2022)
Isabel Mankas-Fuest in Rheinische Post
“… The oracle, which functions like a portal, is mysterious and fascinating. It is a unique perspective on reality and on future visions of that reality. Visitors are repeatedly asked to listen carefully, look and ask specific questions about life now and in the future.”
FLUT (2021)
Verena Blatz Die Deutsche Bühne
“… In this “Flood” Beethoven’s almost 250-year-old music is transformed into modern dance so fantastically, as if there were no time difference between composition and choreography. Music becomes movement.”
Klaus Keil tanzweb.org
“… with this extraordinary dance evening, Emanuele Soavi has been acchieved a great success, brilliant, with humor and verve…”
Thomas Linden Kölnische Rundschau
“… This dissection of the Ego into a repertoire of movements, which still has humor in the expression of despair, demonstrates in a magnificent way the very specific possibilities of the art of dance … “
ATLAS (2018-2020)
ATLAS 3 – Blu Blu Blu (2020)
Thomas Zieler Tanzweb.org
“… Emanuele Soavi (choreography and idea) finds convincing correspondences on various levels for his concept of dealing with the body’s relationship to the world. With his manifold artistic means he succeeds in asserting and dissolving contrasts … A dance evening on an artificially high level and yet not detached from the audience. The audience can follow, experience, feel, recognize themselves in the events on stage, take an experience with them when they finally go out and find themselves in the field of tension between the self and the confusing world. One can only wish the dance-interested audience that after the Corona crisis there will be numerous opportunities to watch this remarkable dance production.“
Isabel Mankas-Fuest Rheinische Post Live Stream Festival tanz nrw 21
“… an exciting unity of music, dance and judo… great praise for the technology: The different camera angles made the evening a great experience even in your own four walls.”
ATLAS 2 – Dialog of One (2019)
Thomas Linden Kölnische Rundschau
“Can dance be political? Of course … With a large ensemble choreography, Soavi brings together historical greats such as Alfred Leschnitzer, Egon Wüst and Julius Hans Spiegel … From the ZZT in Turmstraße, the tour then went to six stations in the nocturnal Nippes … On the third floor of an old building, a woman lies on a bed. Lisa Kirsch slips into the identity of Anita Berber, this figurehead of modern dance. She does this with fragile grace, restrained anger and exhausted melancholy. The contribution of Taeyeon Kim is also impressive …”
ATLAS 1 – Any Body Sounds (2018)
Melanie Suchy Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“… Fantasy, orientation and natural communication all depend on sound originating from one and the same source. The art of ANY BODY SOUNDS is to disturb this kind of connection … avoiding clichés, sophisticated, well done …”
Bettina Trouwborst auf Tanzweb.org
“… Emanuele Soavi and Jone San Martin, two exquisite movement artists, each dance in their characteristic style… She, unmistakably a longtime Forsythe-dancer in his idiom of deconstruction, and he swiftly flowing, light-footed and immensely versatile.”
THE OFFENBACH PROJECT (2019)
Michael S. Zerbano-ton.online
“… the first thing Soavi does is to put an end to the idea that a Jacques Offenbach evening is being performed here. Quotations are welcome and plentiful, but the evening belongs to the Emanuele Soavi Incompany … The dancers inspire with excessive physical effort and accuracy … After 80 minutes the audience is in a rage. No more talk of Offenbach hits or imitations. Soavi convinces with his abstraction and lets himself and his team celebrate extensively.”
Thomas LindenKölnische Rundschau
“… There hasn’t been so much thoughtful dancing in Cologne’s free scene for a long time … A successful experiment that makes us aware once again of Offenbach’s humour and sparkling intelligence with brilliant dance sequences.”
#auferstanden (2018)
Stefan Rütter Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“… The beginning of ‘original sound’ expert Konrad Junghänel’s and choreographer Emanuele Soavi’s joint project #auferstanden at Kölner Philharmonie was quite impressive. What followed in the next 75 minutes was less of a theatrical and more of a musical concept … Soavi’s choral choreography cleverly transformed the music’s accentuated energies as coherently as the smooth ‘legato‘ … with great talent involving the singers too … Like that the musical part remained strong and ever-present …”
RELICS (2017)
Melanie Suchy TanzwebNRW:
“… An elegant, swift ease flowing through all dynamic shifts from fast to slow, presenting itself as an ocean waving through single bodies or letting them swirl, lifting the whole group up and pushing it forward, making the dance a feast for the eyes.”
Nicole Strecker Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger:
“… Later on, during an unleashed dance on Bach music followed by the newly arranged, electronic Baroque sound by Wolfgang Voigt, it feels as if this breathtaking choreography with its sharp-edged furniture reminisces about a relic of younger dance history: William Forsythe’s classic ‘One Flat Thing Reproduced’ …”
THE HABIT CYCLES (2014-2017)
ANIMA (2017)
Nicole Strecker TanzwebNRW:
“… A horror trip about the ever so human assumption that there is more between heaven and earth than we know of. Depressingly intimate and uncanny as if being part of a nightmare movie by David Lynch.”
Thomas Linden Kölnische Rundschau:
“… A production that challenges its audience’s mindset, offering a little adventure.”
LVMEN (2016)
Nicole Strecker TanzwebNRW
“… Astounding image citations, aesthetic diversity, a change of perception – “LVMEN” offers and explores a lot … At last this fascinating “LVMEN” photo-dance-studio is also: a philosophical digression on the dimensions of time. Where dances rushes, photography drags behind. When the image is projected onto the screen, the bodies in motion have already entered a completely new state. A power struggle between past and present, photography and dance. A draw. This highly recommendable evening has definitely two winners.”
Melanie Suchy Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“… The man with the camera chases moments. His prey appears only seconds later, projected onto a huge screen. Magnificent… As if the dancers, during those 70 minutes that never seem to lose their attraction, would not just constantly ask ‘How do I look?’ but also ‘What do you see in me?’.”
Dick van Tejlingen Theaterkrant
“… Das sind starke Bilder. Gnadenlos auch: Jede Ader, jede Furche und Falte, erscheint überlebensgroß auf dem Bildschirm … Schöne Bilder, auch ohne Nachbearbeitung. Der Kontrast zwischen den Menschen, die ihr Bestes geben, der Bewegung, und dem Mann, der sein Bestes gibt, diese einzufrieren, ist faszinierend.”
PARADISUS? (2015)
Norbert Raffelsiefen Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“… An appealing game spurred by the dancers’ dynamic choreographies.”
Günter Pick tanznetz.de
“… A must-see! … Almost everything a contemporary Commedia dell’arte could achieve is being brought to life for us here.”
Thomas Linden in Kölnische Rundschau
“… A theatrical overkill.”
AUREA – Installation (2017/2021)
Thomas Linden Kölnische Rundschau Live-Stream 21
“… once the dancing figures have come into action and are allowed to talk about energy, beauty and passion, the close-up camera view proves its worth and captures the excellence of the ensemble in an exhilarating way …”
AUREA – Variations on Bach (2015/2018)
Marion Etienne FLZ
“… Stirring, enthralling moments condensed in a sometimes lost, often surreal black and golden flood of images determinedly drifting by in an exciting rhythm.”
Ingo Hoddick Rheinische Post
“… an interesting dialectic of rationality and sensibility, chaos and structure, destruction and construction, mathematics and love, man and woman, catastrophe and beauty, Old Music and new dance. Visitors, dancers and musicians found their way into a clever communion of the arts. Not just for dance freaks and Bach enthusiasts.”
AUREA – Solo (2014)
Melanie Suchy Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“… making the struggle between construction and vibrancy – one of the major topics in dance – strikingly visible.”
Klaus Keil auf TANZwebKOELNBONN
“… For choreographer Emanuele Soavi, these first biblical lines were his “source of inspiration and starting point” for this solo performance proving once more that he is one of the best and most expressive dancers of Cologne’s dance scene. … Due to their slowness these minimal movements gain an incredible intensity, binding the audience’s gaze and attention in a remarkable way. In these moments of expressiveness in dance the collaboration with choreographer Susanne Linke shows … Even the piano with Thomas Wansing, who accompanies the performance with a sensitive composition based on motifs by Johan Sebastian Bach, completely vanishes in the dark. His at first soft tunes suggest that even in the darkest corners faint traces of humanity exist … AUREA is a strong beginning for a long-term dance-research project.”
Bettina Trouwborst Westdeutsche Zeitung
“… A impressive dance production … deserted and dark is the earth, the place Susanne Linke staged in cooperation with Emanuele Soavi as the origin of all life … With a steady hand the great choreographer created the archaic. Pianist Thomas Wahnsing accompanied the development with a gentle improvisation on Johann Sebastian Bach.”
MYTH PROJECT (2010-2014)
SEDUCED and SEDUCER (2014)
Pedro Obiera WAZ:
„… One of the most exciting stage projects of late.“
Nicole Strecker TANZweb.org:
„… Eight Soavi-fied dancers that are real stage animals: wild, fast, unrestrained – in a nutshell: Fantastic. In “Daedalus/Dreams“ every fibre of their bodies longs for extension and independence. Amazing how this choreography exposes the scientist’s hubris, whose irresponsible ingenuity creates monsters: the mythological Minotaur as well as the annihilating war machine. The third part (“ARIADNEamore“) concentrates on Emanuele Soavi’s mesmerising vocabulary of movement. … A dance about grief and anger by desperately lovesick, long-haired and women in long gowns as if it was a production by Pina Bausch … An obvious homage marks also the highlight of the evening: Soavi’s superbly bold „PANsolo“. He quotes the distinct poses of Vaslav Nijinsky’s ballet „L’apres midi d’un faune“; there is no better interpretation of those movements than Soavi’s. Soavi as sensual horror creature and dancer, choreographer, charming boy and organiser of a Dionysic dance ecstasy, during which that which cannot be calculated maintains the tension. Hard to imagine anyone else doing that.”
ARIADNEamore (2013)
Sabine Rother Aachener Nachrichten:
„… A highlight of this year’s Schrittmacher Festival … Soavi creates superb imagery … a kaleidoscope of conflicting emotions … danced by brilliant and highly motivated members of an unusual company.“
METAMORPHOSIS!individual (2013)
Melanie Suchy Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger:
„… For METAMORPHOSIS!individual Soavi worked with two dozens of young dancers from four different countries; an organisational mega-project with great results.“
PAN (2011)
Elisabeth Einecke-Klövekorn Bonner Generalanzeiger:
„… Emanuele Soavi invents aesthetically fascinating, innovative forms of movement for the open mind in a fragmented universe dissolving all sense of self-awareness.”
DAEDALUS//DREAMS (2010)
Dorothea Marcus Kölner Theaterzeitung AKT:
„… A multi-dimensional, brilliantly composed evening with fragments of myths and memories leading deep into one’s own head, all of which is achieved on an extremely high level of dance.“
BLACKBIRDBOY (2012)
Melanie Suchy >tanz<:
„… Soavi, accompanied by Stefan Bohne’s soundscape made of noises and long, even metallic sounds, throws some impressive scenes around… Soavi as a dancer is an expert; the fact that he does not have to prove it anymore is playfully depicted, carefully working his charm.“