Pere Faura

In 1979, Bob Fosse premièred All That Jazz, a semi-autobiographical film on the life of Joe Gideon, a choreographer addicted to work, drugs and sex, who constantly dreamt he was flirting with the angel of death. When the moment of his own death arrives, he sings and dances the song Bye Bye, Life, accompanied by women dancers dressed up as nerves and arteries, in monumental music-finale delirium, until the song is abruptly interrupted by the sound of his body being zipped up in a plastic body-bag.
Pere Faura wanted to dig up All That Jazz, as well as Bob Fosse's other scenes and choreographs, some iconic and others lesser known, to perform a present-day and personal autopsy and revive all its poetic, political and polemical potential. Each of the parts of the traditional mass for the dead is translated or transformed into a new cabaret scene. A fantastic, secular, reflective and festive liturgical sequence that blends Fosse’s glamour and intricacy on the idea of death so present in the texts of a requiem. A night-time, solemn, vulgar and entertaining ceremony, which gradually reveals the reasons, motives and frustrations that led the author to take the decision to bring to an end his professional life as a dancer. “It's not my body but the system's that’s old and rusty. It's increasingly hard to make a living from dancing. I’ve given up dancing.
But just you try and stop me having a ball... All I’ve got to do now is celebrate it.”
And to do that, Faura has brought together texts, songs, dances and video-screenings in a complex choreography for ten dancers and two musicians, Pere Jou and Aurora Bauzà, performing live, and special collaboration from Pere Arquillué. All that, to give shape to this slightly “undisciplinary” ritual that makes us reflect on the infeasibility of dance and the beauty of death. A brilliant funeral, with plenty of white feathers and pink glitz, to celebrate the moment of dying and departing, but in a lovely, special place between self-parody and political satire, between legacy of memory and the uncertainty of farewell, between the irony of life and the tenderness of death. 
Because of the special circumstances under which the Grec 2020 Festival is being held, its artists have faced restrictions and obstacles to their work, including lack of time for proper rehearsals and the need for respecting social distancing between performers. These circumstances have affected their creations, but, for all that, the artists are still eager to share the result of their work with audiences, at least to the point they have so far been able to develop it.
A Grec 2020 Festival de Barcelona, Mercat de les Flors and La Diürna co-production
Choreographer Pere Faura is the Mercat de les Flors’ resident artist this season. This show forms part of the Cèl·lula Project.
In collaboration with Camper.
With support from the Banc de Sabadell Foundation.
 

Conceived, directed and choreographed by: Pere Faura Stage concept and venue: Jordi Queralt Dramaturgy advisor: Marc Angelet Composer and conductor: Aurora Bauzà, Pere Jou (Telemann Rec.) 

Dancing performed by: Odo Cabot, Montse Colomer, Raffaella Crapio, Mario Garcia, Júlia Irango, Anamaria Klajnescek, Gloria March, Víctor Pérez Armero, Toni Viñals, Guillermo Weickert

In cooperation with: Pere Arquillué

Music performed by: Aurora Bauzà, Pere Jou 

Videocreators: Sergi Faustino Lighting design: Cube.bz Costume design: Adriana Parra Technical coordinator: Arnau Sala Sound space: Stéphane Carteaux Assistant director: Anna Serrano Assistant choreographer: Claudia SolWat  Executive producer: Clara Giménez (BlancProduccions) Administrator: Joan Gay Translations from latin: Neus Faura Training student (Institut del Teatre): Vicente RoldánPhotography: Tristán Pérez-Martín