Oli is a young dancer from a prestigious German dance academy, who quickly reveals his turbulent nature and his indomitable desire for “something more”: his dream is to break out of modern dance to dance to a musical pace in Broadway theatres. like him We follow the protagonist’s journey, a path marked by ups and downs, and made up of fleeting and fleeting encounters that often reflect the turbulent nature of the young man..
Dance! It won the Fauve Révelation at the 2021 Angoulême Festival and was brought to Italy by Tunué. author Moran MazarsAlready winner of the Jeune Bande Dessinée Prize for the City of Geneva in 2015, she has her artistic roots in self-production and is the co-founder of the Casual Friday art group that expresses itself exclusively on Swiss soil.

In the original version choose the title Dance!, in German, reveals the author’s desire to identify geographical characteristics of a very specific starting point in the story. It might have also made sense in the Italian version to keep the German language of the title: Olly is a gay man, dancer, living in Germany in the fifties of the last century; We immediately meet the gracefulness of the character who is represented by a soft zigzag line, in the same way as his “light” character, not very tangible and prone to daydreaming. Watercolor palettes help to maintain harmony and light for the narration, despite the choice of a wide palette and very bright colors.
Contrasted with some dark tables, this whirlwind of bright colors contrasts with the spread of blackness and disturbing air: it represents Oli’s dreams, or rather his nightmares. Some of these tables literally open the comic book and the reader immediately realizes the dual nature of the hero’s soul. Opposition continued throughout the story, On the one hand, the liveliness and lightness of a young man full of hope, and on the other hand the anxiety and suffering of a young man who does not find his place in the world..

The bodies of the dancers, and in particular the body of the hero, play a central role in the representational choices of the author, who proposes several tables with drawings that contain not very specific details, but at the same time plastic: real style exercises that highlight the anatomical drawing capabilities of female farmers. We can’t talk about realism, but The care that goes into representing human characters Reveals the intent to give you prominence, both in static and moving poses. The latter in particular cover an important area in the book and entire tables are reserved for them, sometimes two whole pages, only to represent not individual dance steps, but an entire choreography. In this regard, it is interesting how at the end of the volume the writer wanted to devote a few pages to remembering the artists and artists who inspired her in crafting the storyboard. Among them we find Rudolf Laban (a Hungarian dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance theorist), Marie Wegmann (a German dancer, choreographer and teacher, among the first to speak of expressive dance and choreotherapy) and educational Kurt Joss (a German dancer and choreographer), founder of the Folkwang-Hoschule in Essen , told the starting point of Ollie’s story in the comic).

While the human characters are handled in such a way that the viewer can perceive the detailed grace of each flexed or tensed muscle, the same style is not limited to the backgrounds. Color spots define the shapes of the buildings and what is in the background as if they were elements from an impressionist painting: The watercolor technique certainly fits in well with this slightly blurred pattern on the background where the details are not well defined, but simply hinted at. In spite of this, entire tables are devoted to representing the famous buildings of the cities Ole goes to, as well as placing the generated spatial passages in their context, as well as with a commentary at the beginning of the chapter. In particular, Berlin, London, and New York stand out with dedicated tables, like postcards of cities in which the protagonist gains experience.

The dancer’s path seems to be heavily influenced by the dance, which to the superficial eye might seem the only reason to live, the only possibility for happiness. However, upon a closer look, it is seen as a constant search for a place that is always further, always better, seeking new opportunities every time betrayed by grief and inadequacy that conflicts with the results Olly gets as a dancer. Dancing almost takes the role of consolation, kind of a Linus blanket. This anxiety also appears in the relationships that Olly established: not only do his temporary relationships seem to indicate the desire for freedom, even sexual, which one might expect from a young man, but here too the search for a deeper and more stable feeling is illuminated. Via. When he finally thinks he’s found someone to share more than one night of sex with, without reciprocating, he finds himself once again confronted with his own ghosts, and falls into a whirlwind of sadness and sense of inadequacy.

Dance! talk to everyone and everyone; Although it revolves around a very specific area, which is the dance area, it goes beyond it. It is possible to try to replace this passion with any other passion and we will get the same result. It is the story of a man who dedicates himself his body and soul to his work, to his passion, all the while maintaining a frosty facade that does not match the truth of his underwear.. It probably isn’t a step anyone should take in their adulthood process

We talked about:
Dance!
Moran Mazars
Translated by Stefano Andrea Christi
Tonoy, 2021
248 pages, hardcover, color – €21.00
ISBN: 9788867904457

Moran Mazars: Search, Meditation, Desire for Freedom