A Johnny Caged Community
Duration 60 minutes
Concept/Development Clint Lutes & Maurizio Grandinetti
Choreography / Performance Clint Lutes
Compostion / Music Performance Maurizio Grandinetti
Additional Music Composition John Cage
Additional Conceptual Development Doreen Markert
Costume Joachim Schlömer
Produced by the Festspielhaus Sankt Pölten (Austria) with additional support from Le Pacifique | CDC Grenoble, Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts, Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Basel (Switzerland) and a stipend from the Berliner Kultursenat.
Being thrown together by Joachim Schlömer, director at Festspielhaus St. Pölten, for 2 days was a very fruitful beginning for Clint Lutes and Maurizio Grandinetti. The resulting 5-minute improvised performance with Maurizio being wheeled around on a cart (by a dancing Clint) playing music from John Cage prompted Joachim to invite them back to continue their mischief in the form of an evening-length piece that continues to morph with each ensuing presentation.
Maurizio Grandinetti is a bit of a John Cage master, having transposed some works for prepared piano to be played on a classical guitar. Using these works and all things John Cage as fodder for their creative research, Clint and Maurizio ventured down a path concerned with communal responsibility and participation, chance operations and physical communication.
A 3-week residency in his hometown of Trumansburg, New York, funded by the Berliner Kultursenat’s Dance Stipend, led Clint through interviews with family and friends, rehearsal showings to community members and dance classes for local youth. Continued work at the Weltecho Chemnitz (D), Le Pacifique | CDC Grenoble (F) and Theater Freiburg (D) brought out the importance of a playful and flexible space and of manipulation of audience and their expectations in the performance.
At all times, Clint and Maurizio attempt to maintain an open communication between themselves and the audience and leave space that can be filled (or not) with audience participation. Playing with the audience’s comfort zone and on their feelings of empathy, Clint’s character hovers between a charming host and a devilish little brother, both inviting and menacing. He attempts to teach a piece of choreography to an audience member and to tell a story to the audience, both without using words. Maurizio challenges himself with multiple instruments, effects and styles, and is rolled around on a cart.
With each performance, the two creators adapt the piece according to the space and are experimenting with involving other artists. The two will perform the piece in a music festival in the south of Italy, collaborating with a toy pianist, a second guitarist and a violinist. Clint has also created a 20-minute version of the piece that can be performed with or without Maurizio.
HISTORY
September 2009 First meeting between Clint and Maurizio at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten resulting in a performance as part of the Opening Gala.
July/August 2010 Residency for Clint in the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts (New York) enabled by the Dance Stipend from the Cultural Senate of Berlin. This period of work contained rehearsals and a presentation at the Conservatory, interviews with community members and classes for local youth.
January 2011 Meetings and brainstorming.
March/April 2011 Rehearsals in and supported by Le Pacifique | CDC Grenoble (France) as well as in and by the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Basel (Switzerland)
May 4, 2011 Premiere Festspielhaus St. Pölten (Austria)
May 13, 2011 Performance Kammerbühne, Theater Freiburg (Germany)
December 2011 Development of 20-minute version with ensuing Performance at Noel au Balcon in Grenoble (France)
June 2012 Performance – 20-minute version at La Rampe, Echirolles (France)
July 2012 Performance – 20-minute version at Festival Format, Vals-les-Bains (France)
August 2012 Performance – full version Festival Ritratti, Monopoli (Italy) See PHOTOS here. For this version we incorporated 3 more musicians – Pablo Montagne, Valeria Sirangelo and Hwa-Jin Lee
October 2012 Performance – 3 presentations 20-minute version at La Ponatiere, Echirolles (France)
June 2013 Performance – full version Festspielhaus Sankt Poelten (Austria) joined by Pablo Montagne
November 2013 Performance – 20-minute version at La Jetee, Neyrac-les-Bains (France)
June 2014 Performance – 20-minute version at Rencontres Choregraphiques, Voreep (France)
May 2015 Performance – 20-minute version at Theatre Jean-Vilar, Bourgoin-Jallieu (France)
June 2015 Performance – 20 minute version at Ecole Normale Superieur – Paris
April 2016 Performance – full version at the Kulturscheune Liestal in Basel, Switzerland
June 2016 Performance – 20-minute version at New York University, NYC
Video 20-minute version:
Trailer:
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
The guitarist MAURIZIO GRANDINETTI is engaged in exploring and extending the boundaries of his instrument. His activities span across solo recitals, contemporary and chamber music and improvisations, performing also on electric guitars, and accompanying himself with several electronic devices. He interprets classical-romantic repertoire on an 1820 Lacote instrument.
Maurizio Grandinetti was born in Lamezia Terme, Southern Italy, in 1964. He graduated cum laude at the Bari Music Conservatory, he transferred to Switzerland to continue his training under the guidance of Oscar Ghiglia at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel and with Frank Bungarten at the Lucerne Music Conservatory, where he got his soloist diploma. He then went on to Basel to study with the lutenist Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he specialized in early music and original instruments.
His vast, poliedric repertoire is particularly oriented towards contemporary and avant-garde music. He has premiered several works by Rebecca Saunders, Vinko Globokar, Jürg Wyttenbach, Alex Buess, Wolfgang Heininger, Tim Hodgkinson, Gwyn Pritchard, Rudolf Kelterborn andHeinz Holliger.
He has interpreted several guitar concertos : with the Basel Sinfonietta, the Katowice Chamber Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Milano Classica Orchestra, among others.
He has been invited to play across Europe and China as a soloist by prestigious organizations: the Lucerne International Festival, the Venitian Fenice Theatre, Radio Bremen, Output Festival Amstrdam, Silesian days of Contemporary Music Katowice.
He is a member of the Basel Phoenix Ensemble and often plays with important European Ensembles. One of his latest performances was Pli selon Pli under the baton of author/conductor Pierre Boulez.
In 2003 a new CD with music for the solo guitar by John Cage & John Dowland, was released by the Italian CD del Manifesto. More of his recordings can be found under the German Collegno label.
Maurizio teaches at the Monopoli Music Conservatory and runs workshops on contemporary music.
CLINT LUTES first studied Theater, then completed a BFA in Dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has worked with Joy Kellman, Joachim Schlömer, Maya Lipsker, Melanie Lane, Johannes Wieland, Yann Lheureux, Eun Me Ahn, Brian Brooks Moving Company and Christoph Winkler, among others.
Clint’s work has been presented in Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Austria, South Korea and the U.S.A. His current productions, A Johnny Caged Community and Did You Say Something premiered in 2011. He has created works for the Vis Motrix Company in Thessaloniki (2007), posttheater Berlin/New York/Tokyo (2008), pvc Tanz Freiburg/Heidelberg (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) and Festspielhaus St. Pölten (2009, 2011). His current collaborators include Tommy Noonan (Brother Brother), Maurizio Grandinetti (A Johnny Caged Community) and Monica Gillette/Angelika Thiele (Did You Say Something?). He also participated in the creation of several ice skating productions for live performance and television with Katarina Witt as well as on a circus/cabaret production with the Chamäleon Theater in Berlin.
Clint was the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the LUCKY TRIMMER Tanz Performance Serie in Berlin from 2004-2010 (www.luckytrimmer.com) and lived in Berlin from 2002-2011. In 2006 Clint attended the danceWEB scholarship program at ImpulsTanz in Vienna where he became involved with the Sweet & Tender Collaborations. He has also participated in THE VILLAGE (Tanznacht Berlin) and IDOCDE (International Documentation of Contemporary Dance Education).
He has taught classes (Contemporary Technique) and workshops (Communicating Movement, Solo Improvisation Performance, Physical Dance History) for Sasha Waltz & Guests, Australian Dance Theater, CCN Rillieux-la-Pape, Seneca Intensiv, Options Dance Festival, Le Pacifique | CDC Grenoble, CND Lyon, Stadttheaters Freiburg, Saarbrücken and Osnabrück, Suwon University, Kookmin University and the Seoul Performing Arts High School. He now resides in Grenoble, France.
CLINT LUTES 
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