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LA CAPINERA Libretto, choreography, direction: Michele Merola Choice and adaptation of original music: Kiril Dzajkovski Set designer: Aleksandar Denic Costume designer: Jelena Malesevic Narratori text: Irina Markovic Assistent Choreographen Ashen Ataljanc Repetitor: Snezana Veskovic Cast: Ashen Ataljanc, Milan Rus, Danica Arapovic, Milan Gromilic, Katarina Cankovic, Elena Veskovic, Biljana Knezevic, Nina Kriuc,Tamara Martinovic, Iva Retrovie, Milica Pavlovic, Nebojsa Gromilic, Nemanja Naumovski, Igor Naumovski, Uros Petronijevic, Sasa Pavic, MiroljubTurajlija Production manager: Branislav Cerovic Stage manager: Ljiljana Golubovic Ivankovic Photographer: Milos Kodemo DIRECTOR'S NOTE Talking about the performance La Capinera is like talking about people's lives. This ìs thè story about pure feelings and situations that we all intimately know. La Capinera is a ballet about love and relationships that develop between two people. In a special way, ittalks about the pure and absolute ideal, iikefreedom, but in a specific way: freedom to express oneself, freedom to love,freedom to dream, freedom tobe what we are, without compromising, or losing oneself in a society that increasingly wants all of us tobe alike. A society in which nobody asks questions and in which there are no expectations. In this performance people meet, reveal themselves and love, in a context that is without time, without space and without belonging. The wails closing thè "bird" are not only thè monastery walls, as is thè case in thè story on which our performance is based, but it is the very consciousness that sometimes keeps people enclosed without giving them an opportunity to meet, to open up and love. Por all of us who worked on this performance it was thè road back, into our past, into thè memory of everyday little gestures that we do not consider important any more, evocation of past loves, disappointments and strong feelings. We tried tobe truthfull in each scene and to convey the state of the spirit through gestures, look and energy of movement. I thankto everybody who worked on this ballet and who made its realization possible. From the very beginning, the workon this performance was based on thè collaboration with Ashen, a true artist of unlimited talent and strength who alwaysfightsfor what she believes in, and to her I dedicate this performance. Through her dance on stage Ashen broughtto life women who meantsomething and who left their mark in my life, those who taught me courage to love and to fight until thè end. Michele Merola