Dancefloor – the world on the dance floor

ORCHESTRA OF PIAZZA VITTORIO

Houcine Ataa, voice

Emanuele Bultrini, guitars,

Peppe D’Argenzio, tenor and soprano saxophone

Ernesto Lopez Maturell, drums,

Roman Villanueva, trumpet

Carlos Paz Duque, voice, Andean flutes;

Pino Pecorelli, electric bass

Pap Samb, vocals, percussion;

Raul Scebba, percussion

Marcello Tirelli, piano and keyboards ,

Ziad Trabelsi, voice, oud

A show dedicated to dance, rhythm and music that transcends genres, styles and nations to tell the story of a utopia come true. This is Dancefloor, the new concert of the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio – OPV, the unique multiethnic ensemble founded in 2002 with the idea of creating a stable orchestra of musicians from different countries and cultures. A project that redefined the very concept of World Music, inspiring dozens of similar experiences in Italy and around the world, and making the orchestra the tangible sign of a possible bet: to hold together different continents, with their cultures, sounds and history.

“Dancefloor” will review this exciting journey, through the stages of the history of an ensemble that has meanwhile become a stable and now well-established lineup that, starting with traditional music, mixing and dipping it with rock, pop, reggae, and classical, has taken genres and sounds mostly unknown to the general public around the world’s stages and theaters.

The new show will be a return to the Orchestra’s roots in which music, rhythm and dance will again be the sole protagonists. From the soundscapes of the album “Wooden Island.” hybrid that juxtaposes folk with jazz, tablas with strings, drums with woodwinds, and original compositions in the very first performance-which will be part of the new record soon to be released-as per OPV’s tradition, the evening’s set list will be a journey between countries, cultures and languages. There will be the sensual atmospheres of Bolivian cumbia, with women dancing by raising and moving the flaps of their skirts in time; Berber dances with short, colorful fringed headscarves; the sacredness and repetitiveness of gesture in Sufi chanting; and the cadenced, rhythmic steps of the music of the Andes. But one will also hear certain atmospheres characteristic of the Italian 1960s and the political engagement of Afro Beat and the lighthearted cheerfulness of Arab reggae, actually nonexistent as a genre in its own right. And that is because as always OPV does not reproduce styles but reinterprets them by creating a way of making music that makes it recognizable and unique.