Marco Rogante
 
An introduction for Incoherism
 
 
A great Italian choreographer, that has been one of my masters, often says: “Only who knows truth, can really lie. The actor is a liar, so he knows very well the truth”.
My name is Marco Rogante, I’m born in 1981 in Udine, a little city in the north-east of Italy, near the frontier with Slovenia and Austria. When, after the high school, I had to choose what to do in life, I was in doubt: science or theater. In both matters I was quite good, but finally I chose theatre because it seemed to me the most direct way to truth.
I studied in the drama academy in Udine, then I began professional work: after some classical style performances - like “Indemoniate” (Possessed) directed by Massimo Somaglino - and some experiences in cinema - as “Alza la testa”(Raise the head) with Sergio Castellitto and the direction of Alessandro Agelini -, has been natural for me to specialize in that borderland which, in Italy, is often called physical or dance theatre.
Although I never studied dance before my twenties, I had a very good physical condition and corporal sensibility, developed since childhood by martial arts practice, that allowed me to learn quickly the basis of contemporary dance. I worked with Balletto Civile of Michela Lucenti in performances like “Ketchuptroiane” and “Salomon”, with Arerea of Roberto Cocconi, with the company of Michele Abbondanza and Antonella Bertoni: they are all direct pupils of big masters of the stage, like Jerzy Grotowski, Pina Bausch, Carolyn Carlson.
Sometimes I engage in writing too: probably my best works are a collection of short stories in gothic-noire style called “Cronache Inverse” (Inverted Chronicles), and a little novel, “La Donna Bianca” (The White Woman), winner of the 4th prize in the Internation Literary Contest “Giovanni Gronchi”.
I continue the practice of Martial Arts too, in particular Pentjak Silat from the Indonesian Archipelago, and Yi Quan, essence of internal Chinese styles: I’ve chosen them because in both found the original meaning of Martial (killing) and Art (spiritual evolution).
Another man that I consider a master once told me: “Martial arts are the most powerful path for personal evolution, because they deal directly with life and death” and then he added: “But the core principle of fighting is the same of jazz and dance.”
Little time after engaging with theater, I began my “explicit” initiatic path… Initiation involves dying; action on the stage is, like orgasm, a little death. Martial Arts, Initiation and Art - three souls that now reveal themselves as different aspects of the same thing: the search for truth… or better, for Reality.