This summer, Greenwich Dance will be celebrating love in all its forms with From Greenwich with Love a new work by award-winning choreographer and Rendez-Vous dance artistic director Mathieu Geffré.
From Greenwich with Love will include a series of love duets based on real Greenwich based love stories told by the community and performed by six amazing professional dancers.
Meet Paolo, one of the cast members, where he shares all things love and life with us here at Greenwich Dance
From Paolo with Love
It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important. – Little Prince
Looking for…my home
What does Love mean to You?
I don’t think I know what exactly love is because I could not describe it with words.
Love is for me something that makes me live the moment and not think of nothing else.
Love is a gesture. It is a cuddle from you mother and a text from a friend that you don’t hear for a long time.
It’s a sunny day after a week of raining and you have all day to enjoy it.
It’s Spritz on the beach
It’s the smile of your nephew from a phone camera and It’s crying when you have nothing else to do.
Love is fighting with your partner while you fixing your Ikea furniture or better It is crying in Ikea because you don’t want that wardrobe that he really likes. (True Story!!)
It’s making him choose the film to watch even though you don’t like it because he knows that you will sleep anyway.
It’s your father coming to pick you up from the airport. It is the text to you mother saying that you take the plain that it brings you away from her.
It’s being alone for Christmas and being invited from a stranger for a Christmas party.
Love is the email that finds you well even it you didn’t want to.
Love is the pizza when you are hungry and you had a bad day.
Love is the hug from a friend that you thought you lost.
Love is a memory that shows when you didn’t expect.
Love is my dance, it is in my body because I cannot do otherwise.
Love is Home and Home is love.
Whats your Favourite Love Song?
Your song by Elton John…no one never dedicated it to me though. But I prefer the Moulin Rouge version, sorry John!
What/Who was your First Love?
I am not going to say a lot about this. I took these pictures when I started discovering what love really means and from that night, it was a roller coaster of emotions. It was all new for me and the other person didn’t expect that at all.
What Movie Title best Describes your Life/Love Life?
Eat Clean Love!
I am not a cooker but I clean and tidy the house. I even enjoy ironing!
Dog or Cat Person?
Neither, sorry! My mother had never wanted one because she was scared. I think she passed that on to me. My partner is trying so hard to get us a puppy, but I am irremovable.
When did you Encounter Dance as a Practice? Was it Love at First Sight?
I can’t remember when I started dancing because I have always been dancing. As I was very hyperactive child, dance helped to concentrate all my energy. I remember (probably through memory of other) I would dance the macarena everywhere, probably the macarena it has been the first choreography that I learn.
Sun/Moon Rising? (Zodiac placements…if you know)
I don’t believe in zodiacs, or better it is not something that I am interested in. Every time that I said to a new person that I am cancer, they always say: I could sense a cancer energy from you. I just don’t know what that means.
How different was your life one year ago?
To be honest, my life hasn’t changed that much. It got a bit better probably. I connected more with myself, finding a new routine that suited the freelance life more. My schedule is still unpredictable but it was like this even before the pandemic.
What was the first thing you did when the restrictions lifted, that you couldn’t do before?
Meet friends and go shopping. I missed both, terribly. I may be a little bit of a shopaholic, but I missed being able to walk and buy things in a shop. I missed ringing a friend to meet for a coffee.
What does your name mean to you?
I am very attached to my name and It is very special. I like it. Once my father’s friend told him that having the same initial for the last name and first name is a sign of good luck.
Did you find love (from a distance) during the pandemic?
I found more love in my loving relationship as we had more time together than before, more time to hate and love each other.
Do you think once you love someone, you will ALWAYS love them? Or do you think love can fade?
Yes, I think so. True love is something so deep that once shared you can’t take it back, it is a piece of your self that you give to another person and they are giving back a piece of their self to you. It can change and it could be expressed in a different way but the feeling is always the same.
Describe your perfect date night (romantic or platonic).
Probably my date night doesn’t exist because it would be more of a date day. It would very simply be a new city to explore, walk around new streets, visit places that you haven’t seen before. After and exhausting walking, late lunch with something special.
Whats the last show you binged?
Special, season 2 on Netflix.
Since the lockdown has eased and the new normality has started to get back hadn’t had time to watch a lot and this series was short fresh. I really recommended the second season Is even better.
Whats your Love Language?
(Quality Time, Giving/Receiving gifts, Physical touch, Acts of Service, Words of affirmation)
In terms of receiving love, I would choose quality time. I prefer a good afternoon spent with my loved one, rather than a gift because I may not like the gift and I may be stuck with it. My love language is through actions, simple actions everyday, dishes after dinner, or cook something (I don’t cook very well even if I am Italian and when I cook for you it means a lot)
What memory do you replay the most?
I often think about me dancing in my living room when I was a teenager. I used to put my headphones on and create millions of choreography in my head. I was protected in this wall and able to be myself. Dance wasn’t a job at that time and I had completely different problem in my life. Every time I replay those memories I wonder if the feeling is the same.
Whats something you hope never changes?
I hope that I would never lose the way I am being, a dreamer. Sometimes I worry that I will lose it with the time and I will become what I hate most in other people, ordinary. Love for yourself is definitely the key for that. Do what your heart tells you to do!
Catch Paolo and the rest of the outstanding cast members perform in From Greenwich with Love on the dates listed here.
