Sara Melotti
Brescia - Italia
Coach
Con Isabel abbiamo lavorato sulla costruzione di un articolo che raccontasse l’esperienza a 360gradi, parlando di Apulia SummerTime in se, dei posti visitati e del vissuto personale aggiungendo così un tocco più emotivo, riflettendo su come le impressioni e le sensazioni vissute cambiavano col passare del tempo.
E’ difficile descrivere in parole cosa sia stata questa esperienza, perchè Apulia SummerTime è stato qualcosa che va oltre l’esperienza. E’ stata un tornado: di arte, di talento, di contaminazioni, di emozioni, di umanità e di vite incrociate.
E’ stata una bolla nel tempo dove è nato qualcosa di veramente bello, cosa sia ‘quel cosa’ però non ve lo so descrivere, perchè Apulia SummerTime va vissuta per essere capita davvero.
Scrivere per me non è un lavoro, è un modo di essere, è il modo in cui traduco i miei pensieri e le mie sensazioni; di solito mi esce facile, naturale, ma scrivere questo pezzo mi ha messa davanti a una bella sfida, perchè come si fa a tradurre quello che abbiamo vissuto durante Apulia SummerTime? Come si mette in parole un ‘qualcosa’ andato al di là dell’esperienza, al di là del viaggio, al di là dell’arte? Provo a raccontarvi cosa è stato, partendo dall’inizio..
Sono stata invitata a far parte di Apulia SummerTime come coach di blogging e giornalismo.
Tutto è stato messo in piedi—aggiungerei con durissimo lavoro—da Elio con l’aiuto del suo braccio destro Alessandro; sono venuti a trovarmi una sera per spiegarmi il progetto: 6 coach per sette discipline diverse e una ventina di ragazzi pieni di talento e voglia di creare, tutto il ricavato sarebbe andato all’AISM (Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla), e le opere dei ragazzi si potranno acquistare a breve su questo sito.
Mi hanno convinta dopo le prime due parole!
Sarebbe stata un esperienza nuova per me, non avevo mai fatto da coach prima, sono abituata a lavorare per me stessa, con i miei ritmi e spazi, spesso in totale solitudine; non nascondo che l’idea di passare 10 giorni circondata da altre persone 24/7 mi dava un po’ di ansia, ma sono partita per la Puglia usando il mio solito approcio verso ogni viaggio o nuovo progetto cioè senza nessuna aspettativa e armata solo di curiosità e voglia di fare, pronta ad accogliere quello che l’esperienza mi avrebbe portato.
Ma quello che ho vissuto nei 10 giorni seguenti è andato oltre qualsiasi cosa mi sarei potuta immaginare.
Il nostro campo base era una masseria dispersa nella natura e immersa nel silenzio e nella pace— caso vuole il nome della Masseria è proprio ‘Pace’, che è anche il cognome del suo proprietario, il leggendario Camillo Pace nonchè il coach di musica di Apulia SummerTime—trulli bianchi, amache in giardino, oliveti, una chiesa abbandonata, il tempo sembrava fermo da sempre.
Appena arrivati i ragazzi però il tempo ha accelerato, è esploso, ha smesso di esistere.
La masseria è diventata un covo di ballerini, cantanti, musicisti, pittori, scrittrici, fotografi/e e videomakers, tutti da posti diversi—Italia, Canada, Hawaii, Croazia, Nuova Zelanda, Stati Uniti, Giappone, Spagna—tutti unici nel loro talento, nel loro pensiero e nella loro personalità, tutti con qualcosa da condividere e da dare all’altro, tutti insieme 24/7 in totale armonia.
L’assenza di solitudine mi pesava parecchio all’inizio, quando ci si trova in mezzo a tanta altra gente il confronto è inevitabile ed è proprio attraverso il confronto che spesso si capiscono i propri limiti. Pian piano ho imparato ad abbandonarmi alla condivisione del tempo, dello spazio e dell’esperienza con i ragazzi, ho messo via il telefono, smesso di rispondere alle email per qualche giorno, per vivermi appieno quello che si stava creando in quella masseria sospesa nel tempo.
Non avevo mai visto niente di simile, c’era sinergia pura, scambio incondizionato, creatività vera. Insieme abbiamo passato giornate in giro per la Puglia e dentro la nostra bolla nel tempo, giornate di scambio, creazione e contaminazione. Ognuno ci metteva del suo contribuendo con il proprio talento e la propria essenza, dando vita a canzoni, poesie, quadri, immagini, video, storie, emozioni, amicizie e amori.
Quindi cos’è stato Apulia SummerTime?
Un tornado. Di arte, di umanità, di condivisione. Per questo le parole non bastano, perchè per capirlo questo tornado, non basta descriverlo, bisogna viverlo.
Isabel Hauser
Bolzano - Italy
Giornalista
“Apulia Summertime è stata un’esperienza speciale per il mio futuro giornalistico: entrare in contatto con diverse persone, culture e lingue attraverso la danza, la musica e l’arte sono state la migliore avventura possibile”.
This isn’t the usual story about Italians riding their vespas through old looking towns, eating gelatos on the beach, or swearing in their unmanagable traffic. This is the story of strangers from all over the world coming together not only to spend time in Puglia but to experience something…more; they speak a different language, they have different backgrounds, different cultures, but they are all united by their love to create art. This story is also my story, a small-town girl from the ‘very other’ part of Italy. A girl that’s not able to sing, dance ore draw, who has never written a song before; a girl that has studied Journalism at University and finds herself among all these insanely talented people; a girl that had seen many things in her life but never something like this. But let’s start the story from the beginning.
Friday August 16th, I’m in Bari, I’m at the train station, my best friend is sitting next to me and I’m nervously waiting for the others to arrive. The group chat is already blowing up, status updates, pictures from those who already arrived. A message from Alberto—videographer from the vicinities of Rome—catches my eye, he is already here. So here we go, let’s meet the first comrade. A few awkward messages and a phone call later, we finally found each other. He seems nice, easy to talk too, a “normal” guy, so different from me yet so similar. We are a bit early but we decide to walk to the meet up point. We sit there for a while, getting more and more nervous each minute that goes by, I’m glad my friend is with me.
There they are! Ok, I already forgot everyone’s name; why does it seem that they kind of know each other already? A picture! we need a picture! Cheeeeeese! Click! Yay!
And on that click I can picture what a crazy colourful bunch of people we got together and how crazy our Time together will get.
We go for lunch at MastroCiccio. While we’re cramped in a corner in this small, hipstery restaurant, that makes sandwiches to die for, we try to get to know each other a bit. And here we go: the usual “where are you from?” and my usual answer “Italian, But from South Tyrol, we speak German. My Italian is not that good. Sorry guys” same old story I have to repeat when I introduce myself. This whole South Tyrol thing can be confusing for italians, I can’t even imagine how weird it can sound to non-Italians, like James—videographer from Canada who lives in Malaysia right now—or Stephen, the Videomaking coach who came all the way from New Zealand.
After lunch and a quick stroll through the streets of Bari I say goodbye to my friend and jump in a van with my new friends towards “Masseria Pace”. Everyone’s singing in the van but I get quiet and my look goes out the window.. dry fields, vineyards , olive groves, glimpses unfolding out there in the evening sun, till the road becomes a narrower, and small houses in small townspop up. It’s all so calming. Upon arriving I hear music coming from a room, it’s a saxophone, and right there in that moment it hit me: this time here in Puglia will be awesome.
Just a bit later I will find out, the sax player is Petar, musician from Croatia. I could try to explain Petar to you, but it gets clear very early one to all of us that Petar can’t be explained! You need to experience him. A true musician, in flesh and blood, positive guy, nature lover, did I mention he sleeps in the woods?
The Masseria is a place made to dream: it’s all white, there’s a beautiful garden with hammocks to lie on, lawn chairs to sit on. Oh and we sleep among Trullis.
I get assigned my bed, it’s nice a bit small but manageable. My Bunkie’s seem to be nice too: two photographers from Calabria and an Artist from Sicily.
Dinnertime comes, we keep getting to know each other, I’m not getting any better with names, I call it a day and go to bed early, hoping sleep will come easy.
And in the blink of an eye it’s already Breakfast time, a bit later than scheduled but delicious. And while we chew on our crossaints I come to realize how special this group is: a conversation about Italy, the mafia, politics, religion, beliefs and the world at large between an Hawaiian musician, a Japanese dancer who lives in Vienna and a musician and a videographer from Italy. We were so different yet so similar. It is hard to get my head wrap around all of that.
Time to get to work. We divide each other into our cathegory groups. Inspiration hits the Masseria. Art, music, creativity everywhere.It reminds me a bit of summer camp, kids from all around, getting to know each other, having fun together. Still I never experienced something like this, in fact, it’s actually hard to describe THIS.
The musicians are trying to put together a song, they are in a jam sessions,and suddenly more and more people join in, and it gets more intimidating for me. They are all so insanely talented, they can play instruments, sing, dance. And me? not so much. I can’t do any of that. It’s best if I stay a bit in the background, quiet. I normally have no problems to talk to people, but it’s not always easy to let people close, but here things are different, something is changing within me, I can feel it, something good, something I didn’t feel in a very long time.
Clocks work different down here, that is something I learnt quickly when I got to Puglia. I am not the most punctual person in the world, but here it seems that being at least half an hour later than scheduled is the norm. Italian time, I guess. I need to get used to it, but it is easy. Actually it will suck to go back to to be punctual again, which means ‘10 minutes earlier than planned’ around where I live. Better think about it when the time comes and keep living on Puglia’s time for now.
Our days fly. All different from each other yet similar: Breakfast, workshops, visiting all the beautiful places around here, getting to know each other more in our differences and hopes and dreams. It’s funny how for the Europeans in our group it’s totally normal to be round Historic cities and 1000 years old buildings, while Stephen, James and Ashton’s mind is blown by how advanced people where 1000 years ago here compared to their own countries. And I can’t help but thinking that life there at that time probably wasn’t any worst than here. “Sometimes a simpler life is more fulfilling” that’s what a local told me here, Puglia changed a lot in the last 50 years. People have more money and better opportunities than 50 years ago, life then was simpler sure, but not worse, people were less stressed and never in a hurry.
Back from the sightseen, back at the Masseria people are singing everywhere, sometime it feels like being in a Disney movie. ‘I am yours’ by Jason Mraz and ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ by that guy become our official soundtracks (and we have an hawaian guy playing a Ukulele!).
“Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing. We are just one big family”…Apulia sure feels like that. One big family, One big crazy family.
As time goes on, it gets easier for me, to blend in, to let go, and join the spontaneous jam sessions. I still can’t sing, but at least I can clap, swaying to the rhythm and overall enjoy myself.
I love when we roam around cities like Lecce by night, people’s attention always on us when the guys start singing and dancing in the streets, in front of a church, in a square; Petar the guy from Croatia that sleeps in the woods joins some street performers playing bongos while Manaho, the japanese dancer from Vienna dances with her coach Jene, while everyone else sings along.
Music and the smell of the Mediterranean in the air, just magical.
It is like a trance, it’s contageous, the only way to enjoy it is to join in and I enjoy being part of it.
And I love how the more time passes the more comfortable I feel; I join some of the musician to write some lyrics for a possible song and when I think soon it will be time to go home I realize I already miss all of this.
I mean where else will I be able to see a Canadian, an Hawaiian and an african-american dancer who lives in Estonia, make traditional orecchiette together with Apulian “Nonnas”?
Before our time here ends, comes the Open Day, the Masseria is open to the public and people can take a look at what we created during these undescrivebl 10 days of Apulia. Speeches are held, poems recited, art displayed, songs played.
It’s incredible how much it can be accomplished in such a short period of time, when people work together and are willing to put so much heart into their work, and tonight I was experiencing it in real time.
I know already that when I’ll go to the train station on monday at dawn, I will do that with a tear in my eye.
I’ll be missing this unconventional crazy group of amazing people, I’ll be, once again, be standing nervously in the train station, waiting for my train back to “Real life”.
But I’ll Keep the Time we had here in Puglia in my heart and memory.
Like James says in his video about this magic Apulia has been:
“Time is not real… it is what we feel.”