The Italian Cultural Institute is pleased to announce the return of Artemis Danza to the United States for a three dates tour. Directed by Monica Casadei, Artemis Danza will present the contemporary theater and dance performance ViolatedBodies. The project brings to the stage the violated rights, abuse, violence and alienation which the least represented categories often encounter, including those who do not identify in the canonical gender definitions.
In ViolatedBodies there is a reminiscence of an opera, the Desdemona from Verdi’s Otello, retrieved from the past as a reminder of freedom and resourcefulness. The choreographer Monica Casadei is guided through the construction of the piece by the victims and their wounds. They become a symbol against rampant vulgarity and misogyny and a generalized hatred towards minorities manifested across all social classes.
In ViolatedBodies there is a teeming community of bodies, female and male, tightly held in the memory of a wound. Still open or healed, this wound reverberates on the scene in an non-stop dance nourished by impulses, instincts, anger and pain, in which overwhelming group dances are interspersed with duets and solos, and defenseless bodies are joined by the violent and ruthless bodies of attackers on which never falls a veil of pity at least until they themselves become victims.
Starting from the stories of victims of rape and abuse and from an improvisational work with the dancers, Casadei builds a show oscillating between raw realism and poetry dictated by a possible redemption.
On the musical side, Fabio Fiandrini‘s remix of electronic samples ebbs and flows throughout the story in melodrama and symphonic music. Arias and overtures from Verdi’s masterpieces such as La Forza del Destino or Otello in the sublime voices of sopranos Callas and Tebaldi are mixed with famous symphonies, Bach sonatas, melancholic pieces by Alva Noto and John Zorn and with the tremors of Julia Kent’s cello from Empty Spaces and Alexander Litvinosky’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
Performance run time: 60min
Age recommendation: 16+
Content guidance: This performance explores themes of gender violence. Viewer discretion advised.
Choreography, direction, scenery, lights and costumes: Monica Casadei
Live Electronics: Fabio Fiandrini
Production: Artemis Danza/Monica Casadei
Co-production: Municipal Theater of Ferrara-Contemporary Dance Festival
In collaboration with: the Municipality of Rimini and Teatro Galli
With the contribution of Regione Emilia-Romagna-Assessorato alla Cultura e ATER Fondazione
Free event, with registration.
Doors open at 6:30pm
Monica Casadei and Artemis Danza
Originally from Ferrara, Monica Casadei graduates in philosophy cum laude writing a dissertation on dance in Plato’s system. After a career as a professional acrobatic gymnast, she takes to studying classic and modern dance, at first in Italy, then in London, and eventually in Paris where she gets to meet choreographers Pierre Doussaint and Isabelle Doubouloz and the Master André Cognard Hanshi So shihan, with whom she still practices the martial art of Aikido.
In France, she founds the company Artemis Danza, with which she later moves to Italy, in 1997, giving birth to a fervent production activity that amounts, nowadays, to over 40 original creations.
From 1998 to 2007, the Company is part of an artist residency at Fondazione Teatro Due in Parma whereas, from 2014 up to this day, it partakes in an artist residency at Teatro Comunale in Bologna. Artemis Danza has been invited to the most important Italian theatres and festivals and to several international tours and festivals.
Pivotal elements in Monica Casadei’ s artistic research are the influences from different artistic, cultural and geographic fields and the exploration of urban spaces and places that turn into stages for performances.
Alongside the production activity, Artemis funds, produces and promotes young choreographers and organizes several activities meant to artistically educate the audience.
