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A project combining dance, sports, and vocal expression that places the athletic gesture of a community of women, or Individuals socialized as women, at the center of research and practice as an act of resistance and, above all, transformative strength.

In its etymology and in the perception of the collective imagination, athletics is associated with the idea of competition and physical prowess. It is an opportunity for the body to demonstrate its strength, agility, and endurance, as well as to build alliances, agreements, and trajectories of exchange.

ATHLETES project will bring together a group of dancers, athletes and former competitive champions, along with women of all ages and backgrounds. They will be joined by a vocal coach who will use the vocal expression inherent in sports disciplines to create a choral texture in which every woman present can also embody her own voice.

All of them: athletes of gesture united in a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary exercise, where the level of athleticism unfolds in the collective and performative process of bodies, emphasizing an attitude of utmost care and attention to different needs and modes of presence.

In dance, choreographic movements, sports gestures, as well as vocal expression, bodies find themselves amidst agreements and interconnections, reciprocal events, collaboration, and cohabitation. They build alliances through alignment actions. Even solitary actions acquire their maximum potential when projected into a sensory and relational dimension that extends beyond their individual reach.

In these intersections between presence and power, the ATHLETES project aims to situate itself, seeking a rhythmic exercise in continuous reshaping and listening to the vital, embodied, and collective strength of a gathering and plurality of bodies.

Within this community of women, questioning athleticism becomes an opportunity to reconsider the narrative of the ideal body as a discriminating value, in favor of a renewed performativity of all bodies. New bodies exercised in transformation. Bodies that unlearn, above all, not to compete with each other, demanding and agile, due to the desire for revolutionary performativity, to celebrate well- being and vitality.

CHOREOGRAPHIC PATH

To initiate the research process and acquire an initial choreographic suggestion, I envisioned a reference iconography that could evoke the aforementioned anatomical and choral aspects while also opening up a series of further reflections and visionary interstices necessary for the development of the work and dear to me, especially in relation to corporeality and the value of interconnection in movement:

-The orchestration of bodies

-The generative value of gathering

-The exercise and care of gesture as social practices of resistance

-The traversal and crossroads in the relationship with space and the construction of gestural archives.

The iconography in question is a mosaic, stylistically influenced by African mosaic art, located in Sicily, in the Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina, a large Sicilian residence from the 4th century AD declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

The artwork depicts ten women engaged in what appears to be a sports competition. Ten female athletes with gymnastic equipment (dumbbell, discus, ball…) showcasing bodies dedicated to exercise, wearing the subligar (the female slip of that time) and the mamillary band, also known as strophium, covering their chests, precursors of the modern bikini.

While male athletes have been celebrated in ceramics, statues, and frescoes since ancient times, the mosaic of Villa del Casale is one of the very rare representations of female competition in antiquity.

In this artwork, what emerges is emerge is not so much an aesthetic ideal, but the demonstration of strength and vigor that emanates from the gestures of the ten women, symbolically crowned by the rose headdress worn by one of them.

The Palestriti (the original name of the mosaic) not only showcase the beauty and power of individual gestures but also the need to celebrate them and make them a reason for collective affirmation. The power of the group becomes a performative action, multiplying the forms of exercise into additional trajectories of reciprocity, support, and exchange. Interconnection.

In this direction, the artwork suggests substantial references for immersing myself in the choreographic dimension that requires extreme awareness of individual actions in order to generate a broader and layered design of trajectories, vectors, geometries, and resonances.

But there’s more!

The female athletes of Villa del Casale suggest a ritual imbued with grace and beauty, revealing a female community that finds cohesion and redemption through bodily practice. It is a form of female empowerment that values and celebrates individual achievements, elevating them to the collective level.

PROJECT STRUCTURE

ATHLETES is structured through various and unique TERRITORIAL EVENTS.

In each space/context/territory where the project is hosted, efforts will be made to involve athletes or former athletes who wish to transmit their sports practices, vocabulary, and vocalizations.

There will also be a public call for women of all ages and backgrounds who want to engage in a shared experience and practice of body language, transforming it into a collective dance infused with sports movements but shaped by individual anatomical experiences.

The community of athletes and women gathered in the territory will be joined by four dancers from the Company who will accompany the project at each stage. In addition to sharing the group experience, they will present choreographic compositions inspired by the Palestriti mosaic in various spaces and contexts.

The vocal coach, also part of the original project team along with the dancers, will transform the vocalizations conveyed by the participating athletes into a choral texture to be expanded and used as vocal/singing exercises for all the women present, creating a sonic and rhythmic body for interaction.

DURATION AND WORKING METHODS

At least 8 days of work with the Company’s dancers, the vocal coach, the athletes, and the community of women gathered in the territory. The maximum number of participants will be determined based on the capacity of the rehearsal and performance spaces (minimum 10 and maximum 30).

The work can be imagined both indoors and outdoors, always considering the suitability of the spaces for the realization of the work process and its presentation to the public.

IMPACT ON THE TERRITORY

Involvement of:

• Local athletes

• Local sports associations (ASD)

• Women/citizens and local communities of women or indviduals socialized as women

• Clubs

• Possible focus on girls and/or teenagers

FIRST ACTION – ATHLETES – BOLOGNA – DECEMBER 2023

Period: November 28th to December 5th, with public opening on December 5th Location: Ateliersì as part of Artists in ResidenSì Bologna 2023

Involved athletes:

Ester Balassini (Bologna, October 20, 1977) former Italian hammer thrower, holder of the national record in the discipline from 2005 to 2022.

Erika Morri (Bologna, April 24, 1971) coach and former Italian rugby union player, active in the wing or center positions. She has 19 appearances with the Italian national team, participating in two editions of the Rugby World Cup and seven editions of the European Championship.

Dancers: Arianna Brugiolo, Valentina Foschi, Federica D’Aversa and others to be defined

Vocal Coach: Meike Clarelli

Public call for female citizens starting from September 2023

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