Cristina Kristal Rizzo's 'Ultras sleeping dances' at Cango in Florence

Cristina Kristal Rizzo's new choreographic project 'Ultras sleeping dances' was presented at Cango in Florence as part of the festival 'La democrazia del corpo'. The performance involves five dancers—Marta Bellu, Jari Boldrini, Barbara Novati, Charlie Laban Trier, and Rizzo herself—who engage in a series of actions that expose bodies to fragility, tragedy, and comedy. The piece begins with a long, dreamlike rolling on the ground, culminating in performers spitting fake blood from their mouths, then moves to a 'dance of the arms' that liberates affects, and finally a ritual of crying to a melancholic playlist. Rizzo uses theatrical devices such as wigs and camphor sticks to induce tears, emphasizing the performative and fictional nature of the action. The work is framed as a counter to what the article calls 'perennial fascism' in contemporary dance, critiquing trends like the commodification of ecological thought in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's 'Nomad' and the propagandistic use of dance by Sergei Polunin, who performed a solo 'Sacré' at Milan's Arcimboldi Theatre displaying a Putin tattoo. The article, written by Stefano Tomassini, praises Rizzo's choreographic sophistication and her ability to affirm an idea of dance that remains open to experimentation and resistant to market-driven culture.