Italian Summer Dance Festivals: Critiques and Highlights

Stefano Tomassini reports on the state of Italian dance festivals in summer 2021, critiquing a lack of fresh ideas and a tendency toward inert retrospectives. At Kilowatt Festival in Sansepolcro on July 18, a panel titled Next Generation Dance revealed an irresponsible critical stance that treats talent as innate, preserving authority rather than fostering new hierarchies and knowledge. Exceptions include Centrale Fies, curated by Barbara Boninsegna and Marco D'Agostin, featuring Ivo Dimchev's Songs from My Shows and F. de Isabella's installation Diciottanni, which offers a spatial, physical, and mental experience. At Biennale Teatro, directed by Ricci-Forte, Hodworks' Sunday, choreographed by Adrienn Hód with dramaturgy by Ármin Szabó-Székely, uses physicality and metacritique to explore mental retardation and class conflict. In contrast, Francesca Foscarini and Cosimo Lopalco's Punk. Kill me please at Danza in rete in Vicenza fails to embody punk rebellion. At Ravenna Festival, Paradiso by gruppo nanou, in synergy with visual artist Alfredo Pirri, presents a slow, reflective piece for 33 spectators at a time over 33 minutes, with dancers as blessed souls on a reflective floor, incorporating a Dante figure in a red bathrobe with swimming goggles and flippers.