NAO Performing Festival goes digital with focus on China

The 11th edition of NAO Performing Festival, titled Contact Zone, runs until December 28 with a pause during Christmas. Curated by Claudio Prati and Maria Paola Zedda, the festival is organized for DiD Studio in Milan, an association led by choreographer Ariella Vidach. Due to the pandemic, all performances are streamed on Facebook and Instagram. The festival explores the relationship between physical and digital bodies, focusing on contact, proximity, and liminal practices between online and offline. The program began on December 19 with a focus on China, featuring artist Bingxuan Li's video performance Who is She, where she dances in an antibacterial suit in a fluorescent room, engaging with real-time comments (danmu). On December 22, collective MiamiSafari (from IUAV) and artist Mara Oscar Cassiani presented Come As You Profile, a digital stage blending identities. On December 23, Folk Memory Project, founded by Wu Wenguang, presented work on narrating Chinese history, including the Great Famine. The festival closes on December 28 with Nicola Galli's Genoma Scenico, a digital choreographic game. The festival also launches Dancetaz. Spazio Comune, inviting young millennial artists to share proximity and distance creation.