How long is a metre? Le scissure del covid review

 

Photo Roberto Frey.

“Le scissure del covid” [The scissures of covid] was a three-days event that took place at La Mole, in Ancona on 18, 19 and 20 August 2020. Created by choreographer, dancer, dance teacher and dance critic Stefania Zepponi, in collaboration with myself and librarian Giorgia Sestilli, it explored the relationship between dance and covid-19. It was part of the call Off-Line launched to promote non-internet-based events at La Mole.

The term ‘scissure’ has to do with fissures and openings, even small ones, and has been used to exemplify the act of looking at the coronavirus through the lenses of dance. It is also the name of a Podcast in Italian on the world seen through dance, that Zepponi, myself and Clementina Verrocchio are publishing every Thursday.

Each day was divided into three parts each set in a specific part of La Mole, which is an ancient construction near the sea: the first part took place at the courtyard where there was a talk given by Zepponi and myself; the second at the OSB wall near the courtyard where a covid line was created together with the audience; the third part at the Sala Boxe, where Zepponi improvised a dance, while Santilli read extracts from an 1837 book on cholera in Ancona. After this last part the audience moved to the next room where I gathered some feed-back.

Dance is about space and bodies in space and that is why it has become particularly relevant during the pandemic. In regard to this I wrote an article titled “Coreografare il presente” [Choreographing the present] which served as the basis for the project.

Photo Ennio Pennacchioni.

This was a participatory event, centred on the interaction with the audience from the beginning. How do you measure the distance of a metre? How did you feel during the lockdown? These were some of the questions we asked during the talk to gain some key words and turn them into gestures for the line.

The line took inspiration from Pina Bausch’s Nelken line, also known as the Season March, as its gestures are inspired by the four seasons. First presented in 1982 in her work Nelken, it has now reached global fame and has brought the Bausch Foundation to launch a Nelken line project where a tutorial has been given to allow everybody to learn and do it.

The last section was the performative moment where the audience could choose whether to look at a tablet or look at the perofrmance of the two women.

The audience gave different feed-back to this event, stating, for example, that the first two parts were liberating while the third, given that it was organised in a closed space that needed     heavier security measures, was oppressive. All were happy to have taken part to it and found it appealing for its focus on space in this difficult time.

We thank La Mole and all its staff for having accepted this project and having helped us to bring it to life.